A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in a case related to inciting violence in the Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas of Delhi during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, PTI reported.

Kumar will remain in jail due to his convictions in other cases.

In the present case, Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh of the Rouse Avenue Courts said that there was “no evidence of instigating any such mob” and “of conspiracy”, The Indian Express reported.

“Unfortunately, most of the witnesses examined by the prosecution in this case are hearsay, and/or those witnesses who failed to name the accused for three long decades,” the newspaper quoted Singh as saying.

Relying on the identification of the “accused by such persons would be risky and may lead to a travesty”, he added.

Large-scale riots had broken out in Delhi on October 31, 1984, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, who was then the prime minister, by her Sikh bodyguards. Mobs, allegedly helped by some Congress leaders, had attacked Sikhs and torched their homes.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone. To date, only 28 cases have ended in convictions out of the 587 first information reports filed in the national capital. Thirteen of these convictions have been in murder cases.

In February 2015, Kumar was booked in two cases based on complaints of violence in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri during the riots, PTI reported.

The first FIR was linked to the violence in Janakpuri, where two men – Sohan Singh and his son-in-law Avtar – were killed on November 1, 1984. The second one pertained to the killing of a man named Gurcharan Singh, who was allegedly set ablaze on November 2, 1984, in Vikaspuri.

On August 23, a court in the national capital had charged Kumar with rioting and promoting enmity in the case, while discharging him of the offences of murder and criminal conspiracy.

On Thursday, Singh said: “This court has no hesitation in holding that the prosecution has not met the standard of proof required in a criminal trial to prove the guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Eighteen witnesses, which included nine alleged eyewitnesses, had been examined by the prosecution in the case.

“A man may be convicted of 100 crimes, but to be held guilty of the 101st crime, proof beyond a reasonable doubt in that crime is required,” The Indian Express quoted the judge as saying. “One cannot be found guilty merely because in the past he was involved in similar offences.”

The order added: “Past criminal background or the commission of other offences are separate and can have some value in sentencing a person, but they cannot be considered by a court of law in holding a person guilty of another crime.”

In February 2025, the Rouse Avenue Courts sentenced Kumar to life imprisonment for the murder of two other men during the riots.

In this case, the family members of those who died – Jaswant Singh and his son Tarun Deep Singh – had alleged that a mob led by him burnt the two men alive on November 1, 1984, in the Saraswati Vihar area in the national capital.

They also alleged that Kumar, who was then the Congress MP in Outer Delhi, “instigated and abetted the unruly mob” which set their house on fire.

This was Kumar’s second conviction linked to the 1984 riots.

In December 2018, the Delhi High Court held him guilty of murder, promoting enmity between groups and defiling public property. Kumar resigned from the Congress after his first conviction.

Also read:

1984 anti-Sikh violence: As it convicts Sajjan Kumar, court sees pattern in attacks on minorities

A 29-year-old man was abducted and shot dead on Wednesday in Manipur’s Churachandpur district by unidentified assailants, who recorded a video of the killing and circulated it, an Assam Rifles official told Scroll.

The man was identified as Mayanglambam Rishikant Singh, a member of the Meitei community from Kakching town. For the past month, he had been staying in the Churachandpur district with his wife Chingnu Haokip, who belongs to the Kuki-Zo community, The Hindu reported.

A purported video of the killing, which surfaced on Wednesday night, showed the man sitting on the ground in darkness, The Indian Express reported. The man could be seen pleading with folded hands to persons not seen in the video, after which two shots were fired at him.

The video carried the text “No peace no popular government”, in a reference to attempts to restore an elected government in Manipur.

Manipur has been under President’s Rule since February 2025, when Bharatiya Janata Party leader N Biren Singh resigned as the chief minister.

At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced in the state since the ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in May 2023. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

While efforts have been underway in recent days to restore an elected government in the state, Kuki militant groups and MLAs have said they will participate in the process only after getting a political commitment for a Union Territory in the Kuki-Zo-majority areas of the state.

Churachandpur Superintendent of Police Gaurav Dogra said that Singh was killed around 7 to 7.30 pm at a village named Nathjang, The Indian Express reported.

Earlier, unidentified persons had reportedly arrived at the couple’s home and taken them away. While Haokip was released, the assailants took Singh a little further and killed him.

Dogra said that Singh did not live in Manipur but stayed and worked in Nepal, according to The Indian Express. He was said to have been living in Churachandpur since December 19.

“Then yesterday, some armed miscreants arrived at the village and killed him,” the newspaper quoted the superintendent of police as saying. “We have not been able to pinpoint those responsible yet and no one has taken responsibility for it, either. The investigation is ongoing.”

The video of Singh’s killing was initially shared on WhatsApp from an IP address based in Guwahati, The Hindu quoted an unidentified official as saying.

Haokip reportedly told the police that four masked men had arrived at her home in an SUV to look for her husband. However, she has not yet been able to identify the assailants, the official said.

She also told the police that no one except the village chief knew that her husband had arrived in the village, The Hindu reported.

The Kuki National Organisation, an umbrella group of Kuki militant outfits, denied allegations that it had given Singh “permission to visit” the area. It claimed that it neither knew about his visit nor was it involved in the killing.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the power of the Election Commission to conduct a special intensive revision of the electoral rolls is “unique” but “not unlimited”, The Indian Express reported.

Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi added that the exercise of the power must be transparent and conform to the principles of natural justice. The bench made the remarks after advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the poll panel, underlined its power to carry out the exercise.

The special intensive revision of the electoral rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories.

The court has been hearing petitions against the validity of the exercise.

On Wednesday, Dwivedi referred to Section 21 of the 1950 Representation of the People Act, which pertains to the preparation and revision of electoral rolls. He said that Clause 3 of the Act allowed the poll panel to deviate from the 1960 Registration of Electors Rules, if required, The Indian Express reported.

Clause 3 states that the Election Commission may, at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit.

“I am seeking an approval from the court that we have authority to deviate from the [Registration of Electors] rules,” the advocate told the court. “If the deviation is completely throwing out the rules, it is a different thing.”

However, Bagchi noted that Clause 1 and Clause 2 under Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act spoke of preparing and revising the rolls “in the prescribed manner”, and asked if this was not a leash on the Election Commission’s powers.

Clause 1 mandates that the electoral roll for each constituency shall be prepared in the prescribed manner by reference to the qualifying date and shall come into force immediately upon its final publication in accordance with the rules made under this Act.

Clause 2 provides the Election Commission with the authority to hold a revision of the electoral roll before an election.

The judge added that the only questionthe Election Commission had to answer was if the court held that the poll panel had jurisdiction, “would we hold that it’s completely untrammelled, or unregulated”, The Indian Express reported.

“You [Election Commission] have the authority to deviate, but not by throwing out the [Registration of Electors] rules,” The Hindu quoted Bagchi as saying. “Form 6 [Application for inclusion of name in electoral roll] has six notified documents, your SIR has 11 documents.”

He added: “We would call upon you to answer if you can increase or eliminate documents which are already prescribed?”

Bagchi said that there can be no debate that it is not untrammelled.

“The manner (of the SIR) will be as you may deem it appropriate,” he added. “Therefore, when an action is likely to have an effect on the civil rights of people, why should we not expect of you that the procedure which you will ultimately contemplate and follow will be not less transparent than (when it is done) under Clause 2.”

In response, Dwivedi said that the Election Commission’s deviations from procedure must embrace the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law, equal protection of the laws enshrined in Article 14, constitutional norms of transparency and ease of voting, The Hindu reported.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.

United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Wednesday that India has stopped buying Russian oil after US President Donald Trump imposed punitive tariffs of 25% for its trade ties with Moscow amid the Ukraine war.

In an interview to Fox Business, Bessent said: “India started buying Russian oil after the [Ukraine] conflict began, but President Trump put a 25% tariff on them, and India has geared down and has stopped buying Russian oil.”

Indian goods are facing a combined US tariff rate of 50%, including the punitive levy imposed in August.

New Delhi is yet to comment on Bessent’s claim.

On January 8, Republican Senator Lindsay Graham said that Trump had approved a bill proposing tariffs of up to 500% on the secondary purchase and reselling of Russian oil.

Commenting on the bill, Bessent told Fox Business: “We will see whether that passes. We don't believe that President Trump needs that authority, that he can do it under IEEPA [the US’ International Emergency Economic Powers Act], but that the Senate wants to give him that authority.”

The US treasury secretary also accused Europe of buying Russian oil and said that they were “financing the war against themselves” by doing so.

Trump has repeatedly alleged that the import of discounted Russian oil by countries, including India, was fuelling Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

However, India has said that the US tariffs are unjustified and has maintained that its oil purchases are guided by the country’s energy security needs.

The Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations has said that it cannot hold fresh counselling for MBBS admissions and asked the government to admit students from the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence to other institutions at its own level, The Indian Express reported.

On January 6, the National Medical Commission withdrew the permission for the institute to conduct an MBBS course for the academic year 2025-’26. While the commission cited infrastructural deficiencies and faculty shortages, the decision came against the backdrop of protests by Hindutva groups questioning why 44 of the 50 students were Muslims.

The decision left the 50 MBBS students who had been admitted to SMVDIME without a college.

The National Medical Commission, while withdrawing the nod for the MBBS course, had asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to accommodate these students in supernumerary seats in other colleges in the Union Territory. Supernumerary seats are additional seats in educational institutes beyond their normal intake.

However, the Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examinations, or JKBOPEE, stated on January 21 that creating supernumerary seats does not fall within its purview, reported The Indian Express.

It urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to allocate fresh seats for students from SMVDIME “at its own level in consultation with National Medical Commission [NMC] and the respective medical colleges in J&K”.

The JKBOPEE said that it could not conduct fresh counselling for the academic year 2025-’26 as it did not have the mandate to go beyond the schedule issued by the Medical Counselling Committee under the Union health ministry, PTI reported.

“Moreover, as per directions of the MCC, the data of 1,410 MBBS candidates, including 50 candidates of SMVDIME under question, has also been updated on their portal on the last date of joining, i.e. 31st of December 2025,” the board said.

On January 8, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that the government would accommodate the students in medical colleges near their homes so that their education would not be affected.

“But we need to think about the injustice done to the students by closing this medical college,” he had said. “People all over the country are struggling to get into medical colleges. Ours is the only place where a fully functional medical college has been shut down...”

Protests questioning the religious composition of students in the college were led by the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Sangharsh Samiti, with members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, its parent organisation the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and other Hindutva groups also participating.

The protesters had demanded that preference be given to Hindu students, as the institute was set up through donations to the Vaishno Devi shrine. However, the college was not classified as a minority institution, due to which religion could not be considered as a factor for admissions.

In our era of fragmented identities and manufactured cultural tension, we are often told that deep, religious, and ethnic harmony is a naive dream, perpetually undermined by the “real” forces of history – conflict, empire and political manipulation.

To live in the Kerala coastal city of Kozhikode, however, is to inhabit a quiet, persistent rebuttal. This is not a city frozen in a utopian past, but a vibrant, living archive where a millennia-old politics of fraternity continues to shape its streets, its flavours, and its very soul.

Long before the term “globalisation” was coined, Kozhikode was its thriving epicentre. For nearly 2,000 years, ships from the Mediterranean, Arabia, Persia, Africa, and China docked here, drawn by pepper and cardamom, but sustained by a uniquely cultivated trust.

The Hindu Zamorin rulers established a radical precedent: granting land and protection to early Christian traders, offering royal patronage to Muslim merchants for their mosques, and welcoming Jewish, Jain, Buddhist and Parsi communities. The visit of the Chinese admiral Zheng He’s treasure fleet in the 15th century was a spectacle of this conscious openness. Fraternity here was not a philosophical abstract; it was the practical engine of commerce and civic life, built on face-to-face familiarity.

The arrival of Vasco da Gama at Kappad Beach in 1498 introduced a different politics – one of crusading ideology and monopolistic conquest. Yet, even subsequent colonial encounters left traces of complex cultural and intellectual exchange. In the 17th century, the Dutch commissioned the monumental Hortus Malabaricus, a botanical compendium that systematically documented the region’s plant wisdom.

A century later, in 1774, the French staged a brief political intervention, signing a treaty with the local Zamorin ruler and raising their flag in a fleeting attempt to gain a foothold, only to be swiftly displaced by the advancing forces of Hyder Ali of Mysore. Later, the British colonial administration imposed foreign systems – from land revenue laws to English education – leaving behind both bureaucratic frameworks and physical landmarks like the serene St Mary’s English Church.

Throughout this period, the city’s innate character persisted. This was exemplified in the 19th century by the German missionary-scholar Hermann Gundert, who immersed himself in Malayalam to create its first dictionary, and by the Basel Mission, which contributed through education and landmark industries like the famous weaving mills and tile works. Each, in their own way, became a thread in the city’s plural mosaic.

The architecture of coexistence

Nowhere is Kozhikode’s living legacy more palpable than at its beach, where the city’s mercantile soul is written in architecture and community life. Extending into the sea are two historic piers – the older an iron screw-pile structure from 1871 stretching 400 feet. Once a hive of activity where cranes loaded spices, timber, and textiles onto global vessels, they stand as skeletal reminders of that exchange.

Lining the shore, the sturdy facades of old warehouses, known locally as pandika saala, silently guard the past. These storerooms of Arab, Gujarati, and European trading agencies, with thick laterite walls and steep, narrow wooden stairs, built for bales of goods, have been adaptively reused in a seamless transition from colonial trade depot to contemporary social hub.

They now house boutiques, art galleries, and beloved restaurants serving Malabar cuisine. This is Kozhikode’s philosophy in action: the past is not abandoned but woven into the daily fabric of community life – a truth felt as crowds gather for sunsets and literary festivals, sharing the same breeze.

This same spirit of shared space finds its most profound architectural expression a short distance inland, in the ancient Kuttichira neighborhood. Within a stunning radius of a few hundred meters, one encounters a silent, powerful dialogue of spires and roof-lines. Here stands the 14th-century Mishkal Mosque, a multi-storied wooden structure with a distinctive Kerala-style tiered roof, built by an Arab trader. A short walk away is the Mother of God Cathedral, a site of worship dating back to Portuguese contact.

They are neighbored by centuries-old Hindu temples and a historic Jain temple. This remarkable cluster is not a curated museum exhibit but a lived, everyday reality. For generations, the call to prayer, temple bells, and church chimes have woven together into a singular soundscape of belonging, a physical manifestation of a community where sacred spaces were built side-by-side, not in opposition.

The city’s famed culinary palette is its most delicious testament to this heritage. At the iconic Paragon Restaurant, founded in 1939, you do not just eat Malabar biryani; you taste the layered history of Arab spice routes and local genius. In the now-pedestrianised Sweet Meat Street, the halwa and crispy banana chips are the direct inheritance of a mercantile culture that blended techniques and tastes across communities.

From historic curry houses to modern multi-cuisine cafés, eating here remains a daily act of communion and shared heritage, continuing the ancient tradition of trade as a social bond.

Legacy in idea and action

This enduring spirit of exchange and shared space fuels the city’s intellectual life. Kozhikode’s identity as a Unesco City of Literature – with its over 500 libraries and thriving publishing houses – is a natural outgrowth of this deep-rooted culture, a tradition reflected in its sons and daughters who have shaped contemporary Malayalam literature, film, and music.

It culminates in events like the Kerala Literature Festival, where thousands gather on the very beach that saw historic arrivals to debate ideas in a cacophony of languages. Here, the legacy of literary and artistic giants finds its living, democratic echo in the public square. This vibrant, civil culture of debate in tea shops and public squares is the democratic echo of the old trading port’s negotiation tables, now channeled through prose, poetry, and public discourse.

This is where Kozhikode’s story challenges our contemporary majoritarian political despair. It demonstrates that the constitutional ideal of fraternity enshrined in India’s Preamble as the assurance of dignity and unity is not a top-down legal construct but a bottom-up, lived reality built on shared space, mutual interest, and daily encounter. Unity here was forged not through assimilation, but through the dignity of working, trading, worshipping, and creating alongside one another.

In a polarised world quick to weaponise difference, Kozhikode offers a different manifesto. It proves that pluralism can be robust, not fragile; that diversity, when woven into the urban fabric, the culinary palette, and the literary imagination, becomes a source of immense resilience and joy. The city does not ask us to merely tolerate one another. It invites us to build together – be it a new business in an old warehouse, a new understanding in a shared neighborhood or a new story in a common language.

Kozhikode’s mandate is clear: fraternity is a habit cultivated in the mundane architecture of everyday life. It is the politics of the shared street, the common meal, the neighboring house of worship and the collective story. In preserving this, the city is not just gazing at its past; it is actively writing, page by page, stone by stone, a vital chapter for our fractured future.

John Kurien, a reflective development practitioner, who has found in Kozhikode the perfect harbour for his sunset years.

Indian Muslims are often told that their survival depends on being exceptional. Not exceptional in achievement or contribution, but exceptional in political quietude. Exceptional in studied moderation. Exceptional in silence. Exceptional in proving, again and again, that they are unlike Muslims elsewhere – less demanding, less visible and less assertive in their claims on the state.

Since Independence, Indian Muslims have enthusiastically participated in democratic life, electoral politics, and constitutional processes. But a subtle and corrosive process has been unfolding: the steady narrowing of legitimate political expression. To belong securely, Muslims are expected not merely to obey the law, but to mute their political voice.

This idea – it could be called Indian Muslim exceptionalism – has quietly shaped public discourse for decades. It once framed Indian Muslims as culturally refined but politically suspect; spiritually rich but civically conditional. With the rise of aggressive majoritarian politics, even this limited and conditional acceptance has begun to collapse.

What remains is the expectation of political compliance without the assurance of cultural tolerance or civic equality.

A historical inheritance

The roots of Indian Muslim Exceptionalism lie in the aftermath of Partition. The violence of 1947 did not merely redraw borders – it hardened expectations. Muslims who remained in India were subtly positioned as those who had chosen India and therefore owed it perpetual proof of loyalty.

This post-Partition framing has been well documented by historians such as Mushirul Hasan, who showed how Indian Muslims were morally distinguished from those who migrated – not simply as citizens, but as subjects whose belonging was tied to conduct rather than rights. The Constitution promised equality, but social and political life imposed an additional burden: reassurance.

Over time, a parallel narrative took hold. The “good Muslim” was urbane, syncretic, nostalgic – more a custodian of Indo-Persian heritage than a political subject with claims on the state. Muslim culture could once be selectively tolerated, even aestheticised, while Muslim political agency was consistently constrained. Belonging became conditional on non-assertion.

As political theorist Mahmood Mamdani has argued in Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, modern power often sorts Muslims into those deemed acceptable because they are non-political and those rendered suspect because they speak and act with agency.

From citizens to problems

This condition was not accidental. Political theorist Hilal Ahmed has shown how Muslims in India are routinely framed not as ordinary democratic actors, but as a problem category – a population to be managed rather than represented. Muslim politics is treated less as interest-based participation and more as an anomaly requiring explanation.

The effect of this framing is cumulative. When Muslims organise collectively, their actions are rarely evaluated on constitutional grounds. Instead, they are filtered through questions of intent, loyalty, and consequence. Routine democratic actions – petitioning, protesting, mobilising – acquire a different meaning when Muslims perform it.

Equality is thus recast as tolerance. Citizenship becomes provisional.

Media policing

Exceptionalism is not enforced only through law or policy; it is normalised through language – especially in the media.

When Muslims are victims, they are often described as “minorities”. When they organise, they are labeled “communal”. When they protest, they are framed as “angry”, “radicalised” or “provocative”. When they remain silent, they are praised as “moderate”, “reasonable” or “integrated.”

Hindi scholar Apoorvanand has argued that contemporary nationalism demands moral performance from Muslims, rewarding quiet conformity while casting political speech as disruption. Language here does not merely describe reality – it disciplines it.

By constantly signaling that Muslim visibility invites suspicion, public discourse teaches Muslims that silence is safer than speech. Self-censorship is reframed as civic virtue.

Why comparison matters

Exceptionalism is not unique to Muslims but it operates differently for them.

Dalit political assertion, as analysed by writer Anand Teltumbde and others, is widely recognised as a struggle against a historically documented system of caste oppression. Dalit mobilisation is contested, resisted and often repressed but it is still understood as structurally grounded.

Sikh political claims, examined by scholars such as Gurharpal Singh, are typically negotiated within the constitutional language of federalism, regional autonomy, and religious rights. Even at moments of tension, Sikh politics is discussed as a question of power and representation.

Muslim political claims, by contrast, are rarely granted this legitimacy. They are evaluated as tests of loyalty rather than as rights-based demands. Where Dalits are seen as victims of hierarchy and Sikhs as stakeholders in federal balance, Muslims are framed as a demographic or ideological problem.

This is the core injustice of Indian Muslim Exceptionalism: Muslims are denied the normalcy of political grievance.

Exceptionalism now

Today, this framework is no longer subtle. It is increasingly institutional.

Debates around personal law, citizenship, places of worship, religious education and charitable endowments are framed as neutral reforms. Muslim objections – even when legal and constitutional – are dismissed as emotional, regressive or obstructionist. Muslims are encouraged to accept reforms quietly, challenge them cautiously and never protest them.

Exceptionalism promises safety in exchange for silence but withdraws that promise the moment silence ends.

Recent bail decisions in the Delhi riots cases – where bail was denied to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam while granted to other co-accused – underscore how Muslim political agency itself is differentially assessed. While all the accused are Muslim, the distinction appears to rest not necessarily on religious identity alone but on the perceived threat posed by articulate, oppositional, and influential political speech.

Internalising the frame

Perhaps the most damaging aspect of Indian Muslim Exceptionalism is how deeply it has been internalised by sections of the community itself.

Many Muslim professionals, leaders, and institutions now pre-emptively dilute their language, avoid religious or constitutional vocabulary, or distance themselves from collective Muslim concerns, believing this will ensure acceptance. The hope is that political quietude will be read as responsibility, and patience as maturity.

It is not.

For decades, Muslims have met suspicion with disciplined silence and exclusion with endurance – not because they lacked pride, but because they believed in the promise of the republic. The Republic may be misinterpreting endurance as acceptance and patience as consent.

As writer Arundhati Roy has observed, India once accommodated selective expressions of Muslim culture even as it constrained Muslim politics; today, both cultural presence and political agency are increasingly contested. History shows that conditional belonging is never permanent. Each concession merely raises the bar for the next one.

Beyond Exceptionalism

Indian Muslims do not need to be exceptional to deserve justice. They need only what is inherent to human dignity and constitutionally promised: equality before the law, freedom of conscience and the right to dissent.

Until Indian Muslims speak and act with complete political agency – free from the fear of being labeled as threats – and confront the reality that political quietude is interpreted as weakness and silence as consent, Indian society will continue to praise Muslim compliance while denying Muslims the ordinary exercise of rights enjoyed by other citizens.

The challenge before India is not to manage Muslim difference, but to normalise Muslim citizenship. For some Indian Muslims, exceptionalism may feel like protection. In reality, it is only a slow, quiet form of erasure.

Rasheed Ahmed is the executive director of the Indian American Muslim Council.

A Christian pastor in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district was allegedly assaulted and paraded through a village with a garland of footwear, after being accused of carrying out religious conversions earlier this month, Maktoob Media reported.

The man’s wife also alleged that he was tied to a temple and forced to consume cow dung by members of the Bajrang Dal. However, Superintendent of Police Abhinav Sonkar claimed that no such allegation had been raised, The Times of India reported.

The pastor, Bipin Bihari Naik, was allegedly assaulted on January 4 in a village under the Pajrang police station limits. However, the attack came to light recently after a first information report was filed on the complaint of his wife, Vandana.

The complainant alleged that a mob of 15 to 20 persons with bamboo sticks attacked the man at his home around 11 am while he was praying, PTI reported. The group allegedly assaulted him, forcibly smeared vermilion on him, garlanded him with footwear and paraded him through the village. They also allegedly forced him to bow before a temple.

Vandana denied claims that her husband was involved in religious conversions. She claimed that the police arrived in the village only after two hours. She alleged that they initially tried to mislead her, claiming that there was no one in the village, Maktoob Media reported.

The wife said that she had filed a complaint on the day of the attack itself. She claimed that the police took no action for several days, due to which she had to approach the superintendent of police, The Times of India reported. The first information report was registered on January 13.

The Congress said that the attack was a blot on humanity and civilised society, and had brought shame to the country. Such attacks were a direct outcome of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “hateful and divisive politics”, it alleged.

Biju Janata Dal spokesperson said that such attacks in a peaceful state like Odisha were damaging its image and amounted to grave human rights violations, The Times of India reported.

The BJP’s state media-in-charge Sujit Das accused the Opposition of politicising the matter and said law enforcement agencies would act as per the law.

For more than a decade, Tejinder Singh Virk, a farmer in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district, had been planting paddy twice in the year.

First, in February, he would grow saplings in his nursery for about 25 days, before transplanting them to his 20-acre farm adjacent to it. He harvested this crop by May.

Then, around mid-June, just as the monsoon clouds began to gather over the state, he prepared for the next round of planting.

But since last year, Virk and other farmers in the district have stopped cultivating the first round of paddy – they did so after the district administration in January 2025 banned the crop’s cultivation between February 1 and April 30. This month, the administration reissued the ban for 2026.

The administration’s rationale for the ban was that the practice was draining too much water from the region’s water table. “In this dry season, the farmers depend heavily on tubewells to irrigate the crops,” the district’s collector Nitin Bhadauria told Scroll. “This has caused the groundwater levels to go down excessively, and the two paddy crops in one year are also reducing the soil productivity.”

Indeed, paddy, the region’s main crop, is highly water-intensive – of the 120 days of its cultivation, the crop needs to be in standing water for at least 80 days. According to the Central Ground Water Board, 43% of the total available groundwater for extraction in this district is used for irrigation.

Thus, the administration concluded that the cultivation of paddy, especially in the dry season, was affecting the water table – in fact, as far back as 2016, when the Central Ground Water Board assessed three of the seven blocks in the district, they found that the groundwater level in two of the blocks was “critical”.

Virk’s experience was consistent with this finding. “Around 2010, we only used artesian,” he said, referring to a type of well in which groundwater is available near the surface due to naturally existing pressure in underground rocks. In contrast to these are borewells and tubewells, which pump water from deep underground. Virk added, “Now, everyone uses borewells and tubewells, which have to now be dug at around 80-90 feet below the surface.”

Virk, who is also part of the Terai Kisan Sangh, said that many farmers were also concerned about the dipping water table, and were thus willing to abide by the ban.

He added, however, that farmers were hopeful that the government would support them in their efforts to diversify to other crops. “We have been discussing the need for diversification for a long time,” said Virk. “Some are moving to maize, but we are selling at lower prices in the market. The government should consider guaranteeing that it will buy the crop from us at the minimum support price.”

The effects of double-farming

The district of Udham Singh Nagar is a thin strip of plains that border Uttar Pradesh, and is part of the fertile, low-lying terai region. It is Uttarakhand’s largest paddy cultivating district, and produces nearly half of the state’s rice crop.

Farmers in the district noted that this “double-farming” of paddy is a fairly recent phenomenon that started around 15 years ago. They explained that it was primarily large farmers that followed the practice.

The move towards double-farming – specifically, the addition of the February cycle of cultivation – was influenced by several factors.

For one, the February crop proved to be more productive than the monsoon crop. Krishna Tiwari, a farmer and the district head of the Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, said that it produced between three and four quintals more per acre than the monsoon crop. “The summer crop also has fewer pests and diseases, so the costs of pesticides are also less,” he said.

But the additional crop had the effect of lowering the prices of the monsoon paddy. “Since rice millers buy the summer crop, they already have enough supply with them. So, they reduce the value of the monsoon crop and farmers end up selling it for less than the MSP,” said Jagdish Thakur, a farmer from Matkota village. Though the state had set a minimum support price of Rs 2,389 per quintal for paddy, he explained that farmers usually ended up selling their monsoon crop for between Rs 1,500 and Rs 1,700 per quintal.

Farmers also noted that the shift to growing paddy twice a year on the same land had reduced the soil’s productivity. To match previous years’ yields, they began to rely heavily on fertilisers and pesticides, which became an additional cost. “Our costing is increasing,” said Virk. “Earlier, we used to spend about Rs 10,000 per acre, now it has almost doubled, to Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000.”

Further, farmers’ fears about the receding water table were underlined after they learnt that some farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit and Bareilly had followed them and started to adopt the double-farming of paddy. Soon, however, farmer unions in those areas began to protest against the practice. “They started noticing that in tubewells near farms that were doing two crops of paddy, water was going lower,” said Thakur.

This reinforced the Uttarakhand farmers’ belief in the need for a ban, “If you look at it from the point of view of the farmer who was getting a better produce in the summer, this ban can seem like a loss,” Thakur said. “But in the long term, this is good for the water level and climate. If we have to continue farming, where will we get the water from?”

Diversifying to other crops

Bhadauria, the district collector, explained that the administration was encouraging farmers to shift to other crops. “We have been distributing sugarcane and maize seeds, both of which require less water than paddy,” he said. The aim was to ensure that there was “no adverse loss of livelihoods”, he added. Further, he noted, the administration had established links between the farmers and an ethanol factory in the region to whom they can sell their maize and sugarcane produce directly.

Some farmers have started following through on these initiatives. Since the ban last year, Tiwari has replaced between two and three acres of his summer paddy crop with sugarcane, and left some land fallow.

Compared to paddy, sugarcane requires less water, he noted. “For paddy, you have to ensure it is in standing water for 24 hours through its season,” he said. “But sugarcane requires water only in the summer months.”

He added, “At this point the income is less than what it used to be for paddy, but I am willing to try.”

Another crop that farmers are trying to grow is maize, which is less water-intensive than paddy. However, the crop has presented them with some challenges. If farmers grow it in March or later, the crop is ready to be harvested by May or June. This period sometimes sees rain – in such a situation, Tiwari said, “Farmers have no storage place to keep the ready crop.”

This problem also extends into the sale of the crop – Thakur explained that ethanol manufacturers are particular about the moisture content in the crop. “If it is more than what they need, they do not buy it, and we get a poor rate of Rs 1,200-1,300 instead of the usual price of Rs 2,300,” Thakur said. He added that some farmers had worked around the problem by planting the crop earlier, in February instead of March, and harvesting it before the monsoon period.

Experts noted that while both sugarcane and maize require less water than paddy, they are still fairly water intensive. Instead, they argued, more government support was essential to ensure farmers could cultivate significantly less water-intensive crops, like millets and oilseeds. “The government must assure them that they will buy such crops at minimum support prices,” said Vargish Bamola, a hydrogeologist with Himmontthan, a Dehradun-based organisation that works on agriculture and water in Uttarakhand.

Such support was particularly critical for smaller farmers who, Bamola noted, would be more affected by the ban – he recommended that the government provide them with cash incentives to move away from double-farming paddy.

Some farmers noted that action to protect the water table should not only focus on farmers, but also on industries in the region – this despite the fact that as government reports note, the industrial sector uses less than 10 % of the total extractable groundwater in the district. But farmers argue that their worries are centred on the pollution these industries may be causing. “These industries are not only using the groundwater, but are also releasing it back in a polluted form,” Virk said.

Indeed, government reports have noted that industries in the region have contributed to aquifer pollution by discharging “their untreated effluents directly to nearby water bodies”. One study that analysed samples from groundwater in the district found “anomalous values” of total dissolved solids, magnesium, iron and lead, which “confirms degradation in groundwater quality”.

In response to queries from Scroll on the problem of polluting industries, the district collector Bhaduria said, “We check water recycling plants continuously and make sure there is no pollution in that.” He added that the central pollution board and its state counterpart continuously monitor the quality of the released water. “We are focusing on ensuring that most industries get the best recycling technologies,” he added.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said that India must not accept the United States’ invitation to join its proposed Board of Peace, which Washington has described as a global initiative to resolve conflicts, initially focusing on Gaza.

The US has invited India and Pakistan, among about 60 countries, to join the board proposed by President Donald Trump. It was not clear whether New Delhi has agreed to join the initiative.

Pakistan will join the board, Reuters quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying on Wednesday.

Vijayan said that the Board of Peace seeks to override the United Nations and other existing international structures, adding that participating in the initiative that “disregards Palestinian rights” would be a “grave betrayal” of the Palestinian cause.

“India must stand in defence of the Global South against US imperial ambitions,” the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader added on social media.

India’s longstanding position has been to support a two-state solution for establishing a sovereign, viable and independent state of Palestine within recognised and mutually agreed borders, living alongside Israel in peace.

The chief minister also referred to a joint statement issued on Wednesday by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party, adding that this was a call to action.

In their statement, the five Left parties urged the Indian government not to accept the position on the board. The parties added that the US’ attempt to override existing international institutions must be opposed.

The Joint Statement issued by the Left parties today is a call to action. India must not accept the US-offered position on the 'Board of Peace' which seeks to override the UN and existing international structures. Participating in such a board, which disregards Palestinian…

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) January 21, 2026

A contribution of $1 billion secures permanent membership on the board instead of a three-year appointment, AP had quoting an unidentified US official as saying on Monday. The three-year appointment does not require any contribution.

The Board of Peace will be part of the second phase of a US-backed ceasefire proposal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. A UN Security Council resolution in November authorised the Board of Peace to oversee Gaza at least until the end of 2027.

The 60 countries invited by Trump include Turkey, Egypt, Argentina, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia.

Sharing Trump’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media on Sunday, the US ambassador to New Delhi, Sergio Gor, said that the board “will support effective governance to achieve stability and prosperity”.

In the letter dated December 16, Trump said the board was a “critically historic and magnificent effort to solidify peace” in West Asia and to embark on a “bold new approach to resolving global conflict”.

The US president also said that the initiative “will be established as a new International Organization and Transitional Governing Administration”.

“Our effort will bring together a distinguished group of nations ready to shoulder the noble responsibility of building lasting peace, an honour reserved for those prepared to lead by example, and brilliantly invest in a secure and prosperous future for generations to come,” the letter added.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on besieged Gaza since then, leaving more than 70,000 persons dead.

Also read: India’s discernible shift away from Palestine

India is in the middle of the longevity conversation without quite admitting it. Life expectancy has crossed 72 years, healthy life expectancy sits a decade lower and by 2050 almost one in five Indians will be over 60.

Yet, when politicians talk of “Viksit Bharat 2047”, the ageing of India sounds like a footnote, not a central plotline. The government’s 2047 narrative is filled with images of high‑speed trains, digital public infrastructure and a dynamic young workforce. However, an ageing India will look less like a start‑up pitch and more like an overcrowded outpatient department unless policy choices change.

Though India’s average life expectancy has increased, healthy life expectancy still lags by around 10 years, which means many Indians are now living longer but spending a sizeable slice of late life with illness or disability. Behind the national averages lies a harsh geography of inequality and striking differentials by caste, gender and region.

Private insurers, corporate hospitals and wellness platforms are already designing products for middle‑class and affluent clients who expect to live into their 80s and want to stay “active” for as long as possible. Their version of healthy ageing features boutique diagnostics, fitness tracking, elective procedures and curated diets that are just about within reach of the salaried upper-middle class and easily within reach of the very rich.

For the majority, the script looks different. Informal workers with no pension, women whose unpaid care labour leaves them exhausted by midlife and rural households juggling non-communicable diseases with agricultural shocks will age into precariousness rather than comfort. Studies show lower life expectancy among marginalised groups than in many entire countries.

Longevity will become a privilege for gated enclaves while the rest of the country grows old the hard way.

Ageing India

Government data and independent projections indicate that older people already account for a little over 10% of India’s population, or about 100 million people, and that this share could approach 20% by mid‑century.

But longevity is not just about the number of candles on the cake. It is about who will carry the tray, pay for the cake and clean up after the guests.

A widely cited roadmap for “Swastha, Viksit Bharat” estimates that by 2047 India will need millions more doctors, nurses and hospital beds simply to cope with ageing. Chronic diseases already account for most deaths in India, and as people live longer, the burden of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer will inevitably rise. The question is whether those extra years will be characterised by productivity and autonomy, or by avoidable hospital visits, catastrophic health spending and quiet despair.

As the share of older people rises, the demands on India’s care economy will also surge, especially for long‑term care, home‑based support and dementia services.

A NITI Aayog paper on senior care reforms already flags the scale of the challenge, with far‑reaching implications for pensions, health services and social protection by 2050.

Right now, most of that care is cross‑subsidised by women in the family, who provide unpaid support to older relatives while also holding down paid work or domestic responsibilities. Without deliberate policy, longer lives will mean longer hours of invisible labour for women, not a dignified old age supported by a mix of public services, community arrangements and fair labour markets.

The privilege of living long

Healthy longevity can be an economic asset. Older adults can contribute through work, mentorship, volunteering and intergenerational support if systems recognise their value and keep them healthy. But without investment in primary care, early detection, rehabilitation and mental health, India risks creating a large pool of older citizens who are “too well to die, too ill to live”, trapped in a limbo of manageable but unmanaged illness.

First, India needs to treat healthy life expectancy as seriously as life expectancy, with clear targets, state‑level scorecards and regular public reporting. It should not be acceptable for healthy life expectancy to trail life expectancy by a decade while governments congratulate themselves on demographic “success”.

Second, policy must pivot towards services that keep people functional, not just alive. That meansinvesting in geriatric primary care, fall prevention, rehabilitation, community mental health and accessible diagnostics that are usable outside big cities.

Third, the care economy must be dragged out of the shadows. India will need a pipeline of trained caregivers, nurses and allied health workers, backed by decent wages and protections, rather than families, and especially women, shouldering the load indefinitely.

At the same time, pension reform and social security for informal workers will decide whether millions of older Indians experience longevity as a gift or a sentence. Finally, healthy ageing policy has to be designed with an explicit equity lens, recognising that life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for a Dalit woman in a poor district and a man in an urban elite enclave are almost different species of experience.

If longevity is allowed to become just another marker of privilege, “Viksit Bharat 2047” will be a lopsided celebration, with the country’s future applauding from one side of the stadium while its past struggles to climb the steps on the other.

As Honorary President of The Himalayan Dialogues and a specialist in global leadership and crisis communication, Sunoor Verma writes in a personal capacity. His views are independent of his institutional affiliations. Details at www.sunoor.net.

The Editors Guild of India on Wednesday condemned the Jammu and Kashmir Police summoning journalists in the past week, saying that the action is “tantamount to coercion and intimidation” of the media.

In a statement, the guild said that while the police were yet to clarify the reasons for the summons, there can be “no space for such arbitrary actions in a democracy, of which the media is a key pillar”.

At least four reporters working for major national publications had been summoned by the police in the Union Territory, Scroll reported on Tuesday. One of them was a senior journalist with The Indian Express, Bashaarat Masood, a person familiar with the development told Scroll.

Masood had recently reported on a controversial police drive to collect information on mosques and mosque officials in Kashmir.

He was asked to sign a bond, stating that he would not do anything to disturb peace in the Union Territory, the person said. Masood did not sign the bond, a spokesperson of The Indian Express had told Scroll.

The police action was not based on a formal first information report, but was being carried out under Section 126 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, the person said.

The provision allows an executive magistrate to pre-emptively seek bonds from people “likely to commit a breach of peace”. Government officials can invoke this section merely on the basis of information they have received about individuals.

In its statement on Wednesday, the Editors Guild said that the “continued repression” of legitimate journalistic activities by the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir was a matter of “grave concern”.

It added: “Arbitrary summons and police questioning of journalists, and bids to obtain affidavits under duress, are tantamount to coercion and intimidation of the media in pursuit of its legitimate duties.”

The guild added that the summoning of the journalists in the Union Territory was the “latest instance of increasingly threatening, intimidatory and coercive actions taken against professional journalists” by the police.

“Innumerable instances of journalists being summoned and questioned by the police have been reported in the past,” it added.

The guild urged the police and the other authorities to desist from such actions, which it said restricted free speech and prevented the media from carrying out its core functions.

The statement also urged the authorities to act in a transparent manner and follow legal due process while dealing with the media.

Statement on Police Action Against Kashmir Journalists pic.twitter.com/qPPH26C4Ls

— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) January 21, 2026

Apart from Masood, three other journalists also got similar summons. One of them was out of Srinagar when he got a call from a police officer, asking him to come in. None of the other journalists have, as of yet, reported to the police station, Scroll reported on Tuesday.

The four journalists who were summoned had reported on the political reaction to the police’s drive to collect information on mosques, which had triggered a row in the past week in the Union Territory.

Police officials were reportedly distributing copies of a four-page form to mosques in the Muslim-majority region. The form sought extensive information pertaining to the family background and financial details of those involved in the upkeep of the places of worship.

The exercise had drawn criticism from Kashmiri politicians across party lines and prominent religious organisations, who argued that this went beyond looking into the legal status of mosques.

Scroll had on Tuesday contacted the senior superintendent of Srinagar Police, asking about the reasons for summoning journalists and asking them to sign the bonds. The official did not respond to our calls and messages. Our reports will be updated if he responds.

Also read: ‘Attempt to silence national press’: Four Kashmiri journalists get police summons

The Indian rupee fell to a record low of 91.7 against the United States dollar. It was the worst-performing Asian currency on Wednesday.

The rupee has fallen 2% this month, after declining about 5% in 2025. The currency was weighed down by continued foreign fund outflows amid a cautious global mood, including risk aversion triggered by heightened tensions about Greenland, and a negative trend in domestic markets. Read on.

Prohibitory orders banning the assembly of more than four persons in public places were imposed in Kokrajhar of Assam. The Army has been deployed in sensitive areas of the district and internet services remain suspended, while officials said the situation was under control.

This came after tensions erupted on Monday night, when a vehicle with three persons from the Bodo community hit two Adivasis in the Karigaon area of the district. One of the injured Adivasi men, Sunil Murmu, later died of his injuries.

After the two persons were hit, “others joined in to attack the people inside the vehicle”, according to the police. One of the persons inside the car, Sikhna Jwhwlao Bismit, also succumbed to injuries sustained during the incident. Read on.

The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, led by former Tamil Nadu MLA TTV Dhinakaran, returned to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the Assembly elections.

The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as part of the NDA but quit the alliance in September. Dhinakaran had at the time expressed disappointment about his party being neglected after the BJP revived its ties with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

The state is expected to head for polls in April or May. Read on.

A group of lawyers in Sambhal protested against the transfer of Chief Judicial Magistrate Vibhanshu Sudheer. Sudheer had earlier this month ordered a first information report against former Circle Officer Anuj Chaudhary, police officer Anuj Tomar and 15 to 20 unidentified personnel in connection with allegations that a man, Alam, was shot and injured during the unrest in Sambhal in November 2024.

Sudheer, who was transferred to Sultanpur as a civil judge (senior division), was among the 14 judicial officers transferred by the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday.

He will be replaced by Aditya Singh, the judge who had directed a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi town. The November 2024 violence, which left five dead, had broken out after a group of Muslims objected to the survey. Read on.

This Instagram-influencer cop is Adityanath’s key to Sambhal

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The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday described as “institutional humiliation” a practice followed by Jaisalmer Police of parading persons arrested in a matter and circulating their photographs on social media before adjudication of guilt, The Indian Express reported.

Justice Farjand Ali ordered the removal of the photographs published by the police on social media platforms within 24 hours, Bar and Bench reported.

Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees “not merely the right to life, but the right to live with dignity, honour and self-respect”, The Indian Express quoted the court as saying.

The judge noted that persons do not lose their right to dignity after they are arrested.

The order was issued on a petition filed by 10 residents of Jaisalmer challenging the practice.

The petitioners contended that police officers routinely made persons accused of offences sit at the entrance of police stations, Bar and Bench reported. The accused persons are also photographed and their images shared publicly.

The practice extended to women as well, the petitioners alleged. This included unmarried young girls, whose photographs were allegedly shared without formal determination of their guilt, they added.

The petitioners argued that the images posted on social media and published in local newspapers created a public perception of guilt.

They added that arrested persons were also often made to strip down to their undergarments before being confined to imprisonment cells.

On Tuesday, the court observed that forcing those arrested to sit on the floor, stripping or partially disrobing them, photographing them in degrading conditions, and posting those images on social media or in newspapers, amounted to institutional humiliation and a direct assault on human dignity, The Indian Express reported.

“Even a person accused of an offence continues to be clothed with basic human rights,” the newspaper quoted Ali as saying. “In the case of unmarried women, the consequences can be devastating, affecting their prospects of marriage, social acceptance and psychological well-being.”

The court said that such conduct was “plainly inhuman, degrading and violative of the bare minimum human rights guaranteed to every individual, irrespective of the accusations against him”, Bar and Bench reported.

Such acts also amounted to a clear infraction of the constitutional guarantees, the bench added.

The impact of the sharing images, especially on social media, of persons accused of an offence could be lasting as such material remains accessible in the public domain, the judge said. He added that even if an accused was later acquitted, the harm to their reputation and social standing might never be fully undone.

Ali further noted that there was no law that authorised the police to take such actions, adding that the practices appeared unfair, unjustified and beyond their legal powers, Bar and Bench reported.

The court sought responses from senior police officers to the petition. It also directed the police commissioner to file a reply outlining the safeguards put in place to prevent a repeat of such incidents.

The matter will be heard next on January 28.

The Indian rupee fell below the 91.5 mark against the United States dollar on Wednesday for the first time, Reuters reported.

The rupee fell to an all-time low of 91.7 as of 3.30 pm.

The rupee was weighed down by continued foreign fund outflows amid a cautious global mood, PTI reported.

It also opened weaker amid risk aversion triggered by heightened tensions about Greenland and remained under pressure through the session, Reuters reported.

A negative trend in domestic markets further dented investor sentiment, PTI reported.

Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, a US ally.

United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly raised the idea of acquiring Greenland from Denmark. Greenland has maintained that it does not want to be part of the US, which already operates a military base on the island.

On January 16, Trump indicated that he could punish countries with tariffs if they do not support Washington controlling Greenland.

On Wednesday, the rupee was the worst-performing Asian currency. It is down 2% so far this month, after falling about 5% in 2025, Reuters reported.

A day earlier, the rupee had depreciated by 7 paise to close at a record low of 90.9 against the dollar.

Prohibitory orders banning the assembly of more than four persons in public places were imposed in Kokrajhar district of Assam on Tuesday following tensions between the Bodo and Adivasi communities after two persons were killed in mob violence.

The Army has been deployed in sensitive areas of Kokrajhar, PTI quoted an unidentified defence spokesperson as saying on Wednesday. A flag march will be conducted in the area on Wednesday as part of confidence-building measures, the news agency quoted the spokesperson as saying.

The situation was under control and security measures were in place in Kokrajhar and the neighbouring Chirang district, PTI quoted officials as saying.

The tensions erupted on Monday night, when a vehicle with three persons from the Bodo community hit two Adivasis in the Karigaon area of the district, the state’s additional chief secretary (home and political department) said in a notification suspending mobile internet there on Tuesday.

One of the injured Adivasi men, Sunil Murmu, later succumbed to his injuries.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Akhilesh Singh told The Indian Express on Tuesday that after the two persons from the Adivasi community were hit, “others joined in to attack the people inside the vehicle”.

One of the persons inside the car, Sikhna Jwhwlao Bismit, succumbed to injuries sustained during the incident.

Following the incident, the two communities blocked the national highway near Karigaon, burnt tyres, and set houses and an office building on fire on Tuesday. The police outpost in Karigaon was also attacked.

Dipen Boro, the president of the All Bodo Students Union, condemned the killing of Bismit.

“Such barbaric act of killing without any reason to innocent persons is against the law,” Boro said on social media on Tuesday. “It is a heinous crime designed by miscreants to spread violence and hatred among peace loving communities. It seems clear lapses of administration that some untoward incidents have been prevailing in the district.”

The Rapid Action Force had been deployed in the area on Tuesday to restore law and order.

The Assam government had on Tuesday also suspended mobile internet services in Kokrajhar, saying that it could be used to spread inflammatory messages and rumours that might further disturb the situation.

Kokrajhar is part of the Bodo-dominated Bodoland Territorial Region, an autonomous division of Assam.

A judge in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal who had earlier this month ordered a case against several police officials in connection with the shooting of a man in 2024 was among 14 judicial officers transferred on Tuesday by the Allahabad High Court, Live Law reported.

Sambhal Chief Judicial Magistrate Vibhanshu Sudheer had ordered a first information report against former Circle Officer Anuj Chaudhary, Kotwali in-charge Anuj Tomar and 15 to 20 unidentified police personnel. The case pertained to a man named Alam being shot and injured during unrest in the town in November 2024.

The Sambhal Police had said they would move the High Court against the order.

Sudheer was transferred on Tuesday to Sultanpur as a civil judge (senior division).

A group of lawyers in Sambhal held a protest on Wednesday against the transfer of Sudheer.

Aditya Singh, who was the civil judge (senior division) at Sambhal’s Chandausi town, has replaced him, The Indian Express reported. Singh was the judge who passed the order directing a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi town.

The November 2024 violence in Sambhal, which left five dead, had broken out after a group of Muslims objected to the survey.

The survey had been ordered in a suit claiming that the mosque had been built in 1526 by Mughal ruler Babar on the site of the “centuries-old Shri Hari Har Temple dedicated to Lord Kalki”.

Earlier this month, Sudheer had allowed an application by Alam’s father, Yameen, seeking that a case be filed against the police officials who allegedly fired at his son. The applicant alleged that on November 24, 2024, his son was selling rusks and biscuits on his cart near the Jama Masjid at Sambhal, when police personnel suddenly fired at the crowd with the intention to kill.

The judge had said that while it was clear that Alam had been hit by gunshots, the identity of the shooter needed to be investigated. He had remarked that since the offence of attempted murder is a serious one, it was unlikely that the victim would spare the actual attacker and falsely accuse someone else, according to Live Law.

Sudheer had also said that for criminal acts, the police could not invoke the defence that they were merely discharging their official duties.

A Bengaluru sessions court on Tuesday directed more than 30 media organisations to remove allegedly defamatory content about Karnataka police officer K Ramachandra Rao, who was suspended a day earlier after videos purportedly showing him engaging in inappropriate acts with women in his office began circulating online, Live Law reported.

The videos purportedly showed the director general of police (civil rights enforcement) hugging and kissing women while in uniform during office hours.

In its order on Tuesday, the court, by way of an ex parte temporary injunction, restrained the media organisations from “making, publishing, telecasting, broadcasting or circulating any news, defamatory comments, statements or allegations or call recordings against [Rao] in print media, electronic media, television channels, websites” and social media platforms till next date of hearing, Live Law reported.

An ex parte injunction is an interim order issued without hearing the other side.

The court also directed all media entities, including TV9 Karnataka, India Today Group, The Hindu and The Times of India, to “remove and take down all such defamatory videos, audio clips, call recordings, visuals, newspaper reports that are available in websites, digital platforms and official social media handles forthwith” pertaining to the suspended officer, the legal news outlet reported.

The matter is listed for hearing on February 27.

Rao was suspended on Monday. In the suspension order, Karnataka government Under Secretary KV Ashoka said that Rao acted “in an obscene manner unbecoming of a public servant, causing embarrassment to the government”.

The order stated that the government was convinced he had acted in violation of service rules, necessitating his suspension while an inquiry was underway.

Following the controversy, Rao claimed that the video was manipulated and dated back eight years, when he was posted in Belagavi.

He said that he would speak to legal experts before taking further action on the matter.

The officer had been mired in controversy last year as well, when his stepdaughter, Kannada actor Ranya Rao, was arrested on allegations of smuggling gold.

The police official was sent on compulsory leave after he was accused of helping Ranya Rao evade security checks at the Bengaluru airport.

He was recalled and posted as the director general of police (civil rights enforcement) in August.

Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will seek a constitutional amendment to remove the requirement of beginning the first Assembly session of the year with the governor’s customary address in states governed by Opposition parties, the state’s Chief Minister MK Stalin said on Tuesday.

Stalin made the statement in a social media post hours after Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi walked out of the Assembly without delivering the customary address on the opening day of the session. This marked the fourth consecutive year that Ravi has left the House during the inaugural proceedings.

A governor is required to address the first session of the Assembly held in a year. As per convention, the governor reads a speech written by the state government.

Later in the day, the governor’s office said that Ravi had refused to read the address because his microphone was repeatedly switched off and he was not allowed to speak. It also alleged that the speech approved by the government contained several “unsubstantiated claims and misleading statements”, adding that crucial problems troubling the residents of the state were ignored.

Following the governor’s walkout, the Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution moved by Stalin, rejecting the governor’s decision not to read out the address, The Hindu reported.

The resolution stated that the speech prepared by the state government and uploaded on members’ tablets would be treated as having been read.

Stalin said that under Article 176 of the Constitution, the governor is required to read the address in full.

“There is no scope for the governor to include his personal comments or to remove parts of the speech prepared by the state government,” The Hindu quoted Stalin as having said.

He added that clarifications sought by the governor on Monday had already been provided, but that Ravi had still acted in violation of the provisions of the Constitution.

“It is regrettable that the Governor has acted like before,” Stalin was quoted as having said. “The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly reflects the sentiments of the eight crore Tamil people… [The governor] should extend cooperation to the government elected by the people. The Constitution expects the same from the individual holding the post.”

Stalin also said that such conduct was not limited to Tamil Nadu and accused Governors in several states of acting as “obstacles” to Opposition-led governments.

In Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday edited the policy address delivered by Governor Rajendra Arlekar to the Assembly.

After Arlekar left the Assembly, Vijayan returned to the House and said that the governor had changed three paragraphs in the policy speech. The chief minister said that while Arlekar omitted some portions of the text, he had made certain additions elsewhere in the speech.

“I wish the sea was far away from here,” said wada pao seller Ashok Dharmameher. “Then this project would not be here.”

Dharmameher was among the thousands who participated in coordinated protests on Monday on National Highway 48 and the roads leading to the district collector’s office in Palghar district, 84 km north of Mumbai, to demonstrate against the proposed Vadhavan port, plans to build a “fourth Mumbai city” there and other development plans for the area.

One protest was led by the Vadhavan Bandar Virodh Sangharsh Samiti, an organisation that has been opposing the construction of the port. Another protest, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), related to problems with land acquisition for these projects. It involved a 44-km march that ended on Tuesday.

Some of the protestors, led by the Kashtakari Sanghatana, were demanding forest rights.

Dharmameher, a resident of Chinchani village village, 6 km from the proposed port, said that he earned enough to support himself and his wife. But with little information available about the projects in the area, he and many others fear they will be displaced from homes their families have lived in for decades.

Opposition to the Vadhavan port, planned off the coast in Palghar, has been mounting in recent years, especially from fishing villages in the district that fear they will lose their homes and livelihoods.

Though the port is planned to be located offshore, an extensive road and rail network will be built to connect it to National Highway 48 (which runs from Delhi to Chennai) and to other cities such as Nashik and Bhusawal. This would entail acquiring land in the area’s villages. In some places, residents have prevented surveys from being conducted.

The Rs 76,000-crore port is a joint venture between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and the Maharashtra Maritime Board. It will be spread over 17,471 hectares. Of this, 16,900 hectares have been earmarked for the port and 571 hectares for rail and road connections.

The project will also require land to be reclaimed, for which about 200 million cubic metres of sand will be quarried from a pit located 50 km off the Daman coast in nearby Gujarat. The reclamation will also use stones from quarries in Palghar taluka.

Vadhavan port is being developed along with a “fourth Mumbai” that will involve acquiring vast tracts of land in Palghar district. (After Navi Mumbai was built in the 1970s to decongest Maharashtra’s capital, a “third Mumbai” has been proposed in Raigad district.)

Also proposed in the area are an offshore airport, a textile park at Kelve, a new expressway and a freight rail corridor. Already, residents have had land acquired for the bullet train project that will connect Mumbai with Ahmedabad.

On Monday, in a memorandum to the chief minister submitted to the Palghar collector, representatives of 11 organizations representing fisherfolk, farmers, adivasis stated that these projects should be stopped as it threatened their environment and livelihoods.

They emphasised that the port was not legally permissible as Dahanu taluka, where the port is proposed to be located is an eco-sensitive zone. That is why the Supreme Court-nominated Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority had in 1998 rejected the location of a port here, they noted.

The project violates Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, which assures the right to life and dignity, they contended.

The memorandum also cited the Public Trust doctrine, which asserts that natural resources are not the property of the government but are a public resource. The government is only a trustee of these commons.

The memo said that the public hearing for the project in 2024 ignored the widespread opposition to the proposal by residents and the Social Impact Assessment Report did not have plans to regenerate livelihoods for those who would be affected by it.

Importantly it stated that though the port authority had agreed to not begin work till the land acquisition process was completed in the case before the Supreme Court filed in May 2025, it was violating that commitment in some places. This, the memo noted, was contempt of court.

Among the participants in Monday’s protest was Devashree Kini, the deputy sarpanch of Vasgaon village in the district. “We don’t want this port or their jobs,” she said. “We are self -sufficient. This port will wipe out our existence and our next generation will be finished.”

Also in the crowd was Sachin Patil from Chinchani village, who owns seven acres of a chikoo and mango farm. He employs four people and said that he earns Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 lakh a month. After visiting Mundra port in Gujarat, he fears that the displacement he witnessed there will be repeated in Palghar. “I saw that land around the port was used for so many things, and here too our villages will be affected,” he said.

Palghar is an Adivasi-dominated district that was bifurcated from Thane in 2014. It lacks basic amenities and a tertiary hospital. One section of protestors was focused on demanding forest rights.

The Forest Rights Act grants individual rights such as habitation and cultivation as well as community rights such as grazing, fishing and collecting minor forest produce to forest-dwelling communities

Brain Lobo of the Kashtakari Sanghatana said that while the government acquired land for new projects, it had not settled existing claims of Adivasis under the Forest Right Act. There were over 3,000 appeals related to forest rights pending in the area. Of these, 600 related to wrong survey numbers, a crucial detail in cases when land is being acquired.

Prasad Shinde from Chahade village said even if the port was located offshore, the roads to the highway would require land to be acquired. Even though the authorities had assured residents that they would get jobs on these projects, Shinde was sceptical.

The only jobs available for residents here, most of whom are not educated, would be as sweepers, he remarked.

“Why doesn’t the government take the project to the north?” he said. “That is where people migrate from isn’t it and look for jobs in Palghar. We don’t want this new city also because we won’t have a place in it and we don’t want this port which will destroy our land and livelihoods.”

Jyoti Meher, secretary of the Maharashtra Macchimar Kruti Samiti, one of the organisers of the demonstration, explained what was at stake. “We are fighting for our existence and rights over natural resources,” she said.

Meena Menon is a freelance journalist and researcher.

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday quashed a case filed in 2023 against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Malviya for allegedly distorting the comments made by Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin about “eradicating” Sanatana Dharma, The Hindu reported.

Justice S Srimathy said that Stalin’s statement amounted to hate speech.

Stalin had said at a press conference in September 2023 that Sanatana Dharma must be eradicated, and not merely opposed. “We can’t oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria or corona [Covid-19], we have to eradicate them,” the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader had said. “In the same way, we have to eradicate Sanatana [Dharma], rather than opposing it.”

While many understand the term Sanatana Dharma to mean Hinduism as a whole, others interpret it as a reference to the varna system and the propagation of caste supremacy.

Shortly after Stalin made the remarks, Malviya had alleged that he was calling for a “genocide” of Hindus. The Tiruchi city police in Tamil Nadu had subsequently filed a case against the BJP leader for alleged hate speech.

Srimathy, however, said on Tuesday that when the Tamil Nadu minister had engaged in “hate speech”, the person opposing it could not be said to have committed a crime, The Hindu reported.

“He has not asked any people to start any agitation either against the Minister or his party, but has put forth mere facts and questioned the Minister,” the judge was quoted as saying. “The petitioner’s post is in the form of a question and seeking a reply, and the same would not attract the ingredients of any sections [of the penal code].”

The judge also made references to statements by anti-caste activist EV Ramasamy Periyar and his social movement, the Dravidar Kazhagam.

“There is clear attack on Hinduism by the Dravidar Kazhagam, and subsequently along with by the DMK, for the past 100 years, to which the minister belongs,” Srimathy said, according to The New Indian Express. “While considering the overall circumstances, it is seen the petitioner had questioned the hidden meaning of the minister’s speech.”

The judge said that the court was pained by the prevailing situation in Tamil Nadu.

“The courts are questioning the persons who reacted, but are not putting the law on motion against the person who initiated the hate speech,” she was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express. “In the present case, no case has been filed against the minister for his hate speech in TN, but some cases are filed in other states.”

The European Union is on the cusp of signing a “historic trade agreement” with India, which will give the 27-member bloc the first-mover advantage in the region, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday.

“Right after Davos, I will travel to India,” the European Commission chief said while speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Switzerland’s Davos. “There is still work to do. But we are on the cusp of a historic trade agreement.”

She added: “Some call it the mother of all deals. One that would create a market of two billion people, accounting for almost a quarter of global GDP.”

The statement comes amid uncertainty about India’s long-pending trade deal with the United States. Without a deal with Washington, Indian goods are facing a combined US tariff rate of 50%, including a punitive levy for buying Russian oil amid the Ukraine war.

Von der Leyen, along with the president of the European Council, António Luís Santos da Costa, will visit India from January 25 to January 27. They will be the chief guests at the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi.

“Europe wants to do business with the growth centres of today and the economic powerhouses of this century,” Von der Leyen said in Davos. “From Latin America to the Indo-Pacific and far beyond, Europe will always choose the world. And the world is ready to choose Europe.”

Geopolitical shocks can - and must - be an opportunity for Europe.

The seismic shift underway makes it both possible & necessary to build a new European independence.

From security to the economy.
From defence to democracy.

Europe is gathering speed ↓ https://t.co/aLU0vo76Wn

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 20, 2026

On January 27, India and the European Union are slated to announce the end of negotiations on a free trade agreement, PTI reported.

The European Union is India’s biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade in goods estimated at $135 billion in 2023-’24. A free trade agreement is expected to provide a further boost to economic cooperation.

A Mumbai sessions judge on Monday told nine students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences that their careers were “ruined” after being booked in October for allegedly taking part in an event commemorating the death anniversary of former Delhi University professor GN Saibaba, reported The Indian Express.

“You have a criminal record,” the newspaper quoted Additional Sessions Judge Manoj B Oza as saying. “Now your record is with the police – not just here but everywhere in the country.”

Oza told the students that they had “made a blunder so early”, before their careers had even started.

Saibaba, who had over 90% disability and used a wheelchair, spent over seven years in jail on accusations of having links with Maoists. In March 2024, he was acquitted by the Bombay High Court and released. Seven months later, on October 12, he died of post-operative complications in Hyderabad.

A year later, some TISS students gathered on campus to light candles and display posters of Saibaba to commemorate his death anniversary.

However, a few students reportedly associated with a group named the Democratic Secular Students Forum allegedly disrupted the gathering by tearing down some posters.

A student who did not wish to be identified had told Scroll that members of the group also clicked photographs of the students participating in the event.

The police had filed the case against the students who attended the event based on a complaint by the TISS administration. The first information report invoked charges of causing prejudice to the nation, causing enmity between various groups and participating in unlawful assembly, among others.

While hearing their anticipatory bail applications on Monday, the judge asked the students how many of them were not residents of Maharashtra, reported The Indian Express.

“You came to study in Maharashtra for all this?” said the judge. “Your fathers know about the case? How many of your fathers are in government jobs? You will not get government jobs because of the case.”

Oza said that they would have to disclose their pending criminal charges even if they choose to take up private employment. He then asked their lawyer what course the students were pursuing.

When he was told that they were enrolled in a Master’s in Social Work programme, the judge said their degrees would not help them secure employment, reported The Times of India.

“You think you are scientists or engineers,” he was quoted as saying. “Even engineers do not have jobs.”

He extended their protection from arrest till February 5, when arguments of the students’ pleas are likely to be presented.

In the FIR against the students, the police had also alleged that they shouted slogans in support of activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam, who have been in jail for more than five years on account of having taken part in an alleged conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi violence.

However, one of the students who was part of the gathering had told Scroll that no slogans were shouted at the event.

The arrest of 12 Muslim men in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly on Friday for praying inside an empty house even though there were no allegations of damage or violence is not legally tenable, legal experts said

The owner of the house said that the prayers were being conducted with her permission.

This is not the first time that the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has prosecuted Muslims simply for praying. However, legal experts told Scroll the laws used to book these men were being misused.

The police described the Friday prayer as “illegal” and thearrests as a “precautionary measure”, reports said. The authorities invoked Section 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Surakhsha Sanhita, which allows the police to arrest, without a warrant, anyone suspected of planning a serious offence. In such cases, detention cannot exceed 24 hours.

The police said they “acted on villagers’ complaints and the 12 men were bound down for peacekeeping”. The arrest took place after a video of the men praying, taken surreptitiously by an unidentified person, went viral on social media.

In UP's Bareilly, a video of 12 people offering prayers had surfaced on social media. All 12 were arrested. pic.twitter.com/DM8OYUToiJ

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) January 18, 2026

‘Legally untenable’

Senior advocate practising at the Supreme Court, Sanjay Hegde, said that there is nothing in law that “criminalises namaz or any form of prayer”.

“Even if there was an undertaking by the owner that there would be no religious activity on the under-construction site, breach of such undertaking would have civil consequences like a fine for the owner, but not imprisonment for praying men,” he added. “This action is legally untenable in any view of the matter.”

Hegde said that the police’s argument was so weak, the case would likely not even see a trial. “There is nothing called precautionary arrest,” he said. “Arrest in anticipation of a crime is preventive detention for which there is a different framework. I doubt whether this matter will go to the stage of a prosecution in court.”

Supreme Court lawyer Vrinda Grover asserted that the arrests were unconstitutional, given that the offering of namaz is a cardinal feature of the fundamental right of Muslims to practise their religion, under Article 25 of the Constitution.

Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees all persons the freedom to profess, practise and propagate religion.

“How can the exercise of a guaranteed fundamental right constitute an offence?” she said.

Grover said that peaceful gatherings and “prayers by a community are customary in India” and that all religions routinely hold religious programmes in both public and private spaces. “For instance, Hindu keertans, jagran, Sikh paath, roads and public amenities are made available by the state for processions such as the Kanwariya Yatra of Hindus,” she added.

Advocate on Record at the Supreme Court Anas Tanwir said the first question to be asked is under what law such a gathering or congregation can be prohibited, especially when it takes place on private property.

“We have a right to private property,” Tanwir said. “Even if it is not a fundamental right, it is a constitutional right. So for an executive branch to take up any action, they first need to establish that there’s a law that allows such detention.”

A long pattern

The Bareilly incident is the latest in a series of cases across Uttar Pradesh where Muslims have faced criminal or preventive action for offering namaz in public spaces.

In January, Uttar Pradesh detained a 55-year-old Kashmiri man after he allegedly offered namaz inside the Ram Temple complex in Ayodhya and shouted slogans. His family said he has a mental illness and submitted medical records to support this claim. But the police said “agencies questioned him to assess intent and verify his travel details”. He was released after nothing suspicious was found in his possession.

In March, the police arrested a student at a private university in Meerut after a video of namaz on campus circulated during Holi celebrations and drew protests from local groups. The police booked him under Section 299 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings”, along with provisions of the Information Technology Act.

He was granted bail but was suspended from the college and placed under police surveillance.

The #UPPolice have arrested a student for allegedly offering namaz in an open area of a private university in #UttarPradesh's #Meerut, officials said on Sunday.

Khalid Pradhan (Khalid Mewati) was arrested following protests by local #Hindutva groups over a purported video… pic.twitter.com/j2GB96CefC

— Hate Detector 🔍 (@HateDetectors) March 17, 2025

In June, a Muslim caretaker of a temple in Badaun district was arrested after a secretly recorded video showed him offering namaz in the temple courtyard. The head priest of the temple publicly defended the caretaker and criticised the person who filmed the video.

Despite this, the police booked the man under Section 298 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which “penalises damaging or defiling a place of worship or sacred object with the intent to insult a religion”. He spent 14 days in judicial custody before being released on bail.

The same month, a college professor was placed on compulsory leave after a video of him offering namaz on the college lawn went viral and Hindutva groups demanded action. The college set up an inquiry against the professor and the police also started an investigation.

In July 2022, six men were arrested in Lucknow for offering namaz inside a mall and booked under multiple serious Indian Penal Code provisions, including “promoting enmity and outraging religious feelings”, before being granted bail.

The individuals were booked under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between groups), 295A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.

In November 2020, Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Faisal Khan, a communal harmony activist, for offering prayers at a Mathura temple. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody.

He was booked under Section 153A (promoting enmity) and other Indian Penal Code provisions after a video of him offering namaz in a temple courtyard, as a gesture of communal harmony, went viral. While the trial court denied bail, the High Court granted it, citing Article 21, but restrained him from using social media for such activities until the trial concluded.

Politics not law

Advocate Vrinda Grover said what is worrying is the “signal that is being sent to the minority community”.

“This is also not an isolated instance, as repeated acts of abuse and misuse of law by the law enforcement agencies indicate a pattern of institutional bias against religious minorities,” she said. “Such abuse of law injures our secular fabric.”

Grover said that while such “unconstitutional suppression of basic rights may please political masters”, the courts must hold the “police personnel responsible”.

Referring to the frequency of such actions, Tanwir said this amounts to “thanedaar justice”, where the police assume they are all powerful and arrest people at will.

He said that this is essentially meant to create a chilling effect. “Process is the punishment; once you are arrested, you have to go for bail, and you have to spend money,” Tanwir added.

The Assam government on Tuesday suspended mobile internet services in Kokrajhar district amid tensions between the Bodo and the Adivasi communities after one person was killed in mob violence.

While mobile internet services were suspended indefinitely with immediate effect, broadband services will remain operational, the state’s additional chief secretary (home and political department) said in a notification.

The tensions erupted on Monday night, when a vehicle with three persons from the Bodo community hit two Adivasis in the Karigaon area of the district.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Akhilesh Singh told The Indian Express that after the two persons from the Adivasi community were hit, “others joined in to attack the people inside the vehicle”.

While one person, Sikhna Jwhwlao Bismit, succumbed to injuries sustained during the incident, four are being treated in hospital, the newspaper reported.

Kokrajhar Superintendent of Police Akhat Garg told The Indian Express that 19 persons had been detained in connection with the mob violence and the matter is being investigated.

However, the incident led to tensions between the two communities on Tuesday. They blocked the national highway near Karigaon, burnt tyres, and set houses and an office building on fire, the additional chief secretary said in the notification. The police outpost in Karigaon was also attacked.

The Rapid Action Force was being deployed to restore law and order, the administration said.

The Assam government said that mobile internet was being suspended because social media could be used to spread inflammatory messages and rumours that may further disturb the situation.

Kokrajhar is part of the Bodo-dominated Bodoland Territorial Region, an autonomous division of Assam.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that arrangements have been made to deploy the Army in the area to help maintain law and order.

Mobile internet was also being suspended in the neighbouring Chirang district, Sarma said.

The Assam Police said on Tuesday evening that the situation in Karigaon was under control.

“We urge all sections of society to remain calm and not fall for rumours or misinformation that is being spread by anti-national elements,” the police said, adding that persons “attempting to disturb harmony and create panic” will be identified and dealt with strictly.

As the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos got underway on Monday, several Indian states announced that they had signed memoranda of understanding – with Indian companies. This led to a barrage of criticism from social media users.

They asked why Indian chief ministers had spent tax payers’ money to travel to Switzerland to hold meetings and sign agreements with Indian entities.

Nearly 3,000 delegates representing global businesses and governments from around the world are attending the event.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced on Tuesday that Indian entities Lodha Developers, Surajgad Ispat and K Raheja Corp were among the companies with which the state had signed MoUs.

The managing director of the Lodha Group, Abhishek Lodha, is the son of Mangal Prabhat Lodha, a minister in the Maharashtra government.

Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad from Mumbai was not impressed. She said that deal could have been sealed at the state guesthouse in Mumbai.

“Like every year, this year too a whole entourage has accompanied the CM to Davos only to sign MoUs with majority Indian companies,” Gaikwad said on X. “Last year too, MoUs with Hiranandani and Raheja group were signed in Davos, both operate out of Mumbai. Why is taxpayer money being wasted this way?”

This could have been signed at Sahyadri or Mantralaya or even the fancy office Mangal Prabhat Lodha had built for himself in the BMC isn't it?

Like every year, this year too a whole entourage has accompanied the CM to Davos only to sign MoUs with majority Indian companies. Last… https://t.co/dnOJBYgZoH

— Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad (@VarshaEGaikwad) January 20, 2026

Karnataka Commerce Minister MB Patil announced that he held a meetings Tata Group Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran and officials from Tata Electronics. Patil also said that he met with the chairperson of UPL, an agrochemicals and industrial chemicals firm headquartered in Mumbai, and discussed expanding the company’s “agricultural footprint” in Karnataka.

DAVOS 2026 | STRENGTHENING THE TATA-KARNATAKA PARTNERSHIP

We fortified our long-standing alliance with the Tata Group at #WEF26 during a high-level exchange with Chairman Shri Natarajan Chandrasekaran and Tata Electronics CEO Dr. Randhir Thakur. With 1.3 lakh employees in… pic.twitter.com/gZyCZm85ao

— M B Patil (@MBPatil) January 20, 2026

The Madhya Pradesh government held a meeting with officials from Indian media company JioStar, ANI reported.

Is this a joke (at the expense of Indian taxpayers who funded MP delegates' trip to Davos to meet officials from Jiohotstar)? pic.twitter.com/ZWBFcKCRPL

— Karthik 🇮🇳 (@beastoftraal) January 20, 2026

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy are also in the Swiss city to seek investments in their states.

Naidu announced that he had met with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma in Zurich.

Awwww how cute! What. Record!
Btw is it not possible for Indian leaderw to meet in India? https://t.co/L10wkPnXRv

— Lavanya Ballal Jain official (@LavanyaBallal) January 20, 2026

Many social media users said that meetings with Indian companies could have been held in India.

Journalist Swati Chaturvedi asked whether Mumbai’s acute traffic congestion had forced Fadnavis to travel to Davos to sign an MoU with a Mumbai-based builder.

Mumbai traffic so terrible that @Dev_Fadnavis has to fly to Davis in Switzerland first class with entourage at tax payer funding to sign an MoU with an Indian builder headquartered in Mumbai https://t.co/1wpVCId8eu

— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) January 20, 2026

Other social media users were similar scathing.

Davos is where Indian officials and industrialists go to meet each other and the Indian media interviews the Indian delegations #TuesdayThoughtsWhileDrivingToGurgaon

— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) January 20, 2026

One more Indian state. Meeting representatives of Tata Steel. In Davos. Let’s ask ourselves - could these meetings not have happened in Ranchi or Delhi? https://t.co/DKg9UYGmBh

— Sanket Upadhyay (@sanket) January 20, 2026

I am so happy that our governments are going to such lengths to sign deals. Literally. pic.twitter.com/Gaa705DJM8

— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) January 20, 2026

Wait!!! Madhya Pradesh government is frugal compared to Maharashtra government, who went all the way to Davos to sign an MOU with a Mumbai company.
World Economic Forum should be renamed World Travel Forum. The acronym becomes more apt. pic.twitter.com/7EctGGae6v

— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) January 20, 2026

I think future MoUs should be signed in Dahanu, not Davos. pic.twitter.com/XLHQDhVAiW

— Traveling Salesman (@def__init__e) January 20, 2026

Davos is not free.

It costs $30,000 per participant - That’s not including the boarding, security & transport

Who is paying for these ministers for what is essentially a vacation ?

Why are Indian exchequers footing the bill for this ? pic.twitter.com/1gUTSmzqUW

— RedBoxxLocal India Parody (@REDBOXINDIIA) January 19, 2026

The Commission for Air Quality Management on Tuesday revoked Stage 4 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi and the National Capital Region after the air quality improved.

Stage 4 restrictions had come into force on Saturday after the air quality slipped into the “severe” category.

The commission said on Tuesday that the Air Quality Index in Delhi has shown improvement because of favourable meteorological conditions and increased wind speed. It added that the average AQI in the national capital stood at 378 on Tuesday, which is in the “very poor” category.

The commission added that air quality forecasts provided by the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute Of Technology-Madras suggest that in the coming days, the AQI may remain in the current range.

Noting that Stage 4 restrictions under the GRAP were being revoked, the statement added that anti-pollution measures under Stage 1, 2 and 3 will continue to be implemented.

GRAP is a set of incremental anti-pollution measures that are triggered to prevent further worsening of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold in the Delhi-NCR region. The commission is a statutory body formed in 2020 to address pollution in the NCR and adjoining areas.

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital. Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, vehicular pollution, along with the lighting of firecrackers during Diwali, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

On Saturday, the air quality in the national capital had worsened to the “severe” category, reaching the 400-mark. On Sunday and Monday, the average AQI in Delhi remained above the 400-mark, before improving marginally on Tuesday.

As of 7.05 pm on Tuesday, the average AQI in Delhi was 364, which is in the “very poor” category, according to data from the Sameer application. In five of the 38 monitoring stations, it was in the “severe” category, showed the application, which provides hourly updates from the Central Pollution Control Board.

An index value between 301 and 400 indicates “very poor” air. Between 401 and 450 indicates “severe” air pollution. An AQI in the “severe” category signifies hazardous pollution levels that can pose serious risks even to healthy individuals.

The cities adjoining the capital also reported hazardous air quality levels. While Noida recorded an AQI of 364, Greater Noida 356, Ghaziabad 387 and Gurugram 390 – all in the “very poor” category.

‘Serious deficiencies’ in implementing measures, says air quality panel

The Commission for Air Quality Management on Monday said that there had been “serious deficiencies” in implementing the Graded Response Action Plan as per norms under Stage 3 and Stage 4 by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the authorities in other states.

In its review, the commission observed shortfalls in the range of 7% to 99.6% in important actions that needed to be taken, such as inspection of construction sites and the sweeping of roads.

The commission also found a high number of unresolved complaints filed by the public. Forty-seven percent of the complaints were pending in Delhi during Stage 3 and 68% during Stage 4, it added.

The panel directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the authorities in other states to initiate proceedings against officials responsible for failing to implement the measures.

The governor alleged that the Assembly had disrespected the national anthem and that his mic had been switched off during the proceedings. He left the Assembly a few minutes after the state anthem, Tamil Thaai Vaazhthu, was played.

In Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan edited the policy address delivered by Governor Rajendra Arlekar to the Assembly. After Arlekar left the Assembly, Vijayan told the House to say that the governor had made changes to three paragraphs in the speech.

Among the changes, Arlekar sid that Kerala was facing financial stress arising from “curtailment of advances”. The speech approved by the Cabinet had attributed the stress to “a series of adverse Union government actions that undermine the constitutional principles of fiscal federalism”.

The speaker said that the deletions and additions made by the governor would not go on record. Read on.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Nabin was elected as the party’s national president, succeeding Union minister JP Nadda. The 45-year-old politician is the youngest person ever to head the BJP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Nabin will be responsible not just for running the party but also for ensuring coordination among the constituents of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. “When it comes to party affairs, I am a worker, and he [Nabin] is my boss,” Modi declared.

Nabin was appointed the BJP’s national working president on December 14. At the time, he held the portfolios of road construction and urban development in the Bihar government. He resigned as a minister after he was named as the BJP’s working president. Read on.

The Supreme Court ordered the Punjab government to allow the Punjab Kesari Group to resume operations at its printing press in Ludhiana. It added that no coercive steps should be taken against the publication of the Punjab Kesari newspaper until the Punjab and Haryana High Court decides on a petition filed by the media group.

The printing press was shut down by authorities on January 15 for an alleged water pollution-related violation. The Punjab Kesari Group has alleged that the action was triggered by its news reports on the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government.

The media group had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday, which reserved its judgement but did not grant any interim relief. It then moved the Supreme Court. Read on.

The Israeli authorities on Tuesday began bulldozing buildings in East Jerusalem of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, including the agency’s local headquarters. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UNRWA, said that the demolitions were a “new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law” by Israel.

The UN agency said that the action was a result of a law passed by the Israeli Parliament in December that prohibited the provision of water and electricity to facilities linked to UNRWA. This followed two laws passed in October 2024 that ban the agency from operating in Israel.

The Palestinian Prime Minister’s Office said that the action defied the International Court of Justice’s October 26 advisory opinion that Israel must not obstruct the UN agency’s work in the occupied territories. The Israeli foreign ministry said Tel Aviv owns the Jerusalem compound and that it was seized in accordance with Israeli and international law. Read on.

As the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos got underway, several Indian states announced that they had signed memoranda of understanding – with Indian companies. This led to a barrage of criticism from social media users asking why the chief ministers had spent tax payers’ money to travel to Switzerland to hold meetings and sign agreements with Indian entities. Read on.

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The Enforcement Directorate has accused Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supply Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader KN Nehru of collecting bribes in exchange for the transfer and posting of government officers and engineers, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

In a communication dated January 14 to the state director general of police, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption and the chief secretary, the agency cited digital evidence and financial trails linking Rs 365.8 crore in alleged laundered funds to Nehru, his family and close associates.

Claiming to have uncovered “many instances of bribes being collected for the transfer and posting” in the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, the ED urged the state authorities to register a first information report against Nehru, the newspaper reported.

The agency added that the communication detailed the “evidence” related to these alleged transfers involving Nehru and his associates, The Indian Express reported.

This evidence came to the fore after searches were conducted in April 2025 at premises linked to Nehru’s relatives and close associates in Chennai, Tiruchirappalli and Coimbatore, the ED said.

While these searches were conducted in connection with an alleged money laundering investigation linked to a bank fraud case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the ED claimed that digital material seized during the raids indicated an entirely different set of offences.

According to the communication, the material included photographs, WhatsApp messages and documents recovered from digital devices seized during the searches.

It alleged that bribes ranging from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 1 crore were collected by Nehru’s close associates, the newspaper reported.

The agency also claimed that “about 340 officers/engineers…transfer/posting orders were found in the phone of the close associates of Nehru”.

The agency said that this amounted to “direct evidence” of bribes collected through such transfers and postings, adding that the allegations were part of a larger transfer and posting scam in state government departments, The Indian Express reported.

Responding to the allegations, the DMK leader told The Indian Express that he did not want to comment as he did not yet have clarity on the matter. He added that all these matters were under inquiry.

Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi on Tuesday walked out of the state Assembly without delivering the customary address on the opening day of the first session of the year.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Ravi has walked out of the Assembly during the opening ceremony.

On Tuesday, he alleged that the Assembly had disrespected the national anthem and that his mic was switched off during the proceedings.

The governor left the Assembly a few minutes after Tamil Thaai Vaazhthu, which is the state anthem, was played in the House, The Hindu reported.

“I am disappointed,” The Times of India quoted the governor as saying. “The national anthem was not given due respect.”

After the governor left, the House adopted a resolution moved by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president and Chief Minister MK Stalin to take on record only the approved text of Ravi’s address prepared by the state government, The Hindu reported.

Speaker M Appavu also urged the governor to follow established rules and customs of the Assembly.

In a statement issued later in the day, the Lok Bhavan listed several reasons for the governor’s refusal to read the speech in the Assembly, including that his mic was repeatedly switched off and that he was not allowed to speak.

The Lok Bhavan further alleged that the speech contained several “unsubstantiated claims and misleading statements”, adding that crucial problems troubling the residents of the state were ignored.

“Claim that the state attracted huge investments to the tune of over Rs 12 lakh crore is far from the truth,” read the statement. “Many of the MOUs [memorandums of understanding] with prospective investors remain only on paper. Actual investment is hardly a fraction of it.”

The Lok Bhavan also claimed that women’s safety was ignored in the speech, even though there was an “alarming increase of over 55% incidents of POCSO [Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act] Rapes and over 33% increase in incidents of sexual molestation”.

The statement added that there was rampant prevalence of narcotics and a sharp increase in their abuse among the youth, which was a serious concern that was also “casually bypassed” in the speech.

“Over 2,000, mostly youth, committed suicide in one year due to drug abuse,” it added.

The Lok Bhavan said that atrocities against Dalits and sexual violence against Dalit women were sharply increasing, adding that this was also not mentioned in the speech prepared by the state government.

There was also a steady decline in the standards of education and widespread mismanagement in educational institutions, it said, adding that more than 50% faculty positions had been vacant for years and guest faculties were restive all over.

“Our youth are staring at uncertain future,” the statement read. “It does not seem to bother the government and the issue is totally bypassed.”

The Lok Bhavan also noted that several thousand village panchayats were defunct because elections had not been held for years, and that many temples were without a board of trustees and were being directly administered by the state government.

The micro, small, and medium enterprises sector was also under huge stress due to visible and invisible costs of running the industry, it added.

The Lok Bhavan added that none of these problems were mentioned in the speech.

“National Anthem is yet again insulted and the Fundamental Constitutional Duty disregarded,” it added.

Apart from his maiden customary address to the House as Tamil Nadu governor in 2022, Ravi has walked out of the Assembly in 2023, 2024 and 2025 as well at different points during the sitting, The Hindu reported.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday edited the policy address delivered by Governor Rajendra Arlekar to the Assembly, The Hindu reported.

After Arlekar left the Assembly, Vijayan returned to the House and said that the governor had changed three paragraphs in the policy speech.

A governor is required to address the first session of the Assembly held in a year. As per convention, the governor reads a speech written by the state government.

Vijayan said on Tuesday that while Arlekar omitted some portions of the text, he had made certain additions elsewhere in the speech.

Paragraphs 12, 15 and 16 “as approved by the Cabinet will prevail”, Vijayan said. The English and Malayalam copies of the speech distributed to the MLAs retained the versions approved by the government, The Hindu reported.

Speaker AN Shamseer also said that the deletions and additions made by the governor will not be recognised, Onmanorama reported.

In the speech approved by the Cabinet, paragraph 12 said that despite social and institutional achievements, Kerala continues to face severe fiscal stress “arising from a series of adverse Union government actions that undermine the constitutional principles of fiscal federalism”.

The speech read by Arlekar said that the state was facing the fiscal stress “arising from curtailment of advances”, Vijayan was quoted as saying.

The governor omitted a portion of paragraph 15 that said that bills passed by the legislatures “have remained pending for prolonged periods” and that “my government has approached the Supreme Court on these issues, which have been referred to a Constitution bench”, according to Vijayan.

Shamseer had said on January 14 that 14 bills cleared by the Assembly were awaiting the governor’s assent.

A portion of paragraph 16 approved by the Cabinet said that “tax devolution and Finance Commission grants are constitutional entitlements of states and not acts of charity, and any pressure on constitutional bodies entrusted with this task undermines federal principles”.

The governor prefaced this with “my government feels”, Vijayan said.

The governor’s office has not commented on the matter.

The Left government and the governor’s office have had many run-ins in recent years on several matters, including over the customary address.

In January 2024, Arlekar’s predecessor Arif Mohammed Khan had omitted a major portion of the speech written by the state government, ending his address in little over a minute.

Arlekar’s address on Tuesday was the last during this term of the Assembly. The state will head for polls in the next three to four months.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Punjab government to allow the Punjab Kesari Group to resume operations at its printing press in Ludhiana, Live Law reported.

The court also said the state should not take any coercive steps against the publication of the Punjab Kesari newspaper until the Punjab and Haryana High Court decides on a petition filed by the media group, the legal news outlet reported.

The printing press had been shut down on January 15 on the orders of the Punjab Pollution Control Board over an alleged water pollution related violation, advocate Mukul Rohatgi told the Supreme Court while appearing for the newspaper.

The Punjab Kesari Group has alleged that the action against it was triggered by its news reports on the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s chief Arvind Kejriwal, Bar and Bench reported.

The media group publishes some of the highest-circulating Hindi and Punjabi dailies in the state, including Punjab Kesari, Jag Bani and Hind Samachar.

On Tuesday, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and VM Pancholi directed the restoration of operations at the printing press after a petition filed by Jagat Vijay Printers and Hind Samachar Limited was mentioned for urgent hearing, Bar and Bench reported.

The Hind Samachar Limited is the parent company of the Punjab Kesari Group. Jagat Vijay Printers is a key printing entity within the Punjab Kesari Group.

Rohatgi told the Supreme Court that after it published certain articles critical of the state government, several coercive actions were initiated against its management, Live Law reported.

This included cutting off its electricity, notices by the pollution control board against the printing press, shutting down of the hotels run by Punjab Kesari Group and first information reports, among other such actions, he added.

“All this happened in a matter of two days because we published articles which are not favourable to the dispensation in Punjab,” Live Law quoted Rohatgi as saying.

The advocate also noted that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had reserved its judgement on Monday on similar petitions moved by the media group challenging the closure of its hotel and printing press, but had not granted any interim relief.

The group then approached the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Additional Advocate General of Punjab Shadan Farasat told the Supreme Court that all actions taken by the state government were in accordance with the law, Live Law reported.

Farasat added that the High Court had already reserved judgement on the matter, which was expected within a day or two.

Responding to this, the chief justice said that the newspaper cannot be stopped. Farasat added that only one unit had been directed to shut down and not the entire newspaper.

“Don’t close the newspaper part,” Live Law quoted the Supreme Court as saying. “Hotel or other commercial establishment…can be closed for a few days. But allow the newspaper.”

Farasat also claimed that liquor bottles had been found in the printing press.

In response, Rohatgi asked: “Two bottles were found, and because of that you will close the paper.”

The Supreme Court directed that the printing press of the newspaper function uninterruptedly, subject to the judgement of the High Court.

It also noted that this interim order would continue till the pronouncement of the High Court’s judgement in the matter and for a week thereafter to enable the parties to seek legal remedies.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Nabin was on Tuesday elected as the party’s national president, succeeding Union minister JP Nadda.

K Laxman, the returning officer for the BJP’s organisational polls, handed over the certificate of election to Nabin, PTI reported. The 45-year-old is the youngest person ever to head the BJP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Nadda and several other senior BJP leaders were present at the event in Delhi.

Delhi: Nitin Nabin elected as the national president of Bharatiya Janata Party pic.twitter.com/BB6bGnnHjo

— ANI (@ANI) January 20, 2026

Modi said that Nabin will be responsible not just for running the BJP but also for ensuring coordination among the constituents of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. “When it comes to party affairs, I am a worker, and he [Nabin] is my boss,” he said.

The prime minister claimed that the election process was conducted “in a 100% democratic manner”.

Nabin was appointed the BJP’s national working president on December 14. At the time, he held the portfolios of road construction and urban development in the Bihar government. He resigned as a minister after he was named as the BJP’s working president.

Born on May 23, 1980, Nabin is the son of former MLA Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha. He was first elected to Bihar’s Patna West Assembly constituency in 2006 through a bye-election. Subsequently, he won the Bankipur seat in Patna in elections held in 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2025.

Nadda had taken over as the president of the BJP from Union Home Minister Amit Shah in January 2020. His term ended in 2024, but was extended on account of the Lok Sabha election that year.

The Karnataka government on Monday suspended Director General of Police (Civil Rights Enforcement) K Ramachandra Rao, a day after videos purportedly showing him engaging in inappropriate acts with women in his office began circulating online, The Indian Express reported.

The videos purportedly showed Rao hugging and kissing women while in uniform during office hours, the Deccan Herald reported.

In the suspension order, Karnataka government Under Secretary KV Ashoka said that Rao acted “in an obscene manner unbecoming of a public servant, causing embarrassment to the government”. The order stated that the government was convinced he had acted in violation of service rules, necessitating his suspension while an inquiry was underway.

The Indian Police Service officer has been directed not to leave the headquarters without the permission of the government. He will be paid a subsistence allowance under the All India Service Rules, The Indian Express reported.

Rao claimed that the video was manipulated and dated back eight years, when he was posted in Belagavi. He said that he would speak to legal experts before taking further action on the matter, the Deccan Herald reported.

The officer had been mired in controversy last year as well, when his stepdaughter, Kannada actor Ranya Rao, was arrested on allegations of smuggling gold. The police official was sent on compulsory leave after he was accused of helping Ranya Rao evade security checks at the Bengaluru airport.

He was recalled and posted as the Director General of Police (Civil Rights Enforcement) in August, The Indian Express reported.

A havildar in the Indian Army died on Monday after being injured in a gunfight with suspected militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district a day earlier.

The Army’s White Knight Corps said that Havildar Gajendra Singh “made the supreme sacrifice while gallantly executing a Counter Terrorism operation in the Singpura area during the ongoing Operation TRASHI-I on the intervening night of 18-19 Jan 2026”.

Singh was among eight soldiers injured in the gunfight that broke out between security forces and suspected militants on Sunday during an operation launched by security forces in the Chhatru area, ANI quoted unidentified officials as saying.

#WhiteKnightCorps | #Homage | #SupremeSacrifice

The #GOC, White Knight Corps and all ranks pay solemn tribute to Havildar Gajendra Singh of the Special Forces, who made the supreme sacrifice while gallantly executing a Counter Terrorism operation in the Singpura area during the… pic.twitter.com/XKUDTw9dxq

— White Knight Corps (@Whiteknight_IA) January 19, 2026

The operation was launched due to the presence of suspected militants in the region, the officials said.

The soldiers were injured when the suspected militants targeted the approaching search parties with grenades and AK-47 fire on Sunday afternoon, The Indian Express quoted unidentified officials saying.

The security forces resumed searches in the region on Monday morning after a night-long halt in the operation.

The Bombay High Court on Monday kept in abeyance the Thane district collector’s orders recognising and de-recognising alliances in the Ambernath Municipal Council, PTI reported.

A bench comprising Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Abhay Mantri directed the collector to pass a reasoned order after hearing all the concerned parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Eknath Shinde-led grouping of the Shiv Sena.

Commenting on the side-switching of four members of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in Ambernath, the court quipped that they were “globetrotting”, PTI reported.

After the municipal elections in Ambernath held on December 20, the local BJP unit had allied with the Congress to sideline the Shinde Sena, which is its coalition partner in the Maharashtra government. While the Shinde Sena had emerged as the single largest party in the Ambernath municipal council, no group could reach the halfway mark of 31 on its own.

The BJP won the post of the council chairperson through direct election, PTI reported.

Initially, 14 BJP members, 12 Congress members, four leaders from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and one Independent submitted a letter to the Thane collector seeking to be recognised as an alliance, The Indian Express reported. The coalition, the Ambernath Vikas Aghadi, was recognised as a pre-poll alliance by the collector on January 7.

However, after the alliance sparked criticism, the Congress suspended all its 12 elected members, while BJP leader and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed his party to break the alliance with the Congress.

On January 9, the four members of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP decided to support the Shinde Sena. The collector then recognised their tie-up as a pre-poll alliance and de-recognised the Ambernath Vikas Aghadi, which approached the High Court, according to The Indian Express.

The Ambernath Vikas Aghadi contended that the collector’s decision was illegal, as the coalition was to be considered as a pre-poll alliance for all purposes, including the appointment of subject committees.

During the hearing on Monday, Ghuge remarked: “Today, these four persons [NCP members] are with him [Eknath Shinde], yesterday they were with someone else. They are globe-trotting. What if tomorrow they go with someone else?”

The court directed all concerned parties to put forward their stands before the collector on January 28, and directed him to pass an order in the next 21 days, PTI reported. The collector’s orders will not take effect for two weeks, to enable the aggrieved parties to approach the court, the bench ordered.

“Until then, the collector's communications (orders) of January 7 and 9 shall be kept in abeyance,” the court was quoted as saying by PTI.

The statement was in line with New Delhi’s response in August to the United States announcing punitive tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. US President Donald Trump had also reportedly urged the European Union to impose tariffs of up to 100% on China and India to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

Opening remarks during meeting with DPM & FM @sikorskiradek of Poland.

🇮🇳 🇵🇱 https://t.co/XVG4WhmFxY

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) January 19, 2026

The external affairs ministry had said at the time that it was unfortunate that the US was imposing additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.

Jaishankar on Monday also urged Poland to show “zero tolerance for terrorism” and not help “fuel the terrorist infrastructure in our neighbourhood”. The foreign minister also told Sikorski that he hoped to discuss “some of your recent travels to the region” during their meeting.

He appeared to have been referring to Sikorski’s visit to Pakistan in October, when he had met the country’s top leadership, The Hindu reported.

Speaking to reporters outside the Hyderabad House in New Delhi, Sikorski said that the conversation about Indian and Polish neighbourhoods had been “frank”. He said that while the two countries agreed on concerns about terrorism, Poland saw India’s participation in “Zapad-2025” military exercises in Russia and Belarus as “threatening”, The Hindu reported.

The Polish foreign minister, however, told reporters in Jaipur earlier that he was “pleased” that India had reduced its purchases of oil from Russia.

Sikorski was in India for a three-day visit from January 17 to 19. The meeting with Jaishankar came days before the visit of the president of the European Council, António Luís Santos da Costa, and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to India from January 25 to January 27.

The Congress on Monday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan of conspiring to fraudulently remove voters who support the Opposition from the electoral rolls using allegedly forged forms during the special intensive revision in the state.

Addressing a press conference, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Tikaram Jully and Congress’ state chief Govind Singh Dotasra demanded a forensic investigation into the forms that had been used to seek the deletion of voters’ names.

Dotasra said that the draft voter rolls published on December 16 in Rajasthan showed that about 45 lakh persons had been found to be absent, shifted or deceased.

The persons who had been removed from the voter list could file their claims and objections till January 15 and the deadline was on Thursday extended by the Election Commission to January 19.

“Until January 3, there was no chaos, and the entire system was running smoothly,” he alleged. “However, on January 3, BJP’s National General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santosh visited Rajasthan, held a meeting there, and then the process of fraudulently adding and removing votes began.”

The BJP has not commented on the allegations. But BJP leader and state minister Gautam Dak said on Monday that if a voters’ name is proposed to be removed, the person gets time to be heard. The Congress merely wants an issue to create dispute, First India News quoted Dak as saying.

Citing data from the Election Commission website, Dotasra claimed on Monday that between December 17 and January 14, the BJP submitted applications through 937 booth-level agents to add 211 names and delete 5,694 voters.

During the same period, the Congress submitted applications through booth-level agents to add 185 names and delete two voters, Dotasra said.

“We had already expressed our apprehension that the BJP and the Election Commission, in collusion, would extend the date to strike off the names of people aligned with the Congress ideology,” he alleged. “And in the end, that’s exactly what happened.”

Dotasra added: “In Jhunjhunu, 13,882 form 7s were taken for name deletions in a single day. In Mandawa, 16,276. In Udaipurwati, 1,241. In Khetri, 1,478 were taken. Meanwhile, 1,40,000 forms were even registered.”

Form 7 is an application submitted to the Election Commission to remove names from the electoral rolls.

The Congress leader told reporters on Monday that Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the state on January 13 and stayed at the chief minister’s residence. Dotasra claimed that a “secret operation” had taken place within the BJP between January 3 and January 13.

“In every Assembly constituency, 10 thousand to 15 thousand fake computerised forms are printed,” he claimed. “All MLAs and MLA candidates are summoned, including ministers.”

He claimed that on January 13, January 14 and January 15, thousands of forms were submitted in every Assembly constituency to strike off names from the voter lists. “These efforts are especially targeted at those Assembly areas where the Congress had won the election,” Dotasra alleged.

The forms were distributed to remove the names of persons associated with the Congress ideology, he claimed. Additionally, forms were hastily distributed to remove the names of groups “angry with the double-engine government and those above 60 years of age”, he alleged.

“The rule book states that after draft publication, a single booth-level officer can submit only 10 forms in one day, no more,” Dotasra noted. “…the tally of forms submitted up to January 14 is right in front of you.”

The Congress leader claimed that BJP MLAs, ministers and party candidates had “forged” signatures of booth-level agents and submitted thousands of forms to every sub-divisional magistrate.

“In my own Assembly constituency, 627 forms were submitted, and when they took 2,000 more forms again, the SDM [sub-divisional magistrate] refused to accept them,” Dotasra claimed.

He added that several booth-level agents had given statements to the media that they had not signed these forms, and that the signatures were forged and the applications were incomplete.

The Congress leader said that his party had informed Rajasthan Chief Electoral Officer Naveen Mahajan about the alleged fraud. “We have told him that immense pressure is being put on the officers, telling them that they have to accept our forms if they want to keep their jobs,” Dotasra alleged.

He added: “We have demanded lists from several district collectors…by January 15, the BJP has managed to register nearly 1,40,000 names.”

अमित शाह जी 13 तारीख को राज्य में जाते हैं, CMR में रुकते हैं। फिर 3 से 13 तारीख के बीच BJP में गुप्त रूप से खेला चलता है।

• हर विधानसभा में 10-15 हजार फर्जी कंप्यूटराइज़ फॉर्म प्रिंट होते हैं। सभी विधायक और विधायक प्रत्याशियों को बुलाया जाता है, जिसमें मंत्री भी शामिल होते हैं… pic.twitter.com/xvHcfSTPbs

— Congress (@INCIndia) January 19, 2026

Dotasra also said that the BJP leaders claimed that they were removing the names of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas from the voter lists when asked about the deletions.

The Congress will “not allow a murder of democracy in the state”, he added.

Earlier too, the Opposition party had accused the ruling BJP of orchestrating mass deletion of voters during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state, The Indian Express reported on Sunday.

This came after a video, showing a booth-level officer alleging that he was being pressured to delete hundreds of voters from the rolls of his Hawa Mahal Assembly constituency in Jaipur, was widely shared on social media.

In the video, Kirti Kumar, a government teacher deployed as a booth-level officer as part of the exercise, can purportedly be heard saying on a call: “I will visit the collector’s office and will kill myself there.”

Kumar told The Indian Express that he was speaking with the councillor of the area, “who was pressuring me to delete the names”.

He has alleged that he was being “threatened and pushed beyond capacity” to look into the BJP’s objections seeking the deletion of 470 voters, mostly Muslims, from the draft electoral rolls, reported Newslaundry on Thursday.

Hawa Mahal is a Muslim-majority constituency that BJP MLA Balmukund Acharya won in the 2023 Assembly elections.

Suresh Saini, the councillor of the ward, denied Kumar’s allegations, claiming that there was large-scale fraud in the voter list of the area, according to the newspaper.

“Fake addresses are being used to register fake voters,” he was quoted as having said. “I raised objections and applied for the removal of such names with supporting evidence. This amounts to voter fraud by the Congress.”

The special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including Rajasthan. The exercise is currently in the claims and objections stage in the state.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners had moved the Supreme Court against it.

In Belém, Brazil, the spectacle of COP30 diplomacy has already faded. While the global leaders gathered to trade new promises on climate action, the real crisis raged on the ground.

India, a key player in this fight, is currently battling a confluence of climate-driven disasters. This year’s punishing extreme heatwave, one of the earliest and most severe on record, scorched vast swathes of the subcontinent.

Simultaneously, the recent unprecedented floods in Punjab, India’s essential “food bowl”, have submerged huge tracts of farmland, destroying crops and jeopardising the nation’s food security.

A new global assessment done by the UN now identifies India as one of the world’s largest methane emitters, driven largely by agriculture, crop-residue burning and overflowing dumpsites adding fuel to an already accelerating crisis.

This is the grim reality of climate change – extreme heat and flooding directly cause massive food loss at the farm gate, which in turn intensifies the climate threat when it rots in landfills.

Food rotting in landfills releases methane, a Short-Lived Climate Pollutant that is up to 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide over 20 years.

India is caught in a disastrous loop, where its colossal food waste problem is both a symptom and a significant accelerator of the climate crisis.

We are, quite literally, feeding our garbage dumps instead of our people, creating a downward spiral where wasted food heats the planet, and a hotter planet struggles to grow food.

Paradox of hunger and waste

The United Nation’s latest report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025, states a fundamental, painful truth: millions are malnourished because safe, nutritious food is often not affordable. This global paradox finds its sharpest echo in India. While we strive for food self-sufficiency, we rank a serious 105th out of 127 countries on the 2024 Global Hunger Index. Our failure isn’t a lack of food, but a monumental crisis of waste.

The numbers are staggering. The average Indian household discards 55 kg of food annually, totalling a national loss of 78.2 million tonnes, valued at a crippling Rs 92,000 crore. This waste is more than an economic failure; it’s an environmental time bomb.

Supply chain of neglect

An estimated 30%-40% of total food production gets wasted, amounting to a loss of Rs 2 lakh crore per annum, and this happens at various points along the supply chain:

The “First-Mile” Crisis (Farm): The journey of neglect begins here. Up to 16% of fruits and vegetables wilt in fields due to a critical lack of affordable cold storage and refrigerated transport. Small farmers are forced into distress sales to avoid total loss, a situation exacerbated by climate-driven crop damage from extreme weather events like the recent Punjab floods.

The “Middle-Mile” Chaos (Logistics): Produce that survives the farm hurdle faces an inefficient logistics network. Further wastage occurs due to poor infrastructure and, notably, “cosmetic filtering” – the arbitrary rejection of perfectly good produce by supermarkets for superficial blemishes.

The “Last-Mile” Disconnect (Consumption): In urban India, a growing detachment from food’s origins leads to profligate consumption. Enormous amounts of food from homes and lavish social events end up in landfills, where they are a primary source of the harmful methane emissions.

Current national food security policies like the National Food Security Act and the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, while successful in distributing staples like rice and wheat, have a blind spot: they largely overlook the colossal quantities of perishable, nutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. These are the very items essential for fighting malnutrition and yet, tragically, remain undistributed.

Resilient India

Tackling food waste is a dual imperative: it can simultaneously enhance food security and build national climate resilience by curbing potent greenhouse gas emissions. This demands a multi-pronged, policy-driven response.

While the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has published regulations for surplus food distribution, they don’t fully shield businesses from potential lawsuits under the broader Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. This fear of litigation deters many restaurants and supermarkets from donating. A nationwide “Good Samaritan Law” is critical to protect donors from liability, empowering a robust food-rescue ecosystem.

Fragmented supply chains demand urgent, mission-mode investment. A dedicated national initiative must establish farm-level pack-houses, refrigerated transport, and modern storage facilities. This infrastructure will not only slash food wastage and curb harmful methane emissions but also provide a massive boost to farmer incomes, a triple win for the economy, environment, and society.

The final policy response must be to strictly enforce the Solid Waste Management Rules, requiring bulk generators to segregate and divert organic waste from landfills. Simultaneously, the government must act as the anchor customer for this diverted waste.

Schemes like SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) can guarantee the purchase of Bio-CNG produced from organic waste. This creates the necessary market demand, as successfully demonstrated by Indore’s pioneering Bio-CNG plant under the GOBAR-Dhan scheme, which is already generating 77,400 km/day of equivalent transport fuel that is being produced for 430 buses.

Tackling food waste is not merely waste management; it is a strategic climate and food security imperative for a nourished and resilient India. The path to achieving our climate goals and feeding our population begins on our farms and ends with responsible consumption.

Pranjali Chowdhary is a Research and Policy Associate at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, India, focusing on advancing climate goals by strengthening the integration of waste management and state-level policy frameworks.

Shivang Agarwal is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, Washington DC. He is an environmental engineering professional with six years of experience in air pollution and climate science, policy development, and project leadership.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

The Delhi High Court on Monday rejected a petition filed by expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar seeking the suspension of his 10-year jail term in a matter pertaining to the custodial death of the complainant’s father in the Unnao rape case, Live Law reported.

This came nearly a month after the High Court on December 23 suspended Sengar’s life sentence in the rape case during the pendency of his appeal against his conviction in the matter. Despite the order, Sengar was to remain in jail as he was also serving the 10-year sentence in connection with the custodial death case.

However, the Supreme Court stayed this High Court order on December 29.

On Monday, Justice Ravinder Dudeja noted that Sengar had spent nearly seven and a half years in custody out of the total punishment of 10 years in the custodial death case and that there had been a delay in deciding his appeal against his conviction, Bar and Bench reported.

However, the judge said that the delay was partly because of Sengar, who has filed several applications.

Dudeja, while rejecting the expelled BJP leader’s petition, took into account his criminal antecedents and also said that there had been no new development in the case, Live Law reported.

The case

In December 2019, a trial court in Delhi convicted Sengar and sentenced him to life for raping a woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao in 2017. She was a minor at the time.

In March 2020, Sengar and his brother, among others, were also sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for the killing of the woman’s father in judicial custody.

The killing had taken place after the father had been arrested in April 2018 allegedly at Sengar’s behest under the Arms Act. He died in custody on April 9, 2018.

In June 2024, the High Court rejected the petition filed by Sengar for the suspension of his sentence in the custodial death case, Live Law reported.

The petition rejected on Monday was his second attempt to secure interim relief in the matter.

The Supreme Court told the Election Commission to publish the names of 1.2 crore persons against whom the poll panel had raised “logical discrepancy” objections during the special intensive revision in West Bengal. The names should be displayed in gram panchayats, block offices and ward offices, the court said.

Logical discrepancies include a mismatch in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and cases where parents have more than six children.

The court said that persons who had received notices from the Election Commission can submit their documents or objections through booth-level agents. If the documents submitted as proof are found to be unsatisfactory, the persons should be given an opportunity to be heard, the court said.

The court also verbally observed that the Class 10 admit card issued by the state education board must be accepted as a proof in the enumeration process. Read on.

The Supreme Court told the Madhya Pradesh government to decide within two weeks on granting the sanction to prosecute Bharatiya Janata Party leader and state minister Vijay Shah for his remarks allegedly targeting Colonel Sofiya Qureshi. The court noted that the Special Investigation Team it formed in May had filed its report and had been awaiting the approval from the state government.

Colonel Qureshi was among the spokespersons during the Union government and the military's media briefings about Operation Sindoor.

Shah had said that those who had widowed the daughters of India in the Pahalgam terror attack had been taught a lesson by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “by sending the sister from their own community”. While the BJP leader had not named any person at the time, Opposition parties alleged that the minister was alluding to Qureshi. Shah had apologised, saying that “Sofiya Qureshi ji has worked rising above caste and society while fulfilling her national duty”. Read on.

The Delhi High Court quashed income tax reassessment notices issued to NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy in 2016 in connection with alleged interest-free loans advanced to their company RRPR Holdings Private Limited, the promoter company of the broadcaster. The court penalised the Income Tax department Rs 2 lakh for issuing the notices.

The reassessment proceedings stemmed from allegations relating to interest-free loans advanced to RRPR Holdings. The tax department had alleged that a loan of Rs 403.8 crore from Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited to RRPR, along with a series of share transfers between RRPR and the Roys, were “colourable transactions” intended to evade tax.

The Roys had approached the court in 2017, arguing that the reassessment amounted to a second reopening for the same assessment year. They contended that reopening the matter amounted to a “change of opinion”, which is not permitted under the law.

The bench held that the department cannot revisit matters that had already been examined during an earlier reassessment. Read on.

The Delhi High Court rejected a petition filed by expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar seeking the suspension of his 10-year jail sentence for the custodial death of the father of the complainant in the Unnao rape case.

The court said that while Sengar had spent nearly seven and a half years in custody out of the 10-year period, the delay in deciding his appeal against his conviction had been partly because of the former MLA as he had filed several applications. It also took into account Sengar’s criminal antecedents and observed that there had been no new development in the case.

In March 2020, Sengar and his brother, among others, were convicted for the death of the woman’s father in judicial custody in 2018. The killing took place after the father had been arrested allegedly at Sengar’s behest under the Arms Act. Read on.

A fisherman from Gujarat who had been in a jail in Pakistan’s Karachi died in custody on Friday even as his sentence had ended in 2022, journalist and activist Jatin Desai told Scroll. In early 2022, the fisherman inadvertently crossed into Pakistani waters. About seven or eight others who were caught with him remain in jail in Karachi, Desai said.

The activist noted that a 2008 bilateral agreement on consular access states that arrested persons should be released and repatriated to each other’s countries within one month of their nationality being confirmed and their sentences being completed. Read on.

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The Supreme Court on Monday told the Election Commission to publish the names of about 1.2 crore persons against whom the poll panel had raised “logical discrepancy” objections during the special intensive revision exercise in West Bengal, Bar and Bench reported.

Considering the large number of such notices, the court directed that the names of the persons in the logical discrepancy list be displayed in gram panchayats, block offices and ward offices.

Logical discrepancies include a mismatch in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being above six. Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen was among those who got such a notice, with the Election Commission citing a gap of less than 15 years between him and his parents.

The draft electoral rolls for West Bengal under the special intensive revision exercise were published on December 16. The names of over 58 lakh voters were removed from voter lists in the state as they had either died, migrated outside the state or did not submit their enumeration forms.

Voters with “logical discrepancies” in their forms are separate from those whose names were removed, and from about 30 lakh “unmapped voters”, who could not establish a familial link with the voters’ list of 2002.

The Supreme Court on Monday said that those who received notices from the Election Commission can submit their documents or objections through authorised agents, who can be booth-level agents, Live Law reported.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant also directed that the offices where documents and objections can be submitted should be set up within panchayat or block offices, so that voters do not have to travel far for the purpose.

If the documents are found to be unsatisfactory, poll officials should give the persons an opportunity for a hearing, which the agent should be able to attend, the court said.

The court also verbally observed that the Class 10 admit card issued by the state education board must be accepted as a proof in the enumeration process, Live Law reported.

Earlier on Monday, lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing Trinamool Congress leaders, said that only 300 venues had been approved for hearings, while 1,900 were actually needed, Bar and Bench reported. He also questioned the nature of objections raised by the poll panel.

“They say if Ganguli is spelled differently... They omit the name,” Sibal said. “My lord knows that Datta is spelt differently. They are issuing notice with only the aim to exclude the names.”

Lawyer Rakesh Dwiwedi, representing the Election Commission, said that there were cases where the age difference between the parents and child was only 15 years.

However, the court asked how this could be a logical discrepancy, Live Law reported.

“How can 15 years age gap between mother and son be logical discrepancy?” Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked. “…It is not as if we don’t have child marriages in the country.”

Kant also objected to the Election Commission issuing directions through WhatsApp rather than an official circular. “There is no question of running everything through WhatsApp,” he said, according to Bar and Bench. “Circular has to be issued.”

Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee welcomed the court’s directions, saying that the “much-needed intervention” had dealt a decisive blow to the “cruel, politically motivated and deeply unjust SIR process”.

“This is a judicial slap across the face of the Election Commission, and the people of Bengal will deliver an even sharper democratic slap to the BJP at the ballot box,” Banerjee said on social media.

We wholeheartedly welcome the landmark direction of the Supreme Court to the Election Commission. This much-needed intervention has dealt a decisive blow to the CRUEL, POLITICALLY MOTIVATED and deeply UNJUST SIR process.

The SC has rightly ordered that the names of those…

— Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) January 19, 2026

The court has been hearing a batch of petitions against the validity of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in several states, including West Bengal. The exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.

Former Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Sunday said that bail before conviction should be a matter of right, but added that courts need to examine cases in depth when national security is involved, PTI reported.

Chandrachud made the remark at the Jaipur Literature Festival after he was asked by the debate moderator about his views on the Supreme Court denying bail to activist Umar Khalid in the 2020 Delhi riots larger conspiracy case.

“They’ve been inside for five years,” ANI quoted Chandrachud as saying. “I’m not criticising my court...you can impose conditions to ensure that the conditions for bail are not abused, but you must necessarily take into consideration that they have the right to an expeditious trial. And if an expeditious trial is not possible under present conditions, then bail should be the rule and not the exception.”

However, the former chief justice said that bail can be denied if there is a possibility of the accused person committing another crime, tampering with evidence or escaping.

“If these three grounds are not present, then bail must be granted,” PTI quoted Chandrachud as saying. “I think that where national security is involved, it is the court’s duty to examine the case in depth. Otherwise, what is happening is that people remain imprisoned for years.”

#WATCH | Jaipur, Rajasthan: On Umar Khalid, former Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud says, "They've been inside for five years. I'm not criticising my court...you can impose conditions to ensure that the conditions for bail are not abused, but you must necessarily take into… pic.twitter.com/rbmfeoxDyM

— ANI (@ANI) January 18, 2026

Chandrachud said that during his two-year tenure as the chief justice, the Supreme Court disposed of about 21,000 bail applications. “There are cases which people don’t think about when they criticise the Supreme Court for not granting bail,” he said.

On January 5, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria denied bail to Khalid and Sharjeel Imam – both activists and former Jawaharlal Nehru University students. The court, however, allowed the bail applications of Gulfisha Fatima, Meeran Haider, Shifa-ur-Rehman, Shadab Ahmed and Muhammad Saleem Khan.

The bench said that Khalid and Imam can file bail applications after all protected witnesses are examined or after one year.

The court said that the material on record showed that Khalid and Imam were the “masterminds” of the alleged conspiracy to spark violence in Delhi, and that there was a prima facie case against them under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Also read: Five years later: Delhi Police’s riots conspiracy case is built on sand

Commenting on the case during an interview in September, Chandrachud had said that Khalid’s counsel had sought adjournments at least seven times in his bail petition, and subsequently withdrew the plea.

However, an analysis by Alt News showed that of the 12 adjournments that were sought between May 2023 and February 2024, only two were sought by the petitioner’s side alone. The rest were either sought by the respondent, requested jointly by the prosecution and defence or by the bench itself.

The Supreme Court on Monday told the Madhya Pradesh government to decide within two weeks on granting the sanction to prosecute Bharatiya Janata Party leader and state minister Vijay Shah for his remarks allegedly targeting Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Deepankar Datta and Joymalya Bagchi noted that the Special Investigation Team the court had formed in May had filed its report and was awaiting sanction from the state government.

The sanction from the state government is necessary for the court to take cognisance of the offence under Section 196 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which pertains to promotion of communal hatred and ill will.

The matter pertains to remarks made by the BJP leader at an event in Mhow on May 13.

Shah had said that those who had widowed the daughters of India had been taught a lesson by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “by sending the sister from their own community”. He repeated the remark immediately after saying it the first time.

While the BJP leader did not name a person, Opposition parties had alleged that the minister was alluding to Qureshi, one of the spokespersons during the media briefings relating to Operation Sindoor held by the external affairs ministry and the defence ministry.

On May 14, the Madhya Pradesh High Court took suo moto cognisance of the matter and ordered the registration of a case against Shah. The High Court had also observed that Shah’s remarks referred to “none other but” Qureshi.

Shah was subsequently booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India, an act hurting harmony between communities and for making statements about a member of a community in a manner that could adversely affect communal harmony.

The BJP leader had moved the Supreme Court.

On May 13, Shah apologised and said that his remark should not be viewed “in a different context”.

“I want to tell people that my speech is not in that context,” The Indian Express had quoted him as saying at the time. “They are our sisters, and they have taken revenge with great strength along with the armed forces.”

Shah had said that he was ready to apologise “10 times” if his remark had hurt “society and religion”.

The minister had also issued another apology the next day, saying that he was “ashamed and saddened” by his comments. “Our country’s sister Sofiya Qureshi ji has worked rising above caste and society while fulfilling her national duty,” he added.

Rejecting Shah’s apology, the Supreme Court on May 19 ordered the formation of the Special Investigation Team to look into the matter. The bench had also stayed his arrest and ordered him to join the investigation.

In August, the investigating team submitted its request to the state government for a sanction to prosecute the minister, The Hindu reported.

In the Supreme Court on Monday, the chief justice told advocate Sridhar Pottaraju, representing the state government, that “we are in January 2026 now”.

In response, Pottaraju said that the delay in granting the sanction may be because Shah’s petition seeking the quashing of the first information report filed against him was pending before the Supreme Court.

Advocate Maninder Singh, representing Shah, noted that the minister had apologised, adding that he was also cooperating with the investigation.

“You keep on cooperating,” The Hindu quoted Kant as having responded.

The Supreme Court noted that no apology had been filed on record, Live Law reported.

“It is too late to tender any apology,” the legal news portal quoted the bench as saying. “We had earlier commented on what kind of apology is submitted.”

At the earlier hearing on May 13, the Supreme Court had described the remarks made by Shah as “crass” and “completely thoughtless”, and added that it was not ready to accept his public apology.

“What kind of apology?” Live Law had quoted the bench as saying at the time. “What is that apology? Sometimes people apologise to wriggle out of legal liabilities. Sometimes crocodile tears. What kind of apology is yours?”

The court on Monday added that the report submitted by the Special Investigation Team had cited other instances where Shah had made allegedly objectionable remarks, Live Law reported. The investigation team has been asked to submit a report on the action proposed to be taken about these instances as well.

The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi have filed first information reports against eight persons for allegedly posting misleading content on social media about redevelopment at the city’s Manikarnika Ghat, The Indian Express reported.

The eight have been accused of sharing images, purportedly created by artificial intelligence, about the work on social media platform X, the construction agency tasked with carrying out the redevelopment alleged in its complaint to the police.

The complainant alleged that some of the posts sought to link the Union government with Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, sparking public anger.

Some of the persons accused in the matter are linked to the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, PTI quoted Assistant Commissioner of Police (Dashashwamedh Ghat) Atul Anjan as saying.

The Manikarnika Ghat, one of 84 ghats in Varanasi, is believed to be one of the city’s most sacred cremation grounds. A demolition drive under a redevelopment project at the site sparked protests over the past week.

Protesters have alleged that a century-old idol of 18th-century Malwa ruler Ahilyabai Holkar was damaged during the demolition drive, PTI reported. The district administration has denied the claim.

Nevertheless, Opposition parties have accused the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party government of destroying Varanasi’s heritage and demanded that work at the Manikarnika Ghat be halted.

The first information reports against the eight persons were filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to promoting enmity between groups, defiling a place of worship, acts intended to outrage religious feelings and statements conducing to public mischief, The Indian Express reported.

The United States has invited India and Pakistan to join President Donald Trump’s proposed Board of Peace, which Washington has described as a global initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts, initially focusing on Gaza.

It was not clear whether New Delhi has agreed to join the initiative.

A contribution of $1 billion secures permanent membership on the board instead of a three-year appointment, AP reported quoting an unidentified US official. The three-year appointment does not require any contribution.

The Board of Peace will be part of the second phase of a US-backed ceasefire proposal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. A United Nations Security Council resolution in November authorised the Board of Peace to oversee Gaza at least until the end of 2027.

Trump has extended invitations to about 60 countries, Al Jazeera reported. This includes Turkey, Egypt, Argentina, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia.

Sharing Trump’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media on Sunday, the US ambassador to New Delhi, Sergio Gor, said that the board “will support effective governance to achieve stability and prosperity”.

In the letter dated Friday, Trump said the board was a “critically historic and magnificent effort to solidify peace” in West Asia and to embark on a “bold new approach to resolving global conflict”.

The US president also said that the initiative “will be established as a new International Organization and Transitional Governing Administration”.

“Our effort will bring together a distinguished group of nations ready to shoulder the noble responsibility of building LASTING PEACE, an honour reserved for those prepared to lead by example, and brilliantly invest in a secure and prosperous future for generations to come,” the letter added.

Honored to convey @POTUS invitation to Prime Minister @narendramodi to participate in the Board of Peace which will bring lasting peace to Gaza. The Board will support effective governance to achieve stability and prosperity! pic.twitter.com/HikLnXFFMp

— Ambassador Sergio Gor (@USAmbIndia) January 18, 2026

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also received an invitation from Trump to join the board, a spokesperson for the country’s foreign ministry was quoted as saying by Reuters on Sunday.

“Pakistan will remain engaged with international efforts for peace and security in Gaza, leading to a lasting solution to the Palestine issue in accordance with United Nations resolutions,” the statement added.

According to a draft charter of the Board of Peace obtained by The Times of Israel, the preamble declares that “durable peace requires pragmatic judgment, common-sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed”.

Participating countries would initially serve three-year terms without a financial contribution. However, countries seeking permanent membership will be required to contribute more than $1 billion within a year, which would be used to fund the board’s activities.

The initiative would be chaired by Trump and supported by a multi-tier structure, including a Palestinian technocratic body tasked with administering Gaza, alongside an international security arrangement, Al Jazeera reported.

The Executive Board members of the peace initiative include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, billionaire businessman Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, according to Al Jazeera.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on besieged Gaza since then, leaving more than 67,000 persons dead.

Trump’s peace plan was approved by the United Nations Security Council in November, with Russia and China abstaining over concerns about the lack of clarity on how the Board of Peace would function and whether it would pave the way for Palestinian statehood.

The Delhi High Court on Monday quashed income tax reassessment notices issued to NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy in 2016 in connection with alleged interest-free loans advanced to their company RRPR Holdings Private Limited, the promoter company of the broadcaster, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vinod Kumar also imposed costs of Rs 2 lakh on the Income Tax department, directing it to pay Rs 1 lakh each to Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy for issuing the notice.

“No amount of cost can be treated as enough for these cases,” the bench was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench. “However, we cannot leave these cases without imposing any.”

The detailed judgement is yet to be made public.

The reassessment proceedings stemmed from allegations relating to certain interest-free loans advanced to RRPR Holdings Private Limited.

The tax department had alleged that an interest-free loan of Rs 403.85 crore from Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited to RRPR, along with a series of share transfers between RRPR and the Roys, were “colourable transactions” intended to evade tax, Business Standard reported.

The Roys had approached the High Court in November 2017, arguing that the reassessment amounted to a second reopening for the same assessment year.

They submitted that the Income Tax department had already reopened the assessment in July 2011 and examined the same issues during those proceedings, which concluded with a reassessment order in March 2013.

They contended that once a reassessment is initiated, the entire under-assessed income can be examined, and that reopening the same matter amounted to a “change of opinion”, which is not permitted under the law, Bar and Bench reported.

The bench agreed with the petitioners and held that the department could not revisit issues that had already been examined during an earlier reassessment.

A fisherman from Gujarat who had been languishing in a jail in Pakistan’s Karachi, despite his sentence having ended in 2022, died in custody on January 16, journalist and activist Jatin Desai told Scroll.

In early 2022, the fisherman inadvertently crossed into Pakistani waters. About seven or eight others who were caught with him remain in jail in Karachi, Desai said.

Desai, a peace activist who has for several years been taking up the cause of Indian fisherfolk arrested in Pakistan, did not disclose the name of the fisherman who died.

However, he noted that a 2008 bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan on consular access states that arrested persons should be released and repatriated to each other’s countries within one month of their nationality being confirmed and their sentences being completed.

“As per this document, the fisherman should have been released long ago,” Desai told Scroll. “But for that to happen, the agreement has to be implemented in letter and spirit.”

The journalist-activist claimed that three to four Indian fishers die in Karachi’s Malir Jail every year. “In the first place, such persons should not be arrested at all,” he said. “If they are arrested, a situation should certainly not arise in which they die in prison.”

Desai said that India and Pakistan should follow a no-arrest policy for fisherfolk who inadvertently cross the maritime border, and should instead push them back to their own countries.

“The International Maritime Border between India and Pakistan is a notional line, and so, it is always possible for fishers to accidentally cross over to the other side,” he said. “Fisherfolk come from marginalised communities, and are usually not very well-educated. So, instead of putting them through legal processes, their cases should be seen through a humanitarian lens.”

A delegation of women from fisherfolk families had recently met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Delhi, and had urged him to expedite the process to release and repatriate Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails, The Indian Express reported.

They also sought that medical care be ensured for the arrested persons, and that a Joint Judicial Committee on Prisoners, which last met in October 2013, be revived. Further, the delegation demanded that confiscated Indian fishing boats should be returned and mechanisms for family distress support be set up, according to The Indian Express.

Also read: Caught for crossing invisible ocean borders, Indian and Pakistani fishermen are languishing in jail

Six suspected Maoists were killed between Saturday and Sunday in a gunfight with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, PTI quoted the police as saying.

While two of the suspected Maoists were killed on Sunday morning, four others were shot dead on Saturday in the forested hills of the district’s northwestern region, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Yadav was quoted as saying.

Those who were killed on Sunday were active members of the National Park Area Committee of the Maoists, said Yadav.

They were identified as Dilip Vedja, a divisional committee member of the committee, and Madvi Kosa, Lakkhi Madkam and Radha Metta.

The identities of those killed on Sunday are yet to be established, the police said.

A joint of the Special Task Force, the District Reserve Guard, and the Central Reserve Police Force’s Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, or the CoBRA unit, has been carrying out a search operation in the district based on intelligence inputs about the presence of Vedja and other armed Maoists, PTI reported.

Security forces have recovered six weapons from the site of the gunfight, including an Avtomat Kalashnikova-47 rifle, an Indian Small Arms System rifle, a carbine and a .303 rifle.

Search operations continued in the region on Monday, with security officials searching for Papa Rao, a senior Maoist leader believed to be operating in the Bastar region, The Indian Express reported.

Rao is a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, the highest state-level body of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and serves as secretary of the South Bastar Zonal Bureau Committee as well as in charge of the West Bastar Division Committee.

On Saturday, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishn Deo Sai said the killing of the suspected Maoists was a “decisive blow to Naxalism”.

“The message of our government is clear – abandon violence, connect with the mainstream of development,” Sai said on social media. “The government is fully committed to rehabilitation with justice, security and dignity.”

नक्सलवाद पर निर्णायक प्रहार, बस्तर में शांति, समृद्धि और प्रगति की दिशा में तेजी से आगे बढ़ रही सुशासन सरकार

बीजापुर के उत्तर-पश्चिमी क्षेत्र के दुर्गम जंगल–पहाड़ी इलाकों में डीआरजी, कोबरा और एसटीएफ के साहसी जवानों ने सघन सर्च ऑपरेशन के दौरान महत्वपूर्ण सफलता हासिल करते हुए एक…

— Vishnu Deo Sai (@vishnudsai) January 17, 2026

With the latest deaths, at least 20 suspected Maoists have been killed in separate gunfights in Chhattisgarh so far this year, PTI reported.

On January 3, 14 suspected Maoists were killed in two separate gunfights with security forces in the state’s Sukma and Bijapur districts.

On January 15, 54 Maoists surrendered before security forces in Bijapur. Forty-nine of them carried a cumulative bounty of Rs 1.4 crore.

On December 16, the Union government told Parliament that 335 “Left-wing extremists” had been killed, while 2,167 others had surrendered in 2025. Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha that 942 Left-wing extremists had been arrested this year.

Overall, 1,841 such persons had been killed, over 16,000 had been arrested, while 9,588 others had surrendered since 2014.

The Union government has vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.

In October, the Union home ministry said that the number of districts across states affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to 11 from 18 in March.

In 2025, the number of “most affected” districts came down from six to three, it added. These are Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.

In the course of the Union government’s anti-Maoist offensive in 2025, key Maoist leaders like Uike and Madvi Hidma have been killed, while others like Vikas Nagpure, alias Anant, and Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Bhupathi, have surrendered.

A report by Malini Subramaniam for Scroll on Hidma’s killing noted that in the Andhra Pradesh village closest to where he was killed, no one heard gunfire.

She had earlier reported that while many of those killed in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region in 2024 were declared by the police to be reward-carrying Maoists, several families dispute the claim. The families claim that the persons killed were civilians.

Civil liberties groups and Opposition parties have also questioned some of these killings, alleging that they constitute “fake encounters”.

Music composer AR Rahman on Sunday addressed the criticism about his recent comments about a possible “communal” bias in the Hindi film industry in the past eight years, saying he never intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments.

In a video shared on Instagram, the 59-year-old Oscar-winning composer said that while intentions can sometimes be misunderstood, his purpose has always been to “uplift, honour and serve through music”.

The clarification follows his recent comments to BBC Asian Network in which Rahman said that the Hindi film industry has changed over the past eight years, attributing it to a shift in power and possibly to “a communal thing”.

His remarks sparked a political row, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party rejecting his claims and Opposition leaders expressing concern.

View this post on Instagram

On Sunday, he said: “I have never wished to cause pain and I hope my sincerity is felt.”

Rahman added that he feels fortunate to be Indian as it allows him to “create a space which always allows freedom of expression and celebrates multicultural voices”.

In his comments to BBC Asian Network, he had said that people “who are not creative have the power now to decide things, and this might have been a communal thing also, but not in my face”.

“[It comes to me] as Chinese whispers that they booked you…but the music company went and funded the movie and got their five composers [hired],” he added.

He also said that audiences are capable of judgement and are not influenced by “divisive” movies.