At least 44.2 lakh voters in Rajasthan have been excluded from the final electoral roll published on Saturday after the special intensive revision of voter list, the Hindustan Times quoted the State Election Commission as saying.

The draft rolls released on December 16 had shown 41.8 lakh voters were deleted from the list. Another 2.4 lakh names were removed during the claims and objections period.

The final voter list has increased to 5.1 crore from 5.04 crore in the draft roll after at least 1.2 lakh fresh voters were added, the newspaper reported.

Voters can file applications against decisions taken in the final roll within the next 15 days, the Hindustan Times quoted Naveen Mahajan, the chief electoral officer of Rajasthan as saying.

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

The exercise began in the state on November 4 in 199 Assembly constituencies, excluding Anta, where a bye-election was held on November 11. The final list for the Anta constituency will be announced on March 12.

Rajasthan had about 5.4 crore voters when the revision began.

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.

The Union Commerce Ministry on Saturday said that the government is studying developments in the United States on tariffs and their implications for India.

“We have noted the US Supreme Court judgement on tariffs,” the ministry said in a statement. “Some steps have been announced by the US administration. We are studying all these developments for their implications.”

The statement came a day after the US Supreme Court struck down global tariffs imposed by Trump, ruling in a 6:3 verdict that he had exceeded his authority. The judges said that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Trump had invoked, “does not authorise the president to impose tariffs”.

Soon after the Supreme Court ruling, Trump signed a proclamation imposing a temporary 10% levy on articles imported into the United States.

The new tariffs will take effect for a maximum of 150 days, unless the US Congress approves an extension. This, however, leaves the status of recently-signed trade deals with other countries unclear.

With respect to India, Trump said on Friday that “nothing changes” and that the levies on New Delhi will continue. “They’ll be paying tariffs and we will not be paying tariffs,” he told reporters at the White House.

According to the framework for the deal with India, US tariffs on Indian goods were to be reduced to 18% from a combined rate of 50%. The earlier rate of 50% had included a punitive levy of 25% imposed in August over India’s purchase of Russian oil.

In April, Trump imposed “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries, including India, claiming high tariffs the countries imposed on US goods. The levies were eventually reduced once bilateral trade deals had been agreed to, including in the case of India.

Meanwhile, in view of the US Supreme Court striking down Trump’s global tariffs, the Congress has demanded that Modi put the trade agreement on hold and renegotiate its terms.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that Trump had stated that the Supreme Court’s judgement had no bearing on the deal between India and the US, and asked whether the Modi government agreed with the US president’s remarks.

On Friday, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that the interim trade agreement between India and the US is likely to be signed in March and operationalised in April.

A three-day meeting between officials from New Delhi and Washington to finalise the legal text of the agreement is expected to begin in the United States on February 23.

A Delhi court on Saturday sent four Indian Youth Congress workers to five days of police custody in connection with a protest at the venue of the India AI Impact Summit, ANI reported. The court also rejected the bail applications of all four accused.

The Delhi Police had told the court that the protest was part of a “larger conspiracy” and claimed it was inspired by Nepal’s recent Gen Z-led agitation, Times Now reported. It alleged that the demonstration was a pre-planned attempt to disrupt the high-profile event at Bharat Mandapam.

The four persons accused in the case, Krishna Hari, Kundan Yadav, Ajay Kumar and Narasimha Yadav, were produced before Judicial Magistrate Ravi, PTI reported. Kumar is from Uttar Pradesh and Narasimha Yadav is from Telangana, while Hari and Kundan Yadav are from Bihar.

The police had sought five days of custody for the four workers, who were arrested on Friday after they held a protest during the summit. The group shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and held placards alleging that he was “compromised”.

AI Summit में Compromised PM के चर्चे 🔥

भारतीय युवा कांग्रेस के जाबांज कार्यकर्ताओं ने देश की अस्मिता का सौदा करने वाले Compromised प्रधानमंत्री के खिलाफ उठाई आवाज।

इंकलाब जिंदाबाद 🇮🇳#PMisCompromised pic.twitter.com/JavHUUENj2

— Indian Youth Congress (@IYC) February 20, 2026

During the hearing on Saturday, the court asked the Delhi Police why five days of custody was required.

The police submitted that “anti-national” slogans were raised in the presence of “international leaders and prominent figures”, ANI reported.

It also told the court that three officers were injured in the incident. The police said the mobile phones of the accused needed to be recovered to verify whether they had “received funding”.

“Their custody is necessary to arrest other accused who fled,” the police added.

Opposing the plea, counsel for the accused argued that there was no evidence to show that the protest was not peaceful. He submitted that there was no footage proving that the accused had attacked police officers or made any “anti-national” speech, ANI reported.

The defence also argued that the accused were being targeted because they belonged to an Opposition party. “They are young, they have careers, and political dissent shouldn’t be crushed like this,” ANI quoted the lawyer as saying. “It was a peaceful protest.”

#WATCH | Delhi: Four Indian Youth Congress leaders, arrested in connection with their protest at the AI ​​Summit at Bharat Mandapam, brought to Patiala House Court

Those arrested have been identified as Krishna Hari, Kundan Yadav, Ajay Kumar and Narasimha Yadav https://t.co/RqtIKyMnCR pic.twitter.com/oj3TreHunW

— ANI (@ANI) February 21, 2026

On Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party had described the protest by the Indian Youth Congress as a “national shame”.

“At a time when India is hosting a prestigious global AI summit, showcasing its innovation and leadership in technology, the Congress party chose disruption over dignity,” the Hindutva party said.

Commenting on the legal action being taken against the Indian Youth Congress workers, the unit’s chief Uday Bhanu Chib had told ANI that his colleagues will not be intimidated.

“The BJP can go to any lengths, but we are soldiers of the Constitution, soldiers of Rahul Gandhi,” he had said. “We won’t back down. We will raise our voice for the youth of the country.”

The five-day summit at the Bharat Mandapam, which began on February 16, has been promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence in the Global South. Twenty world leaders, executives from major technology companies and exhibitors from 30 countries attended the event.

A day after the United States Supreme Court struck down global tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been “compromised”. The remarks were an apparent reference to the interim trade agreement between New Delhi and Washington.

“[Modi’s] betrayal now stands exposed,” the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a social media post. “He cannot renegotiate. He will surrender again.”

In April 2025, US President Donald Trump imposed “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries, including India, claiming that the countries imposed high tariffs on US goods. The levies were eventually reduced once bilateral trade deals were agreed upon, including in the case of India.

As per the framework for a deal with India that was agreed to on February 2, US tariffs on Indian goods would be reduced to 18% from a combined rate of 50%. The earlier rate of 50% had included a punitive levy of 25% imposed in August over India’s purchase of Russian oil.

At the time as well Gandhi had claimed that Modi had been “compromised”, alleging that the prime minister had “sold out” the “sweat and blood” of the country’s farmers by buckling under pressure from the US to finalise a trade deal.

On Friday, the US Supreme Court, in a 6:3 verdict, struck down the global tariffs imposed by Trump, ruling that he exceeded his authority in imposing the levies. The judges said that the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Trump had invoked, “does not authorise the president to impose tariffs”.

On Saturday, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh told reporters that Trump had said the US Supreme Court’s judgement had no bearing on the deal between India and the US, and asked whether the Modi government agreed with the US president’s statements.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, he also called upon the Union government to put the India-US trade deal on hold in view of the US top court’s decision.

The Rajya Sabha MP said that the Indian government also knew since December 2025 that the US Supreme Court “could have delivered its judgement any moment”.

He questioned the rush to come to an agreement, adding that India should have waited.

Hours after his tariffs were struck down on Friday, Trump signed a proclamation imposing a temporary 10% levy on articles imported into the US. The import duty will take effect on February 24 and remain in force for a maximum of 150 days unless the US Congress approves an extension.

This, however, leaves the status of recently signed trade deals with other countries unclear.

With respect to India, Trump said that “nothing changes” and that the levies on New Delhi will continue. “They’ll be paying tariffs and we will not be paying tariffs,” he told reporters at the White House.

On Saturday, the Congress leader claimed that there was a clause in the framework between the two countries stating that in the event of any changes to the agreed-upon tariffs, if one country changes the rate, the other country can change it as well.

He noted that Trump has now modified the tariffs to 10% from 18%, adding that India should also modify the trade deal to “protect our farmers”. We cannot have zero tariffs on agricultural imports, Ramesh said.

On social media, the Rajya Sabha MP added that if Modi had “not been so desperate to protect his fragile image and waited just 18 days more [after February 2], Indian farmers would have been saved their agony and distress and Indian sovereignty would have been protected”.

The West Bengal Police has arrested a social media influencer from Hooghly district on charges of endangering national sovereignty for allegedly mocking a traffic awareness message online, PTI reported on Friday.

Amit Nandi, who had written the post on the social media platform Facebook on January 27, was arrested on February 14 after a case was registered at the Kanthi police station in Purba Medinipur district by Sub Inspector Dilip Gupta, The Wire reported.

The first information report claimed that Nandi’s post, which has since been deleted, parodied the slogan “don’t drive after drinking alcohol” used by the police. The FIR described the post as a “distortion” of a public awareness message that the police had been uploading on its official page.

The FIR said that the post contained “wrong, unverified and baseless allegations”, adding that it intended to “lower the dignity and prestige of the police department, harm the reputation and public image of the police, [and] create mistrust and negative perception among the general public against the police administration”, The Wire reported.

Gupta further alleged that the post was a part of a “planned smear campaign” against the police.

“He distorted an official public-awareness post,” the online news portal quoted the sub inspector as saying. “Because he has many followers, the post was shared widely. Since this incident is defamatory to the police, a complaint has been filed against him.”

Nandi was booked under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which pertains to acts endangering India’s sovereignty, unity and integrity, PTI reported. The FIR against him also invokes sections pertaining to the dissemination of false information, criminal intimidation and defamation.

Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita criminalises a wide spectrum of expressive conduct, including those who “purposely or knowingly” use words to “excite or attempt to excite” secession, rebellion or subversive activities.

Critics have said that the provision effectively reintroduces the colonial-era sedition law.

Nandi’s arrest has drawn criticism from human rights groups, who argue that stringent legal provisions were being invoked to curb online dissent, PTI reported.

The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights said that his arrest fit into a broader pattern of policing that treated criticism as a law and order issue, The Wire reported.

“In all BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]-ruled states, there is regular surveillance of social media to identify those opposing the government or leaders and to ensure they are punished,” the online news portal quoted Rajit Sur, a member of the non-profit organisation, as saying. “Strangely, the Trinamool [Congress] government has taken the same path.”

Nandi will be produced in court on Monday.

United States Ambassador to India Sergio Gor on Friday said that Washington is in “active negotiation” over the sale of Venezuelan oil to New Delhi, Reuters reported. He said that the import of Venezuelan oil will help India diversify its sources of crude oil.

“The Department of Energy is speaking to the Ministry of Energy here, and so we’re hoping to have some news of that very soon,” the news agency quoted Gor as saying on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi where India joined Pax Silica, a US-led group to coordinate supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.

The US has been urging India to diversify its oil imports away from Russia as a condition for cutting tariffs.

On February 2, India and the US had agreed on a framework for an interim trade agreement. Under the agreement, US tariffs on Indian goods would be reduced to 18% from the combined rate of 50%.

At the time, US President Trump had said that India would buy more oil from the US and potentially Venezuela, Reuters reported.

Earlier, Indian goods had been facing a combined US tariff rate of 50%, including a punitive levy of 25% imposed in August.

The punitive tariffs were introduced as part of Trump’s pressure campaign against countries buying discounted oil from Russia amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine. The US had claimed that India stopped purchasing Russian oil after the tariffs were imposed.

However, India has maintained that the tariffs were unjustified and said its oil purchases were guided by energy security considerations.

On Friday, Gor said that a final trade agreement with India would be signed “sooner than later” as a “few tweaking points” are required, Reuters reported. He added that Trump has also been invited to India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

Gor added: “On the oil, there’s an agreement... We have seen India diversify on their oil. There is a commitment. This is not about India. The United States doesn’t want anyone buying Russian oil.”

Earlier in the day, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also said that the interim agreement between India and the US was likely to be signed in March and operationalised in April.

A three-day meeting between officials from New Delhi and Washington to finalise the legal text of the agreement would begin in the US on February 23.

In January, Reuters had reported that the US had pitched the sale of Venezuelan oil to India to help replace Russian oil imports.

This came after the US military abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in an overnight operation on January 3.

The US had accused Maduro of narco terrorism and drug trafficking, among other crimes – allegations that he has rejected.

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, but is not among the top 10 producers.

Since 2019, the South American country’s oil production and export have been sharply restricted after Trump, in his first term as US president, imposed sanctions. The curbs intensified in December, after Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil vessels heading to and leaving Venezuela.

On January 7, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that Washington would control the sales of sanctioned Venezuelan oil “indefinitely”.

The Union home ministry on Friday notified an empowered committee in West Bengal to fast-track applications under the Citizenship Amendment Act in the backdrop of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state.

The committee will be headed by the deputy registrar general in the directorate of Census operations in West Bengal. The panel will also comprise an official from the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau, officials nominated by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer and the National Informatics Centre in West Bengal, and the Postmaster General of the state.

Amid the special intensive revision of voter rolls in West Bengal, several persons from the Matua community in West Bengal, who are Hindu Namasudras with roots in Bangladesh, have applied for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act, The Hindu reported. This is because their names are not in the electoral list from 2002, which would make them eligible to be included in the updated voter list.

Due to the high number of applications under the CAA in West Bengal, the empowered committee in the state has been created as an additional panel to fast-track requests for citizenship, The Hindu quoted a government source as saying.

An empowered committee headed by the director of census operations already exists in all states to process applications under the CAA, the newspaper quoted the government source as saying.

The Citizenship Amendment Act seeks to provide a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014.

It was passed by Parliament in December 2019. The Union government notified the rules under the Act in March 2024.

The notification of the rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act had come despite it being widely criticised for discriminating against Muslims. The law had sparked massive protests across the country in 2019 and 2020.

Earlier, many members of the Matua community in West Bengal had been hesitant about applying under the CAA, as they had come to India from Bangladesh without documents. However, requests under the CAA from the community increased significantly after the special intensive revision process began in West Bengal, The Hindu reported.

In the contemporary landscape of Indian historiography, a fierce ideological battle is being waged over the subcontinent’s past. A powerful right-wing ecosystem is increasingly leveraging its institutional infrastructure to discredit established scholarship, often labeling credible histories as “left-liberal” or “Marxist” abstractions. In its place, a new, unitary narrative is being constructed which imagines a singular, Hindu subject driven through the ages by a “Dharmic calling” in perpetual opposition to Muslim and Christian “invaders”.

This teleological project seeks to write out the staggering complexity of social interactions that defined the subcontinent for centuries, thriving instead on a binary of Hindu victimhood and a foreign oppressor. Yet, when one looks beneath these polarised narratives, history reveals itself not as a clash of religions, but as a messy product of class, commerce, and pragmatic caste solidarities.

The modern deployment of polygamy as a political dog whistle against Muslims in India is a strategic distortion that weaponises demographic anxiety to further a unitary ideological agenda. Frequently used by the Hindu Right as a central pillar of conspiracy theories like “Love jihad”, the popular narrative suggests that while Hindus have always been inherently monogamous, it is the religious “other” who threatens the social fabric.

However, deep in the colonial archives of the Estado da Índia, there exists a history that complicates this convenient binary. While the Portuguese Empire is often remembered as a monolith of religious zealotry defined by the Inquisition and forced conversions, the reality of colonial administration tells a story of mutual collaboration between the colonial state and the Hindu elite to preserve patriarchal customs.

A document from Goan archives, dated August 1782, titled Informação sobre a bigamia dos Gentios (“Information on the bigamy of Gentiles”), offers a rare window into this historical nuance. Published in the Collecção de Bandos compiled by Filipe Nery Xavier in 1840, the document, written by a Portuguese official José Joaquim de Sequeira Magalhães e Lançoes, serves as a legal defence for a practice that was anathema to Catholic doctrine: a Hindu man’s right to marry a second wife while his first was still alive.

The case involved a man whose marriage to a woman named Santai had collapsed; desperate for an heir and a caretaker for his old age, he petitioned the State for a licence to marry again. Magalhães e Lancoes performed extraordinary theological gymnastics to justify the request, turning to the Bible itself. He reminded the Viceroy that the great Patriarchs – Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David – all possessed multiple wives without incurring God’s wrath. If the God of the Old Testament permitted Abraham to have both Sarah and Hagar, the official argued, the Portuguese Crown could surely permit a merchant in Ponda to do the same.

This was not an isolated incident but part of a broader genealogy of legal privilege enjoyed by the Hindu elite. The document cites precedents set by Saraswat Brahmin men such as Lacximonà Sinai (1765) and later examples such as the Panjim-based brothers Venctexá and Madeva Sinay Agny, who continued the practice of bigamy well into the 1820s.

Perhaps the most striking revelation is the involvement of the Inquisition. The request of wealthy businessman Sadassivà Sinai in 1763 was reviewed and approved by Manoel Marques de Azevedo, the Inquisitor of the First Chair. Azevedo saw “no repugnance” in granting the request to a man of Sadassivà’s high social standing, an euphemism for caste capital. This collaboration highlights a strategic reality where the Portuguese had realised that enforcing strict Christian monogamy on the Hindu Saraswat merchant class risked a “revolution” that would economically ruin the State.

Consequently, the Saraswat merchants also leveraged their position to accrue significant legal and social concessions that allowed them to preserve their patriarchal hierarchies while navigating the colonial apparatus. By securing these exceptions, they transformed what was once a traditional practice into a formalised legal privilege, effectively creating a sanctuary for caste-specific customs within the framework of European law. Such historical negotiations challenge the “unitary Hindu subject” currently championed by right-wing narratives, revealing instead a subcontinent where elite interests often superseded religious binaries to ensure the survival of local power structures.

To rationalise this legal double standard, the colonial administration relied on racialised and Orientalist constructions of gender. Magalhães e Lancoes argued that while a “lady of haughty spirit” from Europe would never tolerate sharing a husband, Asian women were conditioned by “education and nature” to a state of "invisible slavery" and absolute obedience where jealousy was unknown.

This allowed the state to maintain order by asserting that local women were naturally suited to polygamous arrangements. The eventual codification of these customs into the Código de Usos e Costumes in 1880 ensured that these specific patriarchal privileges survived long after the Inquisition faded and were eventually integrated into the overarching Portuguese Civil Code.

Today, this history casts a long shadow over the debate on the Uniform Civil Code in India. While the Hindu Right frequently cites Goa as the shining example of a secular, uniform legal system, the irony remains stark. The “uniform” code in Goa still technically allows a Hindu man to contract a second marriage if his first wife fails to deliver a child by age 25, or a male heir by age 30 – an exception not granted to other communities.

The Civil Code of Goa was never a simple instrument of secular equality; it was a document of caste consensus. It was deliberated upon and ratified by upper-caste men, both Catholic and Hindu, to protect their status, proving that history is far more complicated than the modern myth of a singular, victimised Hindu subject would suggest.

Kaustubh Naik is a doctoral candidate at University of Pennsylvania.

For the last seven months, Bodiat Jamal’s family has been living under a tarpaulin sheet in Assam’s Dhubri district – on the spot where their home once stood.

In July, the homes of 1,400 Muslim families of Bengali origin were razed by the Assam government to make way for a power project.

While several moved out of Chirakutha village, the 42-year-old mason and his family stayed on.

Last week, Jamal found that his name and that of nine members of his family had been struck off the final voter list prepared by the Election Commission after a special revision.

“We have been voting here for the last 24 years,” Jamal said. “This year I will not be able to vote.”

He is also worried about travelling to Upper Assam to work without a voter identity card.

“I work in Dibrugarh district. But I returned last month as soon as I got a message that an objection had been filed against my name in the voter list,” Jamal told Scroll. “Without a valid voter identity card, it is risky to work outside, especially in the current time.”

For months now, Assamese ethnonationalist groups in Upper Assam have been intimidating Bengali-origin Muslim workers, and asking them to leave. “I can't go to work again if my voter card is not restored,” Jamal said.

He added: “Our homes were broken, land was taken away, and now even the voter card is gone.”

A spate of deletions

Jamal was not alone. In all, 221 Bengali-origin Muslim voters from Chirakutha Part I village were deleted from the final voter list.

Scroll’s enquiries in Dhubri and Uriamghat, another site at which thousands of Bengali-origin Muslim homes were demolished, reveal that 5,700-odd evicted persons might have lost their place on the electoral roll.

In Dhubri, around 756 voter names have struck off the roll in four polling stations, where people were evicted in July. Two booth level officers of the Bilasipara constituency told Scroll that 700-odd voters have been deleted as their permanent residence has changed because of the evictions. In Uriamghat, 4,945 voters from five polling stations in 19 villages where evictions took place have been deleted.

“In my ward, over 200 voters have been deleted because of the eviction,” the first booth level officer, who is a government official in Bilasipara constituency, told Scroll.

The displaced voters said their attempts to get back on the electoral roll were being frustrated by election officials.

Jamal said he had questioned the booth level officer about why a Form 7 application – an objection by another voter of the constituency – had been filed against him and his family members, when they had not left the village.

“The BLO had no answer,” Jamal said. “He instead asked me to apply for inclusion as a voter in the nearby Birsingh Jarua constituency.”

Jamal did so, but those applications too were not accepted yet.

On January 25, five Opposition parties wrote a memorandum to Assam’s Chief Electoral Officer, pointing out the fact that genuine voters who have been displaced by evictions were not being included in the electoral roll. “Such voters are neither allowed to submit online nor allowed to submit offline applications only with a view to oust them from the final electoral rolls,” it said.

In the last five years, around 50,000 people, mostly Muslims of Bengali origin, have been evicted from government land by the Himanta Biswa Sarma government. In August, Sarma had declared that those evicted from government land would be deleted from the voter lists of the place.

A self-complaint

When Habej Ali’s home in Chirakutha village was demolished last July, he packed up his belongings and moved to another village 2 km away.

But anticipating that his name on the voter roll might be affected, the 27-year-old fish trader filed an application to the local booth level officer in Chirakutha, through Form 8, informing about his move to Charuabakhra Jangal Block village. Both villages fall in the Bilasipara Assembly constituency.

On January 21, Ali got a notice, informing him that a Form 7 application had been filed against him and his family members, seeking that their names be deleted from the electoral roll.

Any person in a constituency can use the form to file an objection against a voter.

“I got a notice that my name will be deleted and I was summoned for a hearing,” he said.

When he appeared at the Chapar circle office, Ali said that he “got to know” that the Form 7 application against him bore his signature. “But I did not file any objection,” he said. “I don’t know who filed it.”

When he pointed out that he had filed a Form 8, informing them about his relocation, election officials said that it had been “rejected”.

They asked him to enrol as a new voter at the nearby Birsingh Jarua constituency. “ “But my voter ID card will change if I apply through Form 6,”Ali said. “I am already a voter. Why should I fill in Form 6? I don’t have land there. I have land and have been staying at Bilasipara constituency.”

One booth level officer, who declined to be identified, told Scroll that there were “oral orders” that the evicted should only be enrolled at the Birsingh Jarua constituency.

"Many evicted people who applied for inclusion in Bilasipara constituency have been rejected,” said the second booth level officer. “Though they have valid documents for inclusion in Bilasipara, their forms have been rejected.”

Ali alleged a conspiracy to reduce Muslim votes in Bilasipara constituency, where Hindu and Muslim populations are nearly the same.

Mustafa Zaman Samim, a Congress leader from Dhubri, agreed. “The Muslim vote in Bilasipara is about 5,000 more than the Hindu votes, but with the summary revision and evictions, they want to make Bilasipara a Hindu majority seat so that Muslims can’t win,” he said.

EC clarification

In a press conference, Assam’s chief electoral officer Anurag Goel however, promised that there was no “suo motu” deletion of voters from the electoral rolls.

A separate procedure has been drawn up for evicted people, who have not been able to enrol themselves in their new addresses, he said.

“Because of evictions, some of the electors were removed from the rolls as ‘permanently shifted’ and their names from their previous polling stations or constituencies were deleted,” Goel said. “These people can submit a Form-6 before the Electoral Registration Officer for inclusion of his/her name in the electoral roll any time during summary revision or continuous updation of electoral roll, that is till the last date of nomination.”

But in Dhubri and Uriamghat, several displaced people complained that their names are not being included in the electoral roll.

For months now, Hobibur Rahman, a 35-year-old, has been going from one office in Golaghat district to another office in Nagaon district to get his name on the voter lists.

Rahman lived in Uriamghat till August last year, when the Assam government cleared more than 4,300 structures that had allegedly been built on forest land, leaving around 2,200 families homeless at Uriamghat in Golaghat district.

But after the summary revision, 1,445 voters at the Lakhijyoti LP School polling station of Uriamghat were struck off the roll. Most of them were Muslims, like Rahman.

Rahman moved to Nagaon district after the eviction.

“We tried to shift or transfer the vote from Uriamghat to Nagaon district to enroll our names in the voter list,” he said. “However, we got to know that someone had filed objections against my name in Uriamghat. This was not just against me. Such objections were filed against all the Muslim residents who lost their homes in the evictions.”

In Nagaon, too, he said booth level officers refused to accept his Form 6 application, asking to be enrolled as a new voter.

The result: Rahman found that his name and his family member names were marked deleted in the electoral roll published after the special revision.

Four student-activists of the Jawaharlal Nehru University became the face of dissent in India when Delhi Police swooped down on the campus in February 2016 to arrest three of them – Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya – on charges of sedition. The fourth among them, Shehla Rashid, led protests against their arrests.

A decade later, where are the four student-dissidents?

What choices did they make?

And what choices were made for them?

In this episode of True Story, Scroll’s Executive Editor Supriya Sharma speaks to reporter Anant Gupta who spent weeks trying to find answers to these questions.

Manipur’s Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vungzagin Valte, who was attacked by a mob in Imphal during the ethnic violence in the state in May 2023, died on Friday in Gurugram after nearly three years of medical treatment following the assault, his son David Valte told Scroll. He was 63.

Valte, who represented the Thanlon constituency in Churachandpur district, was a leader of the Zomi community, which is part of the larger Zo group comprising the Kuki-Zomi-Hmar communities.

On May 4, 2023, the MLA was brutally assaulted by a mob, allegedly comprising members of the dominant Meitei community, at Nagamapal in Imphal when he was returning from a meeting with former Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

The attack took place a day after ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities in the state. Since then, at least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 displaced. There were periodic upticks in violence in 2024 and 2025.

Following the assault, Valte underwent treatment in New Delhi for two years, the Nagaland Post reported. He later returned to Lamka in Churachandpur district to recuperate, but continued to face health problems because of his injuries, NDTV reported. He used a wheelchair and had difficulty speaking since the attack, the news outlet reported.

On February 7, a state government spokesperson said that his condition had deteriorated. He was taken to the Churachandpur Medical College Hospital and admitted to the intensive care unit, The Hindu reported.

A day later, he was airlifted to New Delhi and taken to a private hospital in Gurugram for advanced treatment, the newspaper reported.

India and the European Union signed a trade agreement on January 27 that’s been projected as a major breakthrough “in a tumultuous time for global trade and supply-chain realignment,” as Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal described it.

The free trade agreement aims to boost trade and investment between India and the European Union by reducing tariffs and trade barriers. The two major economies together account for about 25% of global GDP and nearly one-third of global trade.

Both sides have presented the agreement as a win.

India said in a press statement that almost all Indian exports will gain preferential entry into the EU Sectors such as textiles, leather, marine products, engineering goods, and agri-processed foods will benefit from the lower tariffs.

It added that tea, coffee, spices, fruits, vegetables, and processed foods will strengthen their position in global markets, while sensitive sectors that are linked to several domestic livelihoods, such as dairy, cereals, poultry, and soymeal will be protected from foreign competition.

India said that the trade agreement will open new opportunities for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), create jobs for women, artisans, youth, and professionals, and boost exports worth Rs 6.41 lakh crore ($75 billion).

The EU, meanwhile, has said the deal will remove or reduce tariffs on its exports of agri-food products, opening up a large market to European farmers. It also said that sensitive sectors linked to jobs in the EU, such as beef, chicken, rice, and sugar will be excluded from liberalisation. At the same time, it has stressed that Indian imports, coming into the EU, must comply with strict health and food safety standards.

Experts say the agreement offers significant opportunities for the Indian industry but warn that regulatory barriers could limit its benefits. Some of these regulations are too recent to be considered in the trade projections.

When asked whether the government’s export projections had taken into account EU regulations such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and EU Deforestation Regulation, Abhijit Das, former head of the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, said many earlier assessments of the FTA did not account for these, more recent policy changes.

“Most estimates were done before CBAM [Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism] was implemented or EUDR planned. The deforestation law will come into force from December this year, so earlier studies are unlikely to have accounted for it,” he said.

Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative, a research institute, said, “The EU is a big market, so it is an opportunity. But smaller firms may struggle to meet regulatory requirements.”

He cited the EU’s REACH regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) which addresses the production and use of chemical substances and their potential impact on humans and the environment.

“When REACH came in 2007, many small exporters could not afford the high registration costs. Their exports to the EU almost stopped. Only medium and large companies survived. A similar situation may emerge in fisheries and other sectors (with the new agreement),” he said.

Srivastava added that the EU’s higher income levels shape its regulatory framework. “Regulations such as the CBAM and EUDR are emerging as trade barriers in the name of standards, and they could limit market access,” he said.

Intellectual property

Even as India and the European Union present their free trade agreement as a major economic breakthrough, differences are already apparent in how each side is framing its intellectual property provisions.

The Indian government has said, in the press release on the agreement, that the FTA reinforces intellectual property protections provided under TRIPS (the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property) which relates to copyright, trademarks, designs, trade secrets, plant varieties, enforcement of intellectual property rights.

It also affirms the Doha Declaration, which states that intellectual property rules should not prevent member states from protecting public health. The EU government, meanwhile, has stated that the agreement provides a high level of protection and enforcement of IP rights, in line with Indian and EU intellectual property laws.

Trade experts note that the phrase “high level of protection” is often diplomatic language for stronger enforcement and tighter intellectual property rules, and, at times, longer or broader rights. In some cases, this can lead to TRIPS-Plus obligations which mean that the requirements go beyond the minimum standards set under the WTO’s agreement on trade aspects of IP.

Srivastava said the final impact would depend on the legal text. “The Indian government says it conforms to TRIPS, which would mean no major new obligations. But the EU’s statement suggests a TRIPS-Plus approach, bringing India closer to European intellectual property laws,” he said.

Similar concerns about what the language indicates have also been raised by civil society groups. KM Gopakumar, a co-convener of the working group and senior researcher at Third World Network, said, “The EU statement refers to a ‘high level’ of protection and enforcement of IP rights, including plant varieties. Once you talk about ‘higher protection’, it usually means going beyond TRIPS.”

“This raises concerns about whether Indian seed companies will be able to supply affordable seeds. Similar concerns apply to the pharmaceutical sector,” he added.

The Working Group on Access to Medicines and Treatment, in a statement on January 27, said the EU’s language “clearly demonstrates that India has agreed to IP protection and enforcement standards that go beyond the minimum obligations under TRIPS.”

Both experts stressed the need to examine the final text before concluding, as both sides have used different wordings.

Meanwhile, on January 29, the Indian government released an FAQ clarifying that the IP chapter does not require India to amend its intellectual property laws and does not impose TRIPS-Plus data exclusivity obligations.

However, Gopakumar said that though they say there is no need to change the law, rules can still be modified, as seen in past agreements. “The EU’s emphasis on trade secrets and plant variety protection suggests stronger safeguards, which could affect both the seed and pharma sectors. That is why the government should make the text public for informed debate,” he said.

Das echoed similar concerns and called it a potential risk. He raised concerns about policy space. “Even if the government says there is no need to change India’s IP laws, the problem is that once parts of our domestic laws and regulations are locked into an FTA, we lose the flexibility to change them in the future. Once they become commitments, our hands are tied,” he said.

Negotiations between India and the EU, which began in 2007 and were suspended in 2013, stalled in part due to disagreements over intellectual property. The talks were relaunched in 2022.

Green promises

The India-EU trade agreement includes a chapter on trade and sustainable development, under which both sides commit to implementing multilateral environmental agreements they have ratified, including the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

According to the EU, the free trade agreement contains dedicated provisions on the protection and management of natural resources. These include commitments on forest conservation, biodiversity protection, combating illegal wildlife trade and illegal logging, and addressing illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

The agreement also seeks to promote trade and investment in low-carbon goods, services, and technologies by reducing tariffs on green products and liberalising services relevant to the green transition. The two sides are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding to establish an EU–India platform for cooperation on climate action, to be launched in the first half of 2026.

However, the trade deal doesn’t offer any special relief to India regarding the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which imposes carbon-related charges on selected imports.

India has said that it has obtained a “forward-looking most-favoured nation” assurance under Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which would extend to it any flexibilities granted to third countries under the regulation.

Introduced by the EU in 2021, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its transition phase in 2023 and became fully operational in January 2026. It applies to sectors covered under the EU Emissions Trading System, including cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, hydrogen, and electricity.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism remains a major concern for Indian exporters, as it will require them to buy certificates for the carbon emissions embedded in their products, increasing costs and squeezing profit margins.

India has raised the issue at several international forums, including climate negotiations and during FTA talks. Similar concerns have been expressed over the EU Deforestation Regulation, but no concrete concessions appear to have been secured so far.

Das said the impact of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism would depend on whether the EU offers concessions to other countries and in which sectors. “It will depend on whether the EU gives any concessions and whether those apply to sectors where India can benefit. To my mind, the possibility of the EU offering major concessions on CBAM is quite low,” he said.

Ajay Srivastava pointed out that regulatory pressures are likely to increase and act as a trade barrier.

The EU statement said it will provide India with €500 million over the next two years to support its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate sustainable industrial transformation. However, it remains subject to its budgetary and financial procedures.

This article was first published on Mongabay.

A United Nations report on Friday detailed instances of torture, sexual abuse and exploitation, food deprivation, solitary confinement and other human rights abuses suffered by persons trafficked from several countries into cybercrime operations in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Terming it a “wicked problem”, the report released by the UN Human Rights Office sought urgent attention to the critical need for a human rights solution to the crisis, adding that it must be centred on the increased protection of survivors and include a robust focus on prevention.

The UN Human Rights Office said that the details recorded in its report had been gathered primarily from 19 victims of such violations, including four women, between July and September.

The victims originated from India, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Syria, Thailand, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, it said, adding that they had been trafficked into scam operations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates between 2021 and 2025.

The report came weeks after the Indian government told Parliament on February 5 that nearly 7,000 Indian citizens had been rescued from cybercrime centres in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos between 2022 and 2025.

In its report, the UN Human Rights Office said that estimates of the scam workforce point to the involvement of at least 3 lakh persons from 66 countries. It added that acquiring data on the workforce was a challenge.

“Scam operations originated in the Mekong region [comprising China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam] and this sub-region continues to be the epicentre, with satellite imagery and on ground reports showing that 74% of all scam compounds are still present there,” it added.

A majority of the victims had entered the centres from 2023, the report said. It added that the victims described being lured into the scamming jobs under false pretences and being coerced into perpetrating online fraud.

The online frauds are undertaken using a range of platforms including fake gambling websites and cryptocurrency investment platforms, impersonation scams, online extortion, financial fraud, and romantic and financial scams, it added.

Some of the victims shared experiences of being held in compounds resembling self-contained towns, some more than 500 acres in size, made up of fortified multi-storey buildings with barbed wire-topped high walls, guarded by armed and uniformed security personnel, the report said.

“An overarching issue identified in the monitoring undertaken by UN Human Rights is the shockingly high level of physical and psychological violence experienced by individuals in these compounds, where brutality is seemingly the norm,” it added.

Report details arbitrary detentions, torture

The report detailed instances of arbitrary detention and deprivation of liberties, torture and other degrading treatment or punishment, inadequate living conditions, wage theft, extortion, debt bondage and sexual violence.

“A victim from Sri Lanka related how those who failed to meet monthly scamming targets were subject to immersion in water containers (known as ‘water prisons’) for hours,” said the report.

It added that in the context of the regional scam operations, there had “been noteworthy warnings by human rights experts about widespread corruption and impunity, where criminal syndicates are benefiting from collusion with government officials, politicians, local law enforcement, and influential business figures”.

In a press release on Friday, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said that the “litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heart-breaking”.

Türk added: “Yet, rather than receiving protection, care and rehabilitation as well as the pathways to justice and redress to which they are entitled, victims too often face disbelief, stigmatisation and even further punishment.”

He added that effective responses needed to be centred in human rights law and standards.

The UN human rights chief noted that there must be “increased availability and accessibility of safe labour migration pathways and meaningful oversight of recruitment such as verification of online job postings and flagging suspicious recruitment patterns”.

He urged countries and stakeholders to engage trusted and community-based actors such as survivor-led groups, in outreach to persons considered at risk of being trafficked into scam operations.

The UN human rights chief also urged countries and regional bodies to act against corruption, which he said was deeply entrenched in such lucrative scamming operations, and to prosecute the criminal syndicates behind them.

In January 2025, Scroll published a series of extensive reports about Chinese crime syndicates that run cyber crime centres from Southeast Asia, mainly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. These highly sophisticated “scam compounds” are staffed with thousands of persons, many of them from India, who are lured with fake job offers and then forced to work on scamming people back home.

However, those who make scam calls from such centres are victims themselves, having been lured into going abroad through fake job offers, Scroll found. When they tried to leave, they were “beaten mercilessly”.

Read Scroll’s reportage of the cyber-scam centres:

• India’s cyber-scam epidemic is part of a multibillion global industry. This series traces a full arc

• The scammers who got scammed: How jobless Indians were lured into cyber slavery

• I travelled to ground zero of the cyber scams targeting India. Here is what I found

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the appointment of judicial officers to help complete the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal amid a tussle between the state and the Election Commission, The Hindu reported.

The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipin Pancholi was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the conduct of the exercise in the state. West Bengal is among the 12 states and Union Territories where the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway.

The bench said that there was an “unfortunate blame game of allegations and counter-allegations” between the state government and the Election Commission, “which shows trust deficit between two constitutional functionaries”, Bar and Bench reported.

The state’s draft electoral rolls were published on December 16. They showed that more than 58 lakh voters were removed after being marked dead, shifted or absent.

The deletion from the draft roll is provisional and citizens can file claims and objections against the removal of their names.

On Friday, the court observed that the process was “stuck” and that most persons who had been issued notices had submitted documents to support their claims for inclusion in the voter list.

The claims were required to be adjudicated in a quasi-judicial process by electoral registration officers, it noted.

The bench requested the Calcutta High Court to allow some of its serving and retired judicial officers of the rank of district judge or additional district judge, with “impeccable integrity”, to help with the voter roll revision, The Hindu reported.

The officers will “revisit/dispose of claims/objections under logical discrepancy”, the court was quoted as having said.

“Logical discrepancies” flagged by the Election Commission during the voter list revision include mismatches in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being above six.

The poll panel had earlier said that it has raised logical discrepancy objections against 1.2 crore persons.

On Friday, Kant said that the “extraordinary” measure announced was required to ensure that the claims and objections are adjudicated “as agreed to by both sides”. He added that each judicial officer be assisted by micro-observers appointed by the Election Commission and state officials deputed to the poll panel, The Hindu reported.

Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the West Bengal government, said that the state had no problem with judicial officers being appointed for the task, Live Law reported.

The Supreme Court noted that the deployment of judicial officers “may have some impact on the pending court cases”.

Therefore, it allowed the chief justice of the High Court, and the registrar general and judicial officers there to transfer cases for immediate relief to other courts till the voter list revision exercise is completed.

The Supreme Court said that the Election Commission must publish on February 28 whatever has been processed and that the remaining rolls can be published as supplementary lists, The Hindu reported.

Sibal was quoted as having requested the court not to do that, arguing that it would lead to a law and order problem in the state.

After the Supreme Court’s order, the Trinamool Congress said that the court had demolished the Election Commission’s “bloated arrogance”.

“The Supreme Court just delivered the knockout punch,” the party said in a social media post. “All claims, objections and logical discrepancy cases will now be handled by impartial judicial officers.”

It added: “This is a blow to an Election Commission that ditched its scared constitutional duty and morphed into a partisan hit squad serving [the Bharatiya Janata Party’s] vested interests.”

In her petition, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has raised concerns that the exercise poses an immediate and irreversible risk of mass disenfranchisement of eligible voters in the Assembly elections.

She has sought the court’s direction that the elections be conducted on the basis of the existing electoral rolls prepared last year.

The Assembly elections in the state are expected to be held in April or May.

HUGE VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE OF BENGAL!

Today marks a historic demolition of @ECISVEEP's bloated arrogance. The CEC once strutted around like an untouchable overlord, convinced his word was final. That delusion has been shattered into oblivion.

Roll observers had been… pic.twitter.com/vRjT2vBHHq

— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) February 20, 2026

Four workers of the Congress’ youth wing were arrested after they held a protest at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The group was heard shouting slogans such as “PM is compromised” and holding placards.

A police officer said that 10 persons had been detained. The Delhi Police added that checks were underway to determine whether the protesters had entered the venue using passes or a QR code.

The Indian Youth Congress said that its workers had raised their voices against the allegedly “compromised prime minister” who had “traded the country’s honour”. The Bharatiya Janata Party termed the protest a “national shame”. Read on.

India joined Pax Silica, a United States-led group to coordinate supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence and critical minerals. The signing took place on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit.

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor described India’s entry into Pax Silica as “strategic and essential”. Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s minister for electronics and information technology, said that joining Pax Silica was “very important for the semiconductor supply chain, semiconductor manufacturing and chip design, for establishing the entire semiconductor ecosystem” in India.

Pax Silica has 11 other members including Australia, Israel, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. The European Union participates in the group as a non-signatory member. Read on.

The Supreme Court ordered the appointment of judicial officers to help complete the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal. This came amid a tussle between the state government and the Election Commission.

Hearing petitions challenging the conduct of the exercise in the state, the bench said there was an “unfortunate blame game of allegations and counter-allegations” between the state government and the Election Commission. It added that this “shows trust deficit between two constitutional functionaries”.

The court said the voter roll revision process was “stuck” and that most persons issued notices had submitted documents to support their claims for inclusion in the voter list. It requested the Calcutta High Court to allow serving and retired judicial officers to assist with the revision exercise. Read on.

Union minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal said that the interim trade agreement between India and the United States is likely to be signed in March and operationalised in April. New Delhi and Washington agreed on a framework for the deal on February 2.

Under the agreement, US tariffs on Indian goods will be reduced to 18% from a combined rate of 50%. The earlier rate included a punitive levy of 25% imposed in August for India’s purchase of Russian oil.

A three-day meeting between officials from New Delhi and Washington to finalise the legal text of the agreement will begin in the US on February 23. Read on.

A United Nations report detailed torture, sexual abuse, food deprivation and other human rights abuses suffered by persons trafficked from several countries into cybercrime operations in Southeast Asia and beyond. It termed the crisis a “wicked problem”.

The report said that estimates of the scam workforce point to the involvement of at least 3 lakh persons from 66 countries. It called for urgent attention to the need for a human rights solution centred on the protection of survivors and focused on prevention.

The report came weeks after the Indian government told Parliament on February 5 that nearly 7,000 Indian citizens had been rescued from cybercrime centres in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos between 2022 and 2025. Read on.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Daily Brief newsletter.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that the interim trade agreement between India and the United States is likely to be signed in March and operationalised in April, PTI reported.

A three-day meeting between officials from New Delhi and Washington to finalise the legal text of the agreement will begin in the United States on February 23, the news agency reported.

India and the US had agreed on a framework for the deal on February 2.

Under the agreement, US tariffs on Indian goods will be reduced to 18% from a combined rate of 50%. The earlier rate of 50% had included a punitive levy of 25% imposed in August over India’s purchase of Russian oil.

The punitive tariffs were introduced as part of US President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against countries buying discounted oil from Russia amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine. The US had claimed that India stopped purchasing Russian oil after the tariffs were imposed.

However, India has maintained that the tariffs were unjustified and said its oil purchases were guided by energy security considerations.

Opposition parties have expressed concerns that the agreement could jeopardise the interests of farmers and small and medium enterprises.

On Friday, Goyal also said that India’s free trade agreements with the United Kingdom and Oman are likely to be implemented in April, while the pact with New Zealand is expected to take effect in September, PTI reported.

The chaos at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi and a Chinese robodog overshadowing the government’s push to “Make in India” has inspired cartoonists’ funny bone and humorous takes on the situation.

The five-day summit, which was being promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence in the Global South, was criticised by the Opposition as a “disorganised PR spectacle”.

The “mismanagement” during its opening session on Monday was evident enough for the Union government to apologise for the problems participants had faced.

On Wednesday, the Greater Noida-based Galgotias University was asked to vacate its stall after social-media users pointed out that a robotic dog that a faculty member claimed had been developed at the institution was actually a commercially available Chinese product.

Cartoonist Alok pointed to the absurdity of the situation in an imaginary conversation between the Chinese robot and the lion logo of the Make in India campaign that aimed at transforming the country into a global design and manufacturing hub.

pic.twitter.com/dYhVPMPyek

— Cartoonist Alok (@caricatured) February 19, 2026

Social media users said that the university’s claim that it had never said that it had built the robot was “incorrect and misleading”. They pointed out that the institute had named the off-the-shelf product “Orion” and had claimed during an interview to DD News that it had been “developed by the Centre of Excellence at the Galgotias University”.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which has organised the artificial intelligence event, had shared the DD News interview about the robot on social media.

The university issued an apology for the “confusion created” at the summit, saying that its representative at the exhibition was ill-informed. There was “no institutional intent to misrepresent this innovation”, the institute claimed.

Mali’s cartoon played with the same elements that Alok had.

pic.twitter.com/Yl6QQ07FPV

— Mali's (@Malicartoonist) February 20, 2026

The controversy also provided grist for the mills of other cartoonists.

#AIImpactSummit #AISummit @DeccanHerald pic.twitter.com/sJOq1e8eAV

— sajithkumar (@sajithkumar) February 18, 2026

#AISummit @ETPolitics @EconomicTimes pic.twitter.com/eakBfsyl6f

— R Prasad (@rprasad66) February 20, 2026

Sandeep Adhwaryu bemoaned the absence of originality exemplified by the controversy about the robotic dog, linking it to the incarceration of Ladakh-based innovator and educator Sonam Wangchuk.

Wangchuk has been in detention under the National Security Act since September after protests in Leh demanding statehood for Ladakh and its inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

#AISummit #Innovators pic.twitter.com/Ts8xOfX54h

— Sandeep Adhwaryu 🇮🇳 (@CartoonistSan) February 19, 2026

Here are some other cartoons that sent up the AI event.

#BusinessAsUsual — 20.02.25#TodaysPaper #IndianExpress

Follow The Indian Express on Instagram for crisp news cards and visual explainers👇🏽https://t.co/mTalXiLtAP pic.twitter.com/iSXPAdQzff

— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) February 20, 2026

AI impact. pic.twitter.com/0n8oFPnxia

— PenPencilDraw (@penpencildraw) February 19, 2026

#AI #cartoon #exhibition pic.twitter.com/OFAr2vzeln

— Nala Ponnappa (@PonnappaCartoon) February 20, 2026

Also read:

• With Galgotias robot dog row, ‘AI-washing’ comes full circle for India
• Beyond the glitter of the AI summit: Jobs, livelihoods will become even more precarious

Thank you for holding up a much-needed mirror (“The roots of India’s disinterest in reading”). As a student, I apologise to you on behalf of non-book-readers like me, who are painfully aware of their ignorance, but still seem to be stuck.

In a today’s world where every thought feels unoriginal and a derivative of what we have watched on reels, or read on Substack, simply committing to reading a book and surrendering to the author for once is rare. I needed that reminder. – Vedika Jalan

***

This article reflects the dark reality of society today. From the primary stages of school to the top tiers of education level, there is not even a single incentive for critical thinking, creativity or active reading. On the contrary, creativity and thinking are be harmful for a student as they do not get high marks and even face reduced employment prospects. Thank you, professor, for constantly reminding society about its failures. – Nitin Kumar

***

As I spend my days trying to savour what’s left of my mind made fickle – partly by the age of reels, and partly by my unwillingness to fight it – I could feel the helplessness behind this article: of having to watch a society being hollowed out by convenience culture. I have read you, professor, and I hope you keep doing what you do. – Nida Majid

***

It is true that reading as a culture will deteriorate with the decrease in attention spans and reels. It is up to the teachers, like you, and parents to inculcate reading among children. The gift of reading continues, even if it is on an electronic device. Or a reading period where a child is given a book to reads for 30 minutes.

Articles like these, famous people speaking on books and how it changed them, are encouraging. Perhaps, with time, things change and less humans learn and evolve. I am encouraged by your article to inculcate reading in my five-year-old. – Ankita Singh

***

I felt the causes may have been analysed in more detail. Children in schools where English is taught and spoken have a large variety of attractive English books to choose from. But libraries in government schools or private Hindi-medium schools are poorly stocked. In the last decade or so there has been improvement in the availability and quality of Hindi books.

But efforts to improve reading and comprehension must be supported by schools and teachers in collaboration with the community. – Anwar Jafri

***

As a teacher, I agree with the author and also share his despair. – Anindita Mukhopadhyay

***

Modern distractions like reels and videos have destroyed of critical thinking and led to moral bankruptcy. It is sad that nobody cares about what is happening with this generation. – Azhar Ishaq Khan

***

I could not agree with you more and can relate to every thought expressed in this article. Having dabbled in journalism and also teaching in schools and preparing students for entrance examinations, I have spent a lot of time agonising over this disinterest in reading. Let us continue to do what we do best and enjoy it. Happy reading, writing and teaching. – Prabha Suresh

***

In the rush of life, thank for the reminder that words are pauses. I believe readers will always find a way, and maybe even enjoyment, whether it is reading the back of a pamphlet or Kabir’s dohas. Looking forward to more of your thought-provoking pieces. – Purba Banerjee

No sympathy for poor workers

Salaried workers now earn less than they did in 2017 while the richest 10% hold about 65% of the total wealth and the bottom 50% only 6.4% (“How Modi’s policies and India’s monopolists are weakening labour power – and democracy”). The same group which feels the agony is mainly responsible for bringing the ruler back in power in election after election, so sympathy towards them is misplaced. When the majority swings in the direction of what is best for a prosperous life, no force can work against it. – Sreenivasa Murthy Mellachervu

Being Muslim in India

This is an excellent article (“A low-grade fever, a relentless sadness: Being Muslim in the New India that is Bharat”). – Subiman Kundu

India on Friday joined Pax Silica, a United States-led group to coordinate supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.

Pax Silica has 11 other members including Australia, Israel, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. The European Union participates in the group as a non-signatory member.

The US had launched Pax Silica on December 11 saying that it intends to bring together “trusted partners” for a “strategic initiative” to create a secure supply chain from critical minerals and energy inputs to advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, artificial intelligence infrastructure and logistics.

The pact was signed at a ceremony in Delhi attended by Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor and US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg.

Gor described India’s entry into Pax Silica as “strategic and essential”, adding that the group “will define the 21st century economic and technological order”.

#WATCH | Delhi: Pax Silica Declaration signed between India and the US, in the presence of Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology and Jacob Helberg, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs pic.twitter.com/QyHkM2pebY

— ANI (@ANI) February 20, 2026

The signing took place on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit.

The five-day event, which began on Monday, has been promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence in the Global South. Twenty world leaders, officials from major technology companies and exhibitors from 30 countries attended the event.

Speaking at the ceremony on Friday, Helberg said that the declaration marked a historic milestone in US-India relations, The Telegraph reported.

He added the two countries were saying no to “weaponised dependency” and blackmail, and that economic security was national security.

Vaishnaw, India’s minister for electronics and information technology, said that joining Pax Silica was “very important for the semiconductor supply chain, semiconductor manufacturing and chip design, for establishing the entire semiconductor ecosystem” in India.

“A complete ecosystem is emerging in India,” ANI quoted him as having told reporters. “Pax Silica will be crucial for this, and the youth of India will benefit from it.”

#WATCH | Delhi: Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, says, "...The world trusts India...We have a large talent pool, and we have conducted our foreign policy in a way which creates their trust. As part of that, today, the Pax Silica was… pic.twitter.com/CqOhZ49LAM

— ANI (@ANI) February 20, 2026

When the initiative was launched on December 11, the Congress had alleged that India had been left out “given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May”.

The Opposition party was referring to US President Donald Trump repeatedly claiming credit for brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan following the four-day conflict in May.

New Delhi has rejected the claims and maintained that the ceasefire was not the result of mediation.

Bilateral relations between the two countries further deteriorated in August after Trump doubled the tariffs on imports from India to 50% for purchasing Russian oil amid the war in Ukraine. The US president had repeatedly alleged that India’s imports were fuelling Russia’s war on Ukraine.

New Delhi has maintained that its oil imports are based on market factors and are aimed at ensuring India’s energy security.

The two countries announced a trade deal on February 2 under which the US agreed to cut tariffs imposed on India to 18%. New Delhi said it will reduce its tariff and non-tariff barriers on US goods.

The buffer zones between the areas dominated by the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities in Manipur may need to continue where the “wounds of violence remain deep”, the state’s Deputy Chief Minister Nemcha Kipgen told The Hindu on Thursday.

When asked whether the buffer zones should remain in place or be removed, Kipgen told the newspaper: “My response would be both yes and no. Buffer zones may need to continue in areas where the wounds of violence remain deep. Healing takes time, and safety must be the first priority.”

While the Meiteis dominate the valley region, the Kukis are in the majority in the state’s hill districts.

On February 4, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh took oath as the Manipur chief minister, ending the President’s Rule that had been in place for nearly a year.

Kipgen, who belongs to the Kuki community, and Naga People’s Front MLA Losii Dikho, from the Naga community, were sworn in as deputy chief ministers.

Kipgen, who is the state’s first deputy chief minister from the Kuki-Zo community, had taken oath virtually from the Manipur Bhavan in New Delhi. This came after Kuki groups objected to her joining the government led by Khemchand Singh, a Meitei leader.

After Kipgen took oath, Kuki groups reiterated their demand that MLAs from the community “cannot and should not” participate in the formation of the government, adding that the elected administration would neither restore normalcy nor heal social divisions.

The Kuki-Zo Council, an organisation of Kuki tribes, had said that the community had been “forcibly and physically separated by the Meiteis” and has been demanding a separate administration from the “Meitei government” in the form of a Union Territory with a legislature.

Kipgen told The Hindu that “there has been a misunderstanding and concern” relating to her becoming the deputy chief minister.

“The protests reflect pain, fear, and political anxieties born out of prolonged suffering, and I respect those emotions,” she said. “Sometimes leadership requires stepping into difficult spaces rather than remaining outside them.”

Manipur had been under President’s Rule since February 2025, when BJP leader N Biren Singh resigned as the chief minister.

At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since 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.

Biren Singh had stepped down amid allegations from Kuki-Zomi-Hmar groups that his response to the violence had been partisan and that he had stoked majoritarianism.

The Bihar Police on Thursday said the state has become “Maoist-free” after the surrender of senior Maoist leader Suresh Koda alias Mustakim, who was carrying a bounty of Rs 3 lakh, The New Indian Express reported.

Koda surrendered before the Special Task Force in Munger district on Wednesday, PTI quoted the police headquarters as saying.

He had allegedly been evading arrest for around 25 years and was named in about 60 cases, many registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Koda was a commander of a special area committee and a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand Special Zonal Committee of the JB Zone of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), The New Indian Express reported.

He was believed to be the last armed commander of Maoist squads active in the state, Bihar Police Director General (Operations), Kundan Krishnan said.

“This is a historic day,” Krishnan said. “Bihar is now almost completely Maoist-free because none of the armed Maoist is present in Bihar as of now.”

BREAKING NEWS 🚨 📢

Officials declare Bihar 'Naxal-free' after Naxalite Suresh Koda with bounty of ₹3 lakh surrenders in Munger. pic.twitter.com/fkb3fRld8N

— News Arena India (@NewsArenaIndia) February 19, 2026

Koda surrendered along with assault rifles, including Indian Small Arms Systems and Avtomat Kalashnikova-series weapons, more than 500 rounds of ammunition and some cash.

He surrendered under the state government’s “Atmasmarpan Sah Punarvaas Yojana”, a rehabilitation scheme for surrendered Maoists.

Under the scheme, he will receive Rs 3 lakh equivalent to the bounty on his head, an additional Rs 5 lakh as part of the surrender policy, a monthly stipend of Rs 10,000 for 36 months for vocational training and compensation for the arms and ammunition handed over.

The Union government has vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.

In February, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said that the number of districts affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to eight from 11 in October.

These districts include Bijapur, Dantewada, Gariyaband, Kanker, Narayanpur and Sukma in Chhattisgarh, West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, and Kandhamal in Odisha.

In the course of the Union government’s anti-Maoist offensive in 2025, key Maoist leaders like Ganesh Uike and Madvi Hidma have been killed, while others like Vikas Nagpure, alias Anant, and Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Bhupathi, have surrendered.

Civil liberties groups and Opposition parties have also questioned some of the killings of reward-carrying Maoists, alleging that they constitute “fake encounters”.

Also read: As Maoists retreat, why many fear security forces in Chhattisgarh villages

India will focus on deploying Artificial Intelligence responsibly and ensuring that it is used widely in sectors such as healthcare and education to ensure that that new technology benefits all.

That is what Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, announced on the second day of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 20. India’s AI strategy, he said, demonstrates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of democratising technology.

But realising these objectives will not be easy.

The hurdles to achieving them were laid out by AI Now Institute, an independent research institute. It listed India’s challenges as it tries to attain (often competing) goals: “projecting itself as a leader of a new form of technological non-alignment anchored in strategic autonomy, while remaining dependent on Big Tech for critical infrastructure and innovation”.

AI optimists point out to the fact that the first industrial revolution, in the 18th century, began with a massive disruption of society and economy but ultimately improved the lives of all, including the poor. This was largely due to the rise of the welfare state and the emergence of a legal regime to protect the working class from extreme exploitation.

But the new 21st century technologies, including AI and robotics, are threatening to do away with jobs themselves.

At the AI Summit, there was one session on the future of employability in the age of AI. However, though almost all the speakers emphasised the need for workers to upgrade their skills, they did not mention what would happen if skilled personnel were not available.

The possibility of a future without work can be glimpsed in a “dark factory” in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu. At the fully automated facility by a company called Polymatech, robots assemble semiconductor chips 24/7 with minimal human supervision.

The media has celebrated this development. “This factory and startups like xLogic Labs are pioneering efforts to enhance competitiveness and address skilled labour shortages,” exulted one article.

What is missing is a discussion on the impact of new technologies on the mass of the working class.

In India, the new technologies of the “Fifth Industrial Revolution”, as Vaishnaw labelled it, are the result of a sustained campaign by corporations for government subsidies and incentives. The corporations contended that the switch to these technologies would be possible only if the labour market was made flexible and the employers had the right to hire and fire workers at will without the impediment of labour laws.

The government obliged the corporate world in November by virtually abolishing the right to permanent jobs and living wages, a goal enshrined in the Directive Principles of State Policy in our Constitution.

Four days before the AI summit began on February 16, India’s trade unions organised a nationwide strike to protest the new labour codes: thousands marched to express their anger against the right to collective bargaining and to form trade unions being undermined.

Among the worst victims of such new technologies that use huge data bases are gig workers: they are subject to extreme exploitation due to what is called “algorithm management” – the use of AI to automate managerial tasks. Gig workers can be logged out of their jobs without the right to challenge the decision of the management, which controls the database that includes workers’ ratings and reviews.

The media and even the courts have played a role in demonising workers and their trade unions.

Just before the AI Summit began, the LiveLaw website reported observations made by the chief justice of India that trade unions and their leaders were “largely responsible” for slowing down the country’s industrial growth.

He also suggested that fixing minimum wages could discourage employers from hiring. This would create obstacles to generating employment, he contended.

It is not only workers in urban areas who are being hurt by AI. Agriculture too is being hit by the massive data centres essential for these technologies to function.

The 2026-’27 budget aims to boost AI infrastructure investments by offering a 20-year tax holiday for foreign data companies that use Indian data centres.

But data centres consume unfathomable amounts of natural resources.

For example, a single AI query can consume up to 10 times more power than a basic online search. Training a large language model to understand, process and generate human-like text can use over 1,000 megawatt-hours of electricity – roughly equal to the consumption by several hundred Indian households.

The presence of data centres in India has already hurt the environment. Cooling systems in such data centres rely on water-based technology. Yet over 80% of such facilities in India today are located in water-scarce states such as Maharashtra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

In Bengaluru, data centres already consume nearly eight million litres of water each day, even as the city faces extreme water shortages.

As for the promise that this revolutionary technology will result in a broad economic transformation, experts warn that this is unlikely. Instead, they predict, AI will simply concentrate more wealth at the top.

“Over the years, I have found only one metaphor that encapsulates the nature of what these AI power players are: empires,” writes Karen Hao in her book Empire of AI: Inside the Reckless Race for Total Domination.

As a result of colonialism, she notes, European nations “seized and extracted resources that were not their own and exploited the labour of the people they subjugated to mine, cultivate, and refine those resources for the empire’s enrichment”.

These empires, Hao says, “projected racist, dehumanising ideas of their own superiority and modernity to justify – and even entice the conquered into accepting – the invasion of sovereignty, the theft, and subjugation”.

AI firms, she contends, operate in the same way.

Hao’s warnings have been emphasised by Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist known as the “godfather of AI”. He has predicted that “artificial intelligence will increase unemployment while driving higher profits”.

Hinton added, “What’s actually going to happen is rich people are going to use AI to replace workers. It’s going to create massive unemployment and a huge rise in profits. It will make a few people much richer and most people poorer. That’s not AI’s fault, that is the capitalist system.”

Hao is among those who are attending the Delhi AI Summit along with others who are critical of the big tech giants. But the media has been too awe-struck by the presence of the CEOs to pay heed to warnings of experts who understand the workings of the big corporations that control AI.

Once the glitter and glamour of the Delhi summit is over, the question will remain: what will be the impact of AI and robotics on the millions of India’s youth who have little hope of getting permanent jobs and have little to look forward to.

Will they become the precariat, that class that forms the backbone of fascist and right-wing movements that are rising all over the world? In the face of such possibilities, governments tend to make migrants, refugees and activists the scapegoats instead of addressing the challenges of the new technologies owned and controlled by tech giants.

Nandita Haksar is the author of How Robots Stole Our Jobs: Struggles of Suzuki Workers in the age of AI (Aakar, 2026).

The Election Commission on Thursday directed the chief electoral officers of 17 states and five Union Territories to complete preparatory work for the next phase of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, which it said was “expected” to begin in April, ANI reported.

The phase will cover Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand, the poll body said.

The commission asked that all preparatory activities be completed in these 22 states and Union Territories at the earliest to ensure that the process can be rolled out smoothly.

Election Commission of India directs Chief Electoral Officers of several states and Union Territories to complete the preparatory work for the upcoming Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, expected to start from April 2026. pic.twitter.com/icRtex3kuN

— ANI (@ANI) February 19, 2026

The preparatory work includes mapping existing voters with the electoral rolls from 2002 to 2004 – when the last revision of voter rolls was conducted – and training booth-level officers to carry out the exercise, The Hindu reported.

The poll body had announced in June that the special intensive revision of voter rolls would be conducted across the country. In a letter on July 5, it had asked all states to begin pre-revision activities.

Bihar was the first state 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. Several petitioners have moved the Supreme Court against it.

The Election Commission has defended the voter roll revision as a clean-up exercise to remove names of the deceased, duplicate entries and undocumented migrants.

On October 27, the poll body ordered the second phase of exercise in 12 States and Union Territories including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The exercise is currently underway in these areas and has seen multiple extensions, with Uttar Pradesh receiving the most additional time.

In Uttar Pradesh, the draft electoral roll showed that 2.8 crore voters had been removed. This included 2.1 crore persons who had shifted from their registered residences, 46.2 lakh voters who had died and 25.4 lakh duplicate entries.

This was the largest number of deletions to have been reported among the 12 states and Union Territories where the exercise is being conducted. Tamil Nadu, with 97.3 lakh deletions, was at second spot and Gujarat, where 73.7 names were removed, was at third, as per the states’ draft rolls published in December.

In Assam, a special revision was conducted instead of a special intensive revision due to legal hurdles linked to the incomplete National Register of Citizens process. On December 27, the Election Commission said that the names of more than 10 lakh voters were identified to be deleted in the state.

The upcoming phase of voter roll revision is expected to overlap with preparations for the 2027 population Census. The first phase of which is scheduled to begin on April 1. The exercise will include round 30 lakh enumerators, most of whom are teachers from government schools, The Hindu reported.

Booth-level officers involved in the voter roll revision are also largely government school teachers.

The Congress on Thursday claimed that nine artificial intelligence-generated videos posted by the party on social media had been taken down in the past six weeks at the direction of the Centre and the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state governments.

Speaking at a press conference, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate accused the Union government of censoring satirical content created using AI without providing any reasons.

Shrinate did not specify when the videos were posted and on which platforms.

She said that the videos were about the concerns the party had been raising from the “streets to Parliament”, including the allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “compromised India’s national interest” while pursuing a trade deal with the United States and that New Delhi halted the purchase of Russian oil under American pressure.

Shrinate claimed that orders to take down the content had been issued by police in BJP-ruled states such as Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

जानिए, कैसे AI वीडियो डिलीट करवाए जा रहे हैं 👇

• AI वीडियो को डिलीट करने का आदेश BJP शासित राज्य सरकारों-बिहार, राजस्थान, मध्यप्रदेश, महाराष्ट्र- की पुलिस द्वारा सोशल मीडिया प्लेटफॉर्म्स को भेजा गया

• कुछ AI वीडियो को डिलीट करवाने का आदेश सीधे रील मंत्री अश्विनी वैष्णव के… pic.twitter.com/Lgvx3itVXB

— Congress (@INCIndia) February 19, 2026

The orders were issued under the Information Technology Act sections 69A and 79(3)(b), she claimed.

Section 69A empowers the Union government to direct intermediaries to block public access to online content in the interest of sovereignty, security of the state or public order, or to prevent incitement to offences.

Section 79(3)(b) removes the “safe harbour” protection available to intermediaries if they fail to remove unlawful content upon receiving government direction.

Shrinate added that some orders cited provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita relating to criminal defamation and statements conducing to public mischief.

The Congress alleged that these provisions were being “blatantly misused” by the BJP against its political opponents.

“At least tell us what was illegal in these videos,” Shrinate said. “Tell us what we said wrong…such acts of issuing take-down orders happen under authoritarian regimes…they are not indicative of a democracy.”

She added that the videos posted by the party carried disclaimers stating that they were AI-generated and were not “misleading”.

“If the videos carry the disclaimer of AI-generated, why is there fear?” she said. “If there is a problem with AI then why are you organising such a big AI summit.”

Her remarks came as the India AI Impact Summit was underway in New Delhi. The summit, which began on Monday and will conclude on Friday, is being promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence in the Global South. Twenty world leaders, officials from major technology companies and exhibitors from 30 countries are attending the event.

The Supreme Court said that state governments announcing welfare schemes ahead of elections could hamper the country’s long-term economic development. The bench was hearing a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Company, which has proposed to provide free electricity to all consumers irrespective of their financial status.

The elections in Tamil Nadu are expected to be held in April or May. The bench asked whether it was in the public interest for the state to bear the costs without distinguishing between those who can afford to pay and those who are marginalised. Read on.

The cash handout burden and its underlying politics, explains Tabassum Barnagarwala

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the brother of Britain’s head of state King Charles, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The police have been assessing allegations that he shared sensitive information with Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier and convicted child sex offender, while serving as the United Kingdom’s trade envoy.

The Thames Valley Police had earlier said that they were reviewing allegations in the “Epstein files”, including a claim that a woman was trafficked to the United Kingdom by Epstein to have a sexual encounter with Mountbatten-Windsor. Read on.

The Gauhati High Court has directed the administration in Assam’s Goalpara district to provide drinking water, sanitation facilities and basic medical services to hundreds of families living in temporary camps. The families were evicted from their homes in June.

The authorities had demolished the homes of 690 families in the area. Following the evictions, more than 500 families took refuge on a small plot and have not been provided basic facilities, the petitioner alleged, adding that such a situation had led to deaths.

The government departments were asked to file affidavits by March 9, stating their position in the matter. Read on.

Behind wave of Assam evictions, a hungry river, and a land policy loaded against Miya Muslims, writes Rokibuz Zaman

The Supreme Court stayed an order issued by the Madras High Court that restrained the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board from functioning. In an order passed on January 8, the High Court had held that the statutory requirement of nominating two non-Muslim members had not been followed.

The bench held that the High Court was “wrong”, adding that the “doctrine of necessity has to function”. It also directed the waqf board to inform it when the pending appointments are made. Read on.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates cancelled his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The Gates Foundation, his philanthropic organisation, said he wanted to ensure that the event remained focused on artificial intelligence.

The foundation’s comment has been interpreted by some as a reference to the Microsoft co-founder being named in the Epstein files.

The latest tranche of documents released by the United States Department of Justice in January contained a draft email in which Epstein alleged, among other things, that Gates was involved in extramarital affairs. Gates, on February 4, denied the allegations. Read on.

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The Enforcement Directorate has told the Supreme Court that it is difficult to determine whether the material taken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when she allegedly obstructed its searches at the premises of political consultancy I-PAC only belonged to the Trinamool Congress, Live Law reported on Thursday.

The central agency made the remarks in a rejoinder affidavit filed in its petition in the Supreme Court against Banerjee and several West Bengal Police officers for allegedly obstructing the searches on January 8.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan has been hearing the petition.

The central agency had conducted searches on January 8 at the political consultancy’s office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area, the home of its head Pratik Jain and the office of a trader in the city’s Posta neighbourhood as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering.

The Indian Political Action Committee has managed the Trinamool Congress’ election campaigns, including in the 2021 Assembly elections.

Banerjee had arrived at Jain’s home around noon while the search was underway and stayed for about 20 to 25 minutes. She then came out with a green file and claimed that the central agency’s officials were “taking away” party documents ahead of the Assembly elections.

The state is expected to head for elections in March or April.

After the raids, the Trinamool Congress and I-PAC moved the Calcutta High Court, challenging the legality of the searches. The central agency also approached the High Court, alleging “illegal interference” during its search operations.

The Enforcement Directorate’s petition in the Supreme Court was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, which grants individuals the right to move the top court for enforcement of their fundamental rights.

In its rejoinder affidavit, the Enforcement Directorate claimed that its petition canvassed the fundamental rights of two categories of persons, Live Law reported.

This included the general public who had the fundamental right to public order and rule of law, and the central agency officers who had the right to personal liberty and to move freely in discharge of their duties.

It added that the respondents’ objection to the maintainability of the Enforcement Directorate’s petition did not survive in view of the Supreme Court’s earlier order on January 15.

During a hearing on January 15, the bench had stayed the first information reports registered by the West Bengal Police against Enforcement Directorate officials in connection with the searches.

Issuing notice to Banerjee and the West Bengal Police officers on the petition filed by the central agency, the Supreme Court had also said that the alleged interference of the state government in the searches was a “serious issue” that needed to be examined.

The Enforcement Directorate has also responded to the justification submitted by the respondents of their interference with the searches on the basis of information that armed persons had entered the premises impersonating as central agency officers.

Claiming that this reasoning was a “camouflage”, the central agency alleged that its officials identified themselves by showing their IDs and search authorisation.

However, the state police intentionally aided and assisted Banerjee in entering the premises where an active statutory search was ongoing, it claimed, adding that the “theft” of incriminating material was committed.

“The manner of entry constituted a clear show of force and numerical strength, during which documents and incriminating material were forcibly taken over and removed from the premises, despite repeated requests by ED officers to refrain from doing so,” Live Law quoted the central agency as saying.

The Enforcement Directorate has sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Banerjee and the state police officers for carrying away electronic devices and material considered as evidence in the matter, The Hindu reported.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate had told the Supreme Court that it was being “terrorised”, after the West Bengal government argued that the central agency had been “weaponised”.

South Asia doesn’t often get a clean reset moment. Too many relationships in our neighbourhood are trapped in either nostalgia or suspicion, reacting to old talking points instead of new realities.

That’s why the India-Bangladesh choreography since Dhaka’s election feels noteworthy: both sides have largely said the right things, signalled the right intentions and moved quickly to keep the relationship on track.

Start with what happened immediately after the verdict. Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked up the phone and spoke with Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Tarique Rahman to congratulate him on his party’s win.

In diplomacy, timing is policy.

A prompt, direct leader-to-leader outreach after a politically consequential election reduces the space for rumours, bureaucratic drift and adversarial “interpretations” of intent.

It tells Dhaka that New Delhi is prepared to work with the government the Bangladeshi people have chosen, without performative hesitation.

I convey my warm congratulations to Mr. Tarique Rahman on leading BNP to a decisive victory in the Parliamentary elections in Bangladesh.

This victory shows the trust of the people of Bangladesh in your leadership.

India will continue to stand in support of a democratic,…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 13, 2026

Dhaka’s response also mattered. Bangladesh invited Modi to the swearing-in ceremony of the new government, an old but effective signal of political goodwill and regional comfort.

Even when scheduling meant Modi would not be able to attend in person, India decided to be represented at a high level, sending Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for the February 17 oath-taking.

That combination, invitation from Dhaka and serious representation from Delhi, keeps the relationship institutional, not personality-driven, and reduces the risk of ties becoming hostage to optics.

There is a deeper story here too, one that began before election night. When former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s health became a matter of public concern, Modi publicly expressed concern and offered “all possible support.”

Tarique Rahman, as Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s key leader and Zia’s son, acknowledged that this outpouring of support from leaders abroad was a source of strength.

In the hard world of South Asian politics, this kind of humane diplomacy does two things at once: it lowers political temperatures and it creates a small but real reserve of trust that can be drawn upon during tougher negotiations later.

BNP expresses its sincere gratitude to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, @narendramodi, for his thoughtful message and kind wishes for the speedy recovery of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia.

BNP deeply appreciates this gesture of goodwill and the expression of readiness…

— Bangladesh Nationalist Party-BNP (@bdbnp78) December 1, 2025

This is why, even if disagreements persist, the current mood is still good news. It is good to see both sides choosing positivity and moving forward, not because it solves every pending issue overnight, but because it restores the habit of engagement.

And habits matter in diplomacy: they determine whether talks become crisis-management, or normal governance.

What makes this moment especially important is that it comes after a turbulent period in Bangladeshi politics. A post-election transition is exactly when external actors and domestic spoilers try to weaponize uncertainty, by spreading “Delhi will punish Dhaka” narratives on one side, or “Dhaka must confront Delhi” narratives on the other.

Fast, clear signalling, Modi’s congratulatory call, the swearing-in invitation, the decision to send Om Birla, shrinks the oxygen available to such manipulation.

Now comes the real test: converting goodwill into a forward agenda. Here, both governments would be wise to focus on three low-drama, high-impact baskets early on.

First, keep the messaging disciplined. The best India-Bangladesh phases have been built on predictable, institutional communication, not social-media brinkmanship.

One reason the recent moves landed well is that they were formal and unambiguous: Congratulations, invitation, representation. That clarity should continue, especially around sensitive issues where misquotes become diplomatic incidents.

Second, prioritise a “people-first” deliverables list. In South Asia, the quickest way to protect a relationship from political swings is to tie it to everyday benefits: smoother cross-border logistics, predictable trade facilitation, credible border management that reduces harm to ordinary people, and visible cooperation on shared challenges.

These aren’t glamorous, but they make ties resilient.

Third, separate legacy disputes from the new trust-building cycle. Water-sharing, border incidents, and domestic political narratives are real, and will not vanish.

A smart approach is sequencing: Build confidence through quick wins and regular engagement, while placing complex legacy issues into structured, time-bound negotiating tracks. The point isn’t to postpone them forever; it’s to prevent them from hijacking everything else.

The ground shifted so far that New Delhi is now welcoming a Bangladesh Nationalist Party government even though this means that India will now have to compete for influence within Bangladesh with countries such as China, Turkey and even Pakistan.https://t.co/d2R7worNq5

Shoaib… pic.twitter.com/XRanoCyhjH

— Scroll.in (@scroll_in) February 18, 2026

To be clear, optimism is not naïveté. Bangladesh’s new political era will understandably want a relationship with India that feels dignified, reciprocal and responsive to Bangladeshi public sentiment.

India, for its part, will want assurances that regional stability and security cooperation remain strong, and that anti-India extremist narratives don’t gain space in the mainstream.

These are not incompatible goals, if both sides resist the temptation to “win” the relationship and instead choose to manage it.

The encouraging part is that the opening signals have been mature. Modi’s outreach to Tarique Rahman after the election, Dhaka’s invitation for the swearing-in, and Delhi’s decision to send a senior representative all point in the same direction: Steady hands, pragmatic minds, and a shared recognition that India and Bangladesh do better when they work with each other, not around each other.

In a region where distrust is often the default setting, that is not a small achievement. It is, in fact, the right move, by both sides.

Rishi Suri is the chief editor at The Daily Milap, one of India’s oldest and largest Urdu language newspapers. His email address is rishi.suri@thedailymilap.com.

This article first appeared on Counterpoint Bangladesh.

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed an order issued by the Madras High Court that restrained the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board from functioning for failing to nominate two non-Muslim members, The Hindu reported.

In an order passed on January 8, the High Court held that the statutory requirement of nominating a Bar Council member and a person with professional experience had not been followed, Live Law reported.

A waqf is an endowment under Islamic law dedicated to a religious, educational or charitable cause. Each state has a waqf board led by a legal entity vested with the power to acquire, hold and transfer property.

The 2025 Waqf Amendment Act amended Section 14 of the 1995 Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act. This mandated that two of the total members of waqf boards be non-Muslims. It also mandated the nomination of a Bar Council member.

On Thursday, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was hearing a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board, Bar and Bench reported.

“Of course, the High Court is wrong,” Bar and Bench quoted the chief justice as saying. “Madras High Court order rendering the board defunct is stayed. Doctrine of necessity has to function.”

The doctrine of necessity is a legal principle that justifies certain actions under extraordinary situations.

During Thursday’s hearing, Advocate P Wilson, representing the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board had submitted before the Supreme that eight members had already been appointed to the board.

He added that only three more were yet to be nominated. “High Court says with this, the board cannot function,” Wilson was quoted as saying.

The Supreme Court then directed that it be informed about the remaining appointments on the next date of the hearing.

2025 Waqf Amendment Act

In 2024, the Waqf Amendment Bill proposed amendments to 44 sections of the 1995 Waqf Act, including allowing non-Muslims on waqf boards, restricting property donations and changing how waqf tribunals function. The bill was cleared by Parliament on April 4.

Ahead of its clearance in Parliament, the draft legislation was referred to the joint parliamentary committee in August 2024 after objections from the Opposition.

In January 2025, the committee had cleared the bill after accepting proposals by members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance. Amendments proposed by Opposition MPs were rejected.

The committee then adopted the revised 2024 Waqf Amendment Bill after a vote, with 15 votes in favour of its draft report and 11 against.

Critics had said that the Waqf Amendment Act discriminated against Muslims and interfered with waqf property management. The Centre, however, defended the law, saying it aimed to prevent misuse of waqf provisions to encroach on public and private

A set of petitions challenging the Waqf Amendment Act was also filed in the Supreme Court.

In September, the Supreme Court said that no case had been made to stay the entire amendment. However, several provisions, including one that requires a person creating a waqf to have been a practising Muslim for at least five years, were put on hold.

It also said that the number of non-Muslim members in the Central Waqf Council cannot exceed four, while state waqf boards cannot have more than three non-Muslim members, the court added.

The Central Waqf Council has 22 members, while state waqf boards have 11 members.

In over a decade of the stewardship of prime minister Narendra Modi, India’s criminal justice system has become nakedly, unapologetically, even stridently communally partisan. This partisanship is not new. Virtually every regime – with the arguable partial exception of Jawaharlal Nehru’s tenure as prime minister and the Left state governments – has displayed this partisanship.

However, after 2014, the Indian criminal justice system has bared its unrepentant, even defiant partisan character.

There are no pretences now. There is no need for them.

One of the striking ways in which the rankly communal partisanship of state institutions manifests is in the many ways that the state has ensured impunity for perpetrators of grave hate crimes and mass murder that target India’s Muslim minorities. I will illustrate this with two stories of how impunity was sought for persons convicted for the gravest mass hate crimes. Both relate to the mass murder in the Gujarat carnage of 2002.

The first is the aborted bid to secure remission for the mass rape of Bilkis Bano and the slaughter of 14 members of her family including her young daughter.

And the second is the story of the acquittal of Maya Kodnani, a former minister in the cabinet of chief minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat, who was convicted for the largest single massacre during the communal carnage in 2002 in Gujarat. She was slapped with perhaps the highest punishment given to a senior public servant in communal riots in the history of the Indian republic, of 28 years of life imprisonment.

She is now fully acquitted of all charges.

Remission on Independence Day

The Gujarat government celebrated the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence in an unorthodox way. It did this by setting free 11 men who had been sentenced to life in prison for gang-raping Bilkis Bano who was five-months pregnant and five other women, and murdering 14 members of her family – including smashing her three-year-old daughter’s head with a stone.

As I heard the stunning news of this Independence Day remission, I began to wonder what freedom meant. Freedom from what? Freedom for whom?

My thoughts went then to words I wrote after the Bombay High Court had confirmed in 2017 the conviction of these 11 men for the unspeakable crimes that they had perpetrated on Bilkis Bano, her three-year-old child and 14 members of her extended family:

“Nightmares still haunt Bilkis Bano,” I wrote, “and even now she gets sick when she remembers that day in 2002”. In Radhikpur village in Dahod, 200 km from Ahmedabad, her neighbours had set fire to all of around 60 Muslim homes there. As she and her terrified family ran into the fields behind their house, she turned around for one last look at their burning home.

In the exodus that followed, Bilkis Bano and her family sought refuge first at the residence of the village sarpanch, then in a school in the village of Chunadi, and thereafter in the village mosque of Kuvajal. Here, Shamim, her cousin, delivered a baby girl in the house of a midwife.

The next day, the family fled again, knowing that they were not safe. Hiding in the shadows and the overgrowth of forests all the way and avoiding the big highways, they tried to reach a Muslim-majority settlement. Along the scary journey, they were shielded and provided for by compassionate people.

As Special Judge UD Salvi of the Mumbai sessions court observed in his judgement in 2008, despite its gruesomeness, the case also brought to light instances of human kindness shown by neighbours and acquaintances of victims of the massacre who gave shelter to those on the other side of the communal divide. The search for a sanctuary set them on the path to Pannivel village. But they were never to reach their refuge.

On March 3, 2002, on the kachha road leading to the village, two truckloads of 20 to 30 people brandishing swords and sickles obstructed their truck. “Aa rahya Musalmano, emane maaro, kaato,” they shouted – These are the Muslims, kill them, cut them.

They were all men from their village, people they knew and had been raised with. Among them was the son of a medical practitioner who treated Bilkis Bano’s father and lived right across the street; a man who owned a bangle shop in the village; another who owned a hotel in the neighbourhood where Bilkis Bano and her family resided; and the husband of an elected member of gram panchayat. Bilkis Bano would say years later that what rankled her most in her memories of that day was that men she had known since she was a child were the ones who brutalised her so mercilessly.

Bilkis Bano was clutching her three-year-old daughter, Saleha, in her arms when one of the men snatched the little girl away and smashed her head on the ground, killing her instantly. Three men, all known to her and from her village, grabbed Bilkis Bano and tore her clothes away even as she pleaded that she was pregnant. They also ignored her entreaties that they were like her brothers and uncles, and they raped her by turn. In the mayhem around her, the 14 members of her family were being raped, molested and hacked to death by others in the mob. Shamim, who had delivered a child the day before, and her infant child were also killed. When Bilkis Bano ultimately lost consciousness, the assailants took her for dead and after their pillaging, left the scene of the carnage.

When she regained consciousness, she found herself naked, surrounded by the corpses of her family members. She covered her body in a petticoat lying nearby and ran up a hillock, and spent a night there in dread, foreboding and mourning. The next day, she came upon an Adivasi woman near a hand pump when looking for water. The woman gave her some clothes. She then spotted a uniformed police officer and approached him for help. He took her to the Limkheda police station in his vehicle.

Bilkis Bano was the lone witness and survivor of eight gangrapes and 14 murders. She knew the names of her attackers, and told the policeman all that had happened in painful detail. But the head constable, Somabhai Gori, refused to register her complaint. He despatched her instead to a relief camp, where she was reunited with her distraught husband, Yakub Rasool, and told him of her unthinkable suffering, and how they had lost their daughter and so many members of their family.

Two days after the killings, some local photographers found some of the bodies of the massacred family – and it was this public exposure that forced the police to act. Bilkis Bano was devastated as she identified the bodies of several members of her family, including her three-year old daughter. Four days after her rape, she was medically examined at Godhra Civil Hospital and biological samples were sent to the local pathology lab, after she had been sent to the Godhra relief camp.

Meanwhile, no inquest was carried out as required by law and the bodies were left unguarded to rot away. Doctors performing the post-mortem did not collect any blood or biological samples, and recorded evidence and opinions that they knew to be false. It was later proved that the bodies were buried in unmarked mass graves on the orders of the police.

In 2004, when the bodies were exhumed as part of a fresh investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation, they found that none had skulls. It seems that they had been decapitated after the post-mortem to prevent identification, and salt had been sprinkled on the corpses so that they would decompose quickly. A prosecution witness testified that he was taken by the police to the place where the bodies were buried in unmarked graves, and he found two doctors there as well. He buried the corpses with the help of two other men the police had brought in to dig the pits, and they were each paid Rs 200 for their labours and silence.

Fifteen years later, the high court was to describe the policemen as “villains” who “wanted to suppress the fact of rape committed on Bilkis”. They manipulated evidence, ensured the post-mortem of the dead was not done properly, and they also did not take Bilkis Bano to the crime spot so that she could identify it, even though she was at the police station at that time. This “tainted” their investigation, reflecting “dishonesty and callousness”.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old, and five months pregnant, when she was raped and her 3yo daughter killed along with six others from the family.

Bilkis Bano fought a long battle for justice.#StandWithBilkisBano pic.twitter.com/SxZ7q8RnUO

— Natasha Badhwar (@natashabadhwar) August 17, 2022

Fifteen days after her gang rape, Bilkis Bano finally managed to register her statement to the police in the relief camp. The police made her place her thumb impression on a blank sheet, and obliterated all significant details in her statement like the names of the men who had raped her. She could do nothing at that time as she was both unread and powerless. The police dismissed her repeated pleas and ultimately, the judicial magistrate on March 25, 2003, closed the case for want of evidence, claiming that there were inconsistencies.

Undeterred, Bilkis Bano moved the Supreme Court with the assistance of the National Human Rights Commission. The Supreme Court ordered the Gujarat government to stop the state investigation, as the Criminal Investigation Department had by 2003 begun to harass and intimidate Bilkis Bano and her family. Two months later, it asked for an independent investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the murders and rapes. The Central Bureau of Investigation team seized police documents, photographs, reports and evidence, recorded the statements of Bilkis Bano and other witnesses, and exhumed the remains of seven of the victims, four females and three children. The bodies of the other seven were never found.

The investigation was exemplary both for its independence, fairness and professionalism. “On May 12, 2004, the CBI submitted its final report to the Supreme Court in which it catalogued the complicity and involvement of the Gujarat government in the cover-up which followed the March 2002 crime,” reads a report in The Wire. “Most significantly, it asked that the criminal trial be held outside the state… that the government of Narendra Modi, who was chief minister at the time, could not even be trusted with the conduct of court proceedings in the matter. The Supreme Court concurred and on August 6, 2004, ordered the trial venue shifted from Gujarat to Maharashtra.”

For six years, much of which she and her family were forced to spend in hiding, Bilkis Bano fought her case with robust and unshaken resolve, supported all along by fine activists like Farah Naqvi and Gagan Sethi of Jan Vikas. These human rights workers did all they could to bolster her morale, and guide her through the intricacies of the legal process. Yakub Rasool, Bilkis Bano’s husband, remained steady in his support to her through these many years of legal battle. The family was in effect exiled from their village, because they would not be safe there. They shift from place to place, their identities hidden, their faces covered when they appear in public meetings and courts.

On January 18, 2008, the special court in Mumbai sentenced the 11 accused to life imprisonment (one had died), and incarcerated a policeman for three years for trying to destroy evidence. This case marked the rarest instance in which sexual violence during a communal massacre was punished. Even so, the special court refused to punish the doctors and policepersons accused of burying the bodies of the victims to destroy evidence of the crime. It did, however, convict Somabhai Gori, the head constable of Limkheda police station, who had refused to take down Bilkis Bano’s initial complaint. It is this part of its order that the Bombay High Court reversed 15 years after the hate crime.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, in its appeal, sought the death penalty for the 11 convicts. They argued that the case was one of mass murder as 14 members of a family had been killed, and that the riots had caused an exodus and, thus, belonged to the rarest of rare category. The High Court did not concur, and maintained the punishment of imprisonment for life. “We do agree that it is a rare massacre manifesting ugly animosity and hostility,” it noted.

But it added that the convicted men are not “history-sheeters or hard-core criminals”. They were part of “a mob on account of the Godhra incident… in search of Muslims. They were boiling with revenge… We do agree that the crime is uncommon and a large number of persons from the Muslim community were murdered, however, the sentencing policy is also required to be balanced on the scale of proportionality… We also cannot be unmindful of the fact that the incident occurred in 2002, 15 years have elapsed since then. These accused have been in custody all this while. Looking to this fact, after a gap of 15 years, we are not inclined to enhance the sentence”.

In a stark but telling coincidence, the day after the Bilkis Bano ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for four men convicted of the gruesome gangrape and murder of a paramedical student in Delhi on December 16, 2012, to celebratory headlines across the country. The judges described this as a “barbaric crime” that had created a “tsunami of shock”. That it was, no doubt, but it is hard to understand why one crime – in which the face of a child was also smashed, eight people gangraped and 14 people killed in a frenzy of mob hate – was more grievous than the other.

Surely, the learned bench could not be suggesting that “boiling for revenge” after the Godhra train burning created a context that somehow mitigated the hate crimes that followed? Some unconfirmed news reports indicate that Bilkis Bano and Yakub Rasool would have preferred the death penalty for the rapists and killers. But human rights workers and feminists (including this writer) are emphatic that they do not support the demand for the death penalty for any crime, even those as brutal as those endured both by Bilkis Bano and the young woman in Delhi.

The judicial triumph of upholding the life terms of the killers but also punishment for the policemen and doctors who tried to save them was made possible because of many extraordinary people. Bilkis Bano and Yakub Rasool’s singular and exemplary courage and perseverance. The steady and understated – and, therefore, even more precious – support they received from human rights activists like Farah Naqvi and Gagan Sethi. The unparalleled role played by the National Human Rights Commission under the leadership of the late Justice JS Verma. The independence and professionalism of the officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation. And the contribution of judges at various levels and times.

Bilkis Bano’s rapists were out for about 1000 days each before they were all released for ‘good behaviour’.

And you thought justice for sexual harassment, assault / murder cases was easy. pic.twitter.com/f0BJr17uTf

— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) August 10, 2023

But it is sobering and instructive also to remember that all of this became ultimately possible only because the case was moved out of Gujarat where, as this judgement establishes, police officers felt free to destroy evidence and protect those who committed the gravest hate crimes. There can be little doubt that they derived their impunity from the top. The judgement is a glowing endorsement of what institutions of secular democracy can accomplish if they are fair-minded, just and compassionate. But it is also a reminder of what transpires if these are wilfully subverted.

It calls to question once again claims that courts have established the freedom from guilt of those on whose watch the carnage of 2002 unfolded, but even more importantly, on whose watch justice against the perpetrators of these crimes was deliberately, cynically and – yes – criminally subverted. With Amit Shah as home minister and Narendra Modi as chief minister, did not officials at various levels feel secure in committing and enabling hate crimes, and cynically destroying the process of just investigation, prosecution and trial?

I wrote at that time that we – the citizens of India – also “need to carry on our conscience the reality that her tormentors may be in jail but she and her surviving family remain banished, probably for a lifetime, from the village of their birth and from a normal life. For 15 years, they have rarely been able to live in one place. They keep shifting from one secret location to another, and there seems no end to this kind of life”. Fear, her husband Yakub Rasool told The Indian Express, has become a “constant presence” in their lives. “Why don’t people understand that we don’t have any security?… Do you know that the convicts were not always kept in Mumbai jails? They kept getting parole. We are not free. When they are out on parole and in the area, we feel insecure,” he said.

And I recalled that Bilkis Bano was wistful as she remembered her village. “I miss Randhikpur… Yaad to bahu aave che pan shun kariye? Mane daar lage che.” I miss my village very much but what can be done? I am afraid. “Think of this”, I wrote. Fifteen years had passed, “but Bilkis Bano and Yakub Rasool remain refugees with their children, fugitives from hate, probably for their lifetimes”.

Bilkis Bano had declared after the special court verdict in 2008 sentencing the accused men to life imprisonment, “This judgement does not mean the end of hatred that I know still exists in the hearts and minds of many people… but it does mean that somewhere, somehow, justice can prevail.”

I wrote after the High Court confirmed life sentences for the rapists and killers of her family, “Bilkis Bano and her husband may have heroically seized justice from a system that very rarely cedes this to survivors of communal violence. However we – the state, the courts, you and I – have done nothing to free them from a life of fear and exile”.

Fast-forward now to the time that Bilkis Bano’s killers, after spending 14 years in prison – with frequent interludes of parole – walked free.

As her rapists and the murderers of 14 members of her family including a three-year-old child stepped outside the jail gates, crowds greeted them with garlands and sweets at the office of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The BJP legislator CK Raolji defended the remission recommendation with the words: “They were Brahmins and Brahmins are known to have good sanskaar (values). It might have been someone’s ill intention to corner and punish them…”

Bilkis Bano, who had earned the admiration and gratitude of the nation for the extraordinary courage with which she fought a 15-year-long battle for justice against all odds, now said she was “bereft of words” and “numb”.

“Today, I can only say this – how can justice for any woman end like this? I trusted the highest courts in our land. I trusted the system, and I was slowly learning to live with my trauma. The release of these convicts has taken from me my peace and shaken my faith in justice. My sorrow and my wavering faith are not for myself alone but for every woman struggling for justice in the courts,” Bano declared to Article 14. “I appeal to the Gujarat government, please undo this harm. Give me back my right to live without fear and in peace. Please ensure that my family and I are kept safe.”

Her lawyer Shobha Gupta said that “we thought about appealing against lesser punishment – 14 murders, five gang-rapes, a pregnant woman gang raped – we felt life imprisonment was mild and inadequate for the heinous offence. But the thought was that let peace come, let her live peacefully now, let us accept the judgment and allow the matter to have closure”. She continued, “We have seen cases where the death penalty has been given for a single murder. This was a serious crime. Fourteen murders, gang rapes, the gang rape of a pregnant woman and her child thrashed on a stone and murdered in front of her eyes. What more should there be for it to be a death penalty case? In my practice of 25-26 years, this was 100% a death penalty case”.

She continued, “They have been convicted by one court, a second court, and a third court and their review (petition) was dismissed. Every single court has made serious observations against them. Do you not ask the victim that we know you have suffered for the past 20 years and (has) safety concerns?...It is a matter of judicial record that she is living the life of a nomad, running from place to place to ensure that she is surviving. We don’t know the committee officers who passed the order, but isn’t it a constitutional duty to consider and ensure that she is feeling safe and has a sense of fulfilment?”

She also expressed grief at the public celebration. “For what? They are convicted of rape and murder by the highest court in the country. My heart bleeds when I see this kind of society. A gang rape convict, a person convicted for 14 murders, comes out and is publicly facilitated and honoured…What is happening to our society? Even that village has women. What would women be thinking? How could women dare after this to make a complaint?”

When influential voices from India and the world questioned the Gujarat government for its decision to recommend the remission of the sentence of Bilkis Bano’s tormentors, it diverted responsibility to the Supreme Court and the union government. It said that the Supreme Court had asked the state government to consider the remission application, for which it established a committee headed by the district collector and with two BJP MLAs as members. The committee was unanimous in recommending their premature remission. The proposal was sent to the union government, where it was approved by the union home minister headed by Amit Shah. The file moved with exceptional speed, as though to meet the deadline of Independence Day.

The Supreme Court on January 8, 2024, just short of five months after the remission of 11 convicts sentenced to life imprisonment for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family, reversed this order. It directed that the men be returned to jail within two weeks of the order. It held firstly that the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to consider the remission petition.

It annulled the May 2022 order of the Supreme Court that had directed the Gujarat government to consider the remission petitions, ruling that this was obtained through fraud and suppression of facts before the court. It held that the appropriate government for considering the remission petitions in the instant case was Maharashtra and expected that it would consider the remission petitions in accordance with law and the guidelines laid down by the Court.

The grounds cited by the highest court for striking down this remission order are for me disappointingly technical rather than delving into deeper questions of the ethics of punishment and reformation and laying down guidelines for the future.

Justice BV Nagarathna, who authored the judgment, however does quote the Greek philosopher Plato to justify directing the convicts back to prison: “... punishment is to be inflicted not for the sake of vengeance but for the sake of prevention and reformation. In his treatise, Plato reasons that the lawgiver, as far as he can, ought to imitate the doctor who does not apply his drug with a view to still the pain only, but to do the patient good”.

The sentencing, bail and acquittal of Maya Kodnani

A gynaecologist by training, Maya Kodnani was a member of the Gujarat legislature at the time of the Gujarat communal carnage of 2002. She was later elevated to the position of a minister for women and child welfare in chief minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet.

Maya Kodnani went on to be convicted of instigating and leading the largest single communal massacre in Gujarat, in the village Naroda Patiya in which 89 people, the majority of whom were women and children. Her punishment, of 28 years imprisonment, was probably the highest penalty for a public official in anti-Muslim violence in the history of the Indian republic.

Come 2014 with a change in the government in Delhi and first she is given long-term bail (in the way that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur who was charged with terror crimes was also freed from jail). Her sentence is suspended.

And then she is acquitted of all crimes.

Kodnani spent a cumulative total of approximately three years and five months in jail across two separate periods and is at the time of writing a free woman.

#JustIN | A special court of Gujarat has ACQUITTED all 68 accused including former minister Maya Kodnani in the 2002 Gujarat Riots-Naroda Gam Massacre Case.#GujaratRiots #NarodaPatiya pic.twitter.com/uxJFoWuGDR

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) April 20, 2023

The brief facts are that on February 28, 2002, a day after the fateful fire broke out in a train compartment in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra killing around 59 people, a murderous mob of nearly 1500 people gathered in Naroda Patiya, a Muslim majority neighbourhood in the suburbs of Ahmedabad.

The law took many years to catch up with Maya Kodnani. After the carnage, chief minister Modi thought it fit to elevate Kodnani, a gynaecologist, into his cabinet. I do not know if the irony was intentional, that she was allotted the portfolio of women and child welfare even though she was being investigated for leading a massacre in which the majority of victims were women and children.

Finally, in 2008, the Supreme Court-appointed a Special Investigation Team led by former CBI director RK Raghavan to investigate the carnage. In February 2009, the SIT declared Kodnani an absconder after she failed to appear for her deposition. A month later, the Gujarat High Court revoked her anticipatory bail and she was arrested. She resigned as minister of state for women and child development.

According to the Special Investigation Team report, a crowd had gathered in Naroda Patiya to enforce a bandh called by the Vishva Hindu Parishad to protest the deaths in fire of persons in the train at Godhra the day before. Maya Kodnani, then an MLA, and VHP leader Jaideep Patel arrived separately at the site in their respective vehicles. Eleven witnesses confirmed that both of them made hateful speeches to instigate the already agitated mob. Kodnani allegedly incited the mob to kill Muslims.

The carnage that followed went on for 10 hours. At least 97 people (according to the official toll) were killed, many of them stabbed and burnt alive. An uncounted number were looted, raped and sexually assaulted. A local mosque was vandalised.

Witnesses testified to the special SIT court that she handed out swords to rioters, exhorted them to attack Muslims and at one point fired a pistol. Even phone records placed Kodnani in Naroda at the time of the incident, contrary to what Amit Shah was to testify later.

I quote from a couple of witness statements. We “went near Natraj Hotel, saw a mob of 5 to 10 thousand persons, Mayaben came there in (a) Maruti Frontie with her PA. They got down from the car. By seeing her (sic.), the people who were standing there shouted the slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Mayaben delivered a provoking speech, the gist of speech spelling her instigation to the mob (sic.) is, “I have seen dead bodies of Kar Sevaks at Godhra. You Ram Bhakta – devotees of Ram should kill Muslims here, cut them, as the Babri Masjid had been demolished, the Masjid here also should be destroyed, I am with you etc.”, you will have no difficulty. She then left”.

And another witness: “Dressed in a white saree with a saffron scarf on her neck she then went in her white Maruti car to..... the S.T Workshop Gate. Mayaben .....was followed by a Trax Jeep. Mayaben gave (a) signal to the mob near Natraj and she called upon the mob (near) the Gate of S.T. Workshop by indicating to them to come. About 100 leaders came ....Mayaben was discussing something with all of them and then instructed her P.A., the P.A. took out the weapons from the Trax Jeep, the weapons were swords, Bhala (spears),Trishul (tridents), revolvers etc. Under the instructions, her P.A. gave all these weapons to the leaders of the mob.. After Mayaben went away, the men of the mob including the P.A. had attacked (the) Nurani (Masjid). ...Mayaben said “Kill them. I am and will be with you always. You will always have my backing.”

In August 29, 2012, the special SIT court judge, Jyotsna Yagnik, convicted Kodnani under Indian Penal Code sections for murder, conspiracy, and inciting hatred. She was held to be the “kingpin” and “principal conspirator” of the massacre. The judgement said Kodnani was “proved to be the kingpin of the entire communal riot and one of the principal conspirators who has actively instigated the rioters and has abetted them to form unlawful assembly to execute the conspiracy hatched under her leadership with other co-conspirators. Judge Yagnik sentenced Kodnani to 28 years in prison (10 years for unlawful assembly + 18 years for murder, to run consecutively).”

In April 2013, the Gujarat state government initially prepared to file an appeal seeking the death penalty for her but withdrew this decision in May 2013. In 2021, senior advocate Kapil Sibal highlighted in the Supreme Court this failure to challenge her acquittal, as unmistakable indications of executive partisanship. But in November 2013, she was granted interim bail for three months to treat intestinal tuberculosis and heart health issues.

Her fate turned after Modi’s election in May 2014. On July 30, 2014, the Gujarat High Court suspended her sentence and granted her regular bail on grounds of ill health. It noted that she was suffering from “intestinal tuberculosis with IBS [irritable bowel syndrome] and gastro reflux disease and with severe weight loss”. She surfaced before the public eye from time to time, such as in yoga camps. In September 2017, Amit Shah, then BJP national president, appeared as a star defense witness in her defence. He testified that he saw Kodnani in the Gujarat Assembly and at the Sola Civil Hospital on the day of the riots, contradicting the SIT’s claim that she was at the crime scene during those hours.

Finally, on April 20, 2018 a division bench of the Gujarat High Court overturned her conviction and acquitted her of all charges. It cited to justify its decision “contradictions” in witness testimonies. It noted that none of the 11 key witnesses named her when the police first registered the case in 2002; her name only appeared later when the SIT took over in 2008. The court gave her the “benefit of doubt”. However, although the same witnesses testified against Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, the court upheld his conviction, although it reduced the quantum of his punishment.

Bilkis Bano’s appeal

The words of Bilkis Bano after the judgement in 2008 convicting the 11 men responsible for the mass rape and slaughter of her family, keep coming back to me:

“To fellow Indians, I appeal to all of you, at a time when we hear news everyday of people being attacked and killed because of their religion or community – please help affirm their faith in the secular values of our country and support their struggles for justice, equality, and dignity.”

Confronted by a nakedly partisan criminal justice system, I wonder what she would say to her fellow citizens today.

I am grateful for the research support of Sumaiya Fatima.

The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the trend of state governments announcing welfare schemes ahead of elections, observing that such a practice could hamper the country’s long-term economic development, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi was hearing a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Company challenging a provision under the 2024 Electricity Amendment Rules. The company has proposed to provide free electricity to all consumers irrespective of their financial status, Times Now reported.

The elections in Tamil Nadu are expected to be held in April or May.

During the hearing, the chief justice raised concerns about states absorbing the electricity bills. Addressing advocate Gopal Subramanium, appearing for the state, Kant asked whether it was in the public interest for the state to bear the costs without distinguishing between those who can afford to pay and those who are marginalised.

“We are not talking of Tamil Nadu in particular,” Live Law quoted Kant as saying. “We are talking of pan-India. What kind of culture are we developing?”

Kant said that it is understandable that the state wants to help persons who are marginalised. “But the persons who can enjoy, has all means available and are affluent and therefore any kind of freebie first comes to their pocket,” Live Law quoted Kant as saying.

He added: “Is it not high time for states to revisit these policy frameworks?”

Social welfare schemes such as free public transport and concessions in electricity bills are referred to as “freebies” by some groups.

Kant observed that the fundamental principle should be that those who avail of services and have the means to pay must bear the cost. He added that the court was not directing any state entity to indulge in profiteering, but stating that at least the costs should be recovered from those who can afford to pay.

“We know what is happening in the nearest places where the last elections took place,” Live Law quoted Kant as saying. “Why suddenly schemes are announced near elections? It is high time that all political stalwarts, leaders, parties and all social engineers, they need to revisit everything.”

He added: “We will be hampering the development of the nation if we keep on having this largesse distribution.”

The chief justice also said that the states should focus on long-term development plans than such elections promise, noting that some states have a revenue deficit.

“From where that money is coming?” Live Law quoted Kant as saying. “Why shouldn’t it be dedicated for development purposes?”

Also read: The cash handout burden and its underlying politics

The Gauhati High Court on Wednesday directed the administration in Assam’s Goalpara district to provide drinking water, sanitation facilities and basic medical services to hundreds of families living in temporary camps after they were evicted from their homes in June.

The administration was also ordered to ensure that the families are able to avail benefits under the 2013 National Food Security Act, which is aimed at providing subsidised food grains.

A bench of Justice Devashis Baruah passed the order on a joint petition filed by 60 persons alleging that the evictions, carried out in the district’s Hashila Beel area between June 16 and June 18 on the grounds that the land is part of a wetland, violated the law as clarified by the Supreme Court in several judgements.

Starting June 16, the authorities had demolished homes of 690 families in Hashila Beel near Goalpara town. The families had told Scroll that many of them were living in the area before it was declared a wetland.

Following the evictions, more than 500 families had taken refuge on a small plot and had not been provided potable water, sanitation facilities, food or medical care, the petitioner alleged, adding that the situation had led to deaths.

Z Khalid, the counsel representing the petitioners, contended that considering the poor conditions the families were living in, a welfare state should provide basic facilities such as potable water, food, sanitation and medical care.

Khalid argued that the Supreme Court had, in several cases, held that the right to potable water, basic medical care and sanitation are attributes of the right to life.

The petitioners also argued that while they have ration cards, they have not been able to avail benefits under the 2013 National Food Security Act, because the fair price shops there had not been supplied adequate food grains.

Advocate D Nath, representing the district administration, submitted that there was no shortage of food supplies in the fair price shops. If the petitioners have ration cards, they would be able to avail the benefits from the shops, Nath contended.

The counsel added that the camps where the families were living are not located on government land and he will have to seek instructions about how individuals living on a plot belonging to other persons could be provided with sanitation facilities there.

The court ordered the administration to explore solutions to set up temporary sanitation facilities.

The administration was also directed to ensure that the fair price shops had adequate food grains and that a primary healthcare centre is situated in the area where the families are living.

The government departments were asked to file affidavits by March 9, stating their position in the matter.

The court said that other directions sought by the petitioners, such as the setting up of a judicial inquiry into the eviction drive, would be considered after affidavits are filed by government departments.

Also read:

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The makers of the upcoming film Ghooskhor Pandat on Thursday told the Supreme Court that its title and all related promotional material have been “unequivocally withdrawn”, PTI reported.

Taking on record an affidavit filed by director Neeraj Pandey, a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan disposed of a public interest litigation objecting to the film’s title for allegedly defaming the Brahmin community, according to ANI.

Pandey stated in the affidavit that although a new title for the film had not yet been finalised, it would “not be similar to or evocative of” the earlier one. He added that promotional material, posters, trailers and publicity content released under the earlier title had already been withdrawn.

The petition was filed amid a row that erupted after streaming platform Netflix, on February 3, released its slate of films and series for 2026. A teaser for Ghooskhor Pandat, directed by Panday and Ritesh Shah, was also released.

The film, starring Manoj Bajpayee, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Shraddha Das, was criticised by some groups for its title that allegedly vilified the Brahmin community.

The use of the word “pandat”, associated with the Brahmin community and also meaning a priest, with “ghooskhor”, a term for someone who accepts bribes, sparked the uproar.

During a hearing on February 12, the court questioned why a section of society should be denigrated in the name of freedom of expression and directed the filmmakers to change the title. It had also ordered that any material in the film that was offensive to any community should be withdrawn.

On Thursday, the counsel for the petitioner argued that beyond the title change, there should be an assurance that the content of the film would not insult or target any community, India Today reported.

The bench noted that the film was currently at the editing stage and added that the filmmakers had responded positively to the concerns raised. It also noted that once the title was withdrawn, the primary grievance may not survive.

The counsel for the filmmakers submitted that they had not contested the matter on the grounds of free speech and had agreed to change the name to avoid a controversy, India Today reported.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday rejected the bail applications of Praveen Soni, a government doctor, and his wife in connection with the deaths of at least 26 children who had consumed the contaminated Coldrif cough syrup that he had allegedly prescribed.

A single judge bench of Justice Pramod Kumar Agrawal observed that despite being cautioned about the possible harmful effects of the diethylene glycol-contaminated cough syrup, Soni continued prescribing the medicine.

The court was referring to a conversation between Soni and Praveen Khapekar, a Nagpur-based doctor who had warned him that in 1998, 33 children had died in Delhi because of a contaminated cough syrup and that a similar reaction was possible in the present case.

Khapekar had contacted the doctor after being consulted about a child whose condition had worsened after being administered the syrup prescribed by Soni.

The court observed that more than 26 children younger than four years to five years had died after being prescribed the syrup.

The bench further noted that the fixed-dose combination prescribed to the children had been banned as per a government circular on December 18, 2023, and that the drug could not be administered to children under four years of age according to guidelines issued by the Directorate General of Health Services and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.

It also recorded the state’s submission that Soni was aware that the children were developing acute kidney injury after consuming the syrup but had continued prescribing it.

The prosecution has alleged that the children with mild cough and fever in parts of Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district were prescribed Coldrif syrup by Soni between September and October.

Most of the medicine was allegedly purchased from a pharmacy owned by his wife.

The children’s condition reportedly worsened after they consumed the syrup and several developed acute kidney failure. Many were taken to hospitals in Nagpur and other cities for treatment, but 26 of them died.

The first death was recorded on September 2.

The Coldrif syrup was manufactured by Sresan Pharmaceuticals, a company located in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram district.

On October 2, the Tamil Nadu director of drugs control found that Coldrif samples were not of standard quality. Three days later, Madhya Pradesh also reported that one sample of Coldrif had 48.6% of diethylene glycol in it.

The permissible limit of diethylene glycol as an impurity is 0.1%. However, drug officials Scroll spoke to said that the chemical is unsafe even in trace amounts and should ideally be completely absent from an ingestible syrup. Its presence is a serious quality compliance issue, the officials said.

In court, the state also alleged that Soni received a commission of 10% for prescribing the syrup.

The High Court observed that granting bail in such a serious and sensitive matter could affect public confidence.

A trial court had denied the doctor bail on October 8, noting that the investigation was incomplete and the allegations were grave.

Soni has been in judicial custody in Chhindwara since his arrest on October 5.

On Tuesday, the High Court denied bail to five others accused in the case, including Soni’s wife.

Following the deaths, the formulation was banned in several states including Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

The deaths of the children led the World Health Organization to issue a medical alert on October 13 against the use of three cough syrups found to contain diethylene glycol beyond permissible limits, a substance that can cause acute kidney and liver failure.

The alert named specific batches of Coldrif syrup, and Respifresh TR and ReLife, produced by manufacturing companies in Gujarat.

Also read:

• How justice was denied to Jammu children killed five years ago by deadly cough syrup

• How adulterated cough syrup killed Madhya Pradesh’s children

• India’s cough syrup testing regime has a deadly blind spot

The Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday arrested 22 Indian fisherfolk near the Katchatheevu and Neduntheevu islands for allegedly crossing the maritime boundary, The Hindu reported.

They were apprehended in two separate incidents.

The fisherfolk are from Rameswaram and Mandapam in Tamil Nadu and have been taken to Navy ports for questioning, the newspaper reported. Four vessels have also been impounded.

The families of the fisherfolk demanded that they be released immediately.

CR Senthivel, the vice president of the National Fishermen Association, told ANI that the group of fisherfolk from Rameswaram had been fishing between India’s Dhanushkodi and Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka when they were apprehended on claims that “they had fished across the border”.

Katchatheevu is an uninhabited islet in the narrow Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. Both India and Sri Lanka had laid claim over the island since at least 1921.

In 1974, the two countries signed an agreement demarcating their maritime boundary. The deal said that the boundary runs one mile off Katchatheevu’s western coast, effectively placing the island in Sri Lankan territorial waters.

However, the dispute has continued to find traction in the politics of Tamil Nadu, especially because it is intertwined with the attacks on and detention of fisherfolk from the state by the Sri Lankan Navy.

Fisherfolk from both countries have been arrested in the past for crossing territorial waters.

In November 2016, representatives from the two countries discussed a proposal to set up a coast guard hotline to prevent further disputes.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that fisherfolk who violate territorial water borders may be warned, or fined, but not arrested or shot at.

The incident on Wednesday came at a time when Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was in Delhi for the artificial intelligence summit.

The incident also came ahead of the annual festival at the St Antony’s church in Katchatheevu, which will take place on February 27 and February 28. More than 3,000 pilgrims from India are expected to participate, The Hindu reported.

Also read:Explained: The Katchatheevu dispute with Sri Lanka that Modi is raking up this election season

The Patna High Court on February 11 granted bail to a man accused of shouting abusive slogans about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his mother during an Opposition rally in Bihar in August.

A man had been arrested on August 29, two days after the incident occurred during the INDIA bloc’s rally in Darbhanga. Videos of the incident had been widely shared on social media, drawing sharp criticism from Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and its National Democratic Alliance partners.

The incident had led to a clash between workers of the BJP and the Congress in Patna on August 30, when the Hindutva party was protesting against the slogans.

A bench of Justice Arun Kumar Jha was hearing the bail application of the man, who has been booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act pertaining to promoting enmity, hatred, or disharmony between groups, uttering obscene words in public, statements conducing to public mischief, intentional insults to provoke a breach of public peace and defamation.

He was also booked for acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the country.

The name of the petitioner had come up during the investigation into the matter.

The petitioner had contended that he had been falsely implicated in the matter and that he had only been identified by a security guard on the basis of a viral video.

He contended that no offence under the Information Technology Act had been made out against him as no objectionable material had been found on his mobile phone, which had been seized by the authorities, and that he had not shared any video.

The man contended that he was being made a scapegoat.

The prosecution had opposed the bail, arguing that the petitioner’s actions were intended to cause unrest and amounted to an act of treason.

The High Court granted him bail, noting the “clean antecedent of the petitioner”, the nature of the allegations, that he had been in custody for several months and a chargesheet had been submitted.

At the time of the incident, Union minister Amit Shah said the “abusive and indecent” language used against Modi and his mother was condemnable and a “blot on democracy”.

The Congress had claimed that the slogans in abusive language were shouted by a BJP agent, ANI reported.

Pawan Khera, the party’s publicity chief, had said: “They [the BJP] just want to create an issue so that they can divert attention from our [Voter Adhikar] Yatra…Their theft has been caught, so these people are frustrated.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Thursday cancelled his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, with his philanthropic organisation saying he wanted to ensure that the event remained focussed on artificial intelligence.

The Gates Foundation said in a statement that the decision had been taken “after careful consideration” and “to ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit’s key priorities”.

The foundation’s comment about the focus not remaining on artificial intelligence if Gates speaks has been interpreted by some as a reference to the Microsoft co-founder being named in the Epstein files.

The foundation will be represented by Ankur Vora, the president of its India and Africa offices, who will speak at the event on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron and executives of several major technology companies such as Google and Open AI, are scheduled to speak about the threats and opportunities relating to artificial intelligence.

The summit, which began on Monday and will end on Friday, is being promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence in the Global South. Twenty world leaders, officials from major technology companies and exhibitors from 30 countries are attending the event.

The “Epstein files” refer to millions of documents, emails, photos and videos released by the US Department of Justice detailing the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted child sex offender, and his social circle that included politicians, celebrities and several public figures.

The latest tranche of documents released by the United States Department of Justice in January contained a draft email in which Epstein alleged, among other things, that Gates was involved in extramarital affairs.

Speaking to Australian TV channel 9News, Gates on February 4 denied the allegations, but said that he regrets coming into contact with Epstein.

This came after his former wife said that Gates still had questions to answer about his relationship with Epstein.

Captain Mohan Honawar left India in May 1941, one of the thousands of men in the colonial Indian army defending the British empire in Malaya and Singapore. He did not return.

The official record states that he died in New Guinea on October 31, 1944, but does not mention how. With his wife and five siblings all dead, and without any children, the memory lives through his nieces who believe he was perhaps beheaded by the Japanese.

In a family memoir published in 2020, there is a chapter about Mohan Kaka that incorporates letters kept by his wife and mother, and memories from his brother Prem who embarked on a crusade to find out what happened to him.

Mohan Honawar was born on January 25, 1911, and grew up in Dharwad where he served with distinction in the Territorial Army, a volunteer unit of civilians. After studying in Pune’s Law College, he joined Lever Brothers in Mumbai. He and his wife Ratna lived in the Matunga neighbourhood. But he continued his military connection, becoming a reserve officer in the Indian Army attached to the 5/14 Punjab Regiment. When World War II broke out, Honawar was called up.

Correspondence with his family shows that soon after going to Malaya, Honawar returned home for a training programme. He sailed again for Singapore in January 1942. His ship, it turned out, would be part of the last reinforcement convoy to reach the island, beleaguered by the Japanese. It was too little, too late.

The last letter his parents in Dharwad received from Honawar was written on January 14, 1942, just before he sailed from Bombay. “Please do not worry too much,” he wrote. “I will take good care of myself. You will always be on my mind…Goodbye dear Daddy and Mamma.”

After Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in February 1942, the army reported that Honawar had been taken prisoner of war. In 1943, he was declared missing in action.

There was no further news for next two years. It was an anxious time for his family, especially for Honawar’s wife Ratna.

Then in March 1945 they received a telegram from the Allied Headquarters of Southeast Asia citing unconfirmed reports were that he had been executed in October 1944. But it was still unclear what had happened to him.

Meanwhile, his brother Prem Honawar became an army photographer and went in his search of his missing sibling. Prem Honawar was part of the Allied reoccupation force that landed in Malaya in September 1945, a month after Japan’s surrender.

In Singapore, Prem Honawar learnt that the Japanese had sent his brother to hard labour camps in Papua New Guinea, and that the survivors had been liberated by the Australians. Prem Honawar got himself transferred to Australia.

In Sydney and Brisbane, he met the few survivors of the brutal camps, including an Indian soldier who said he had seen Mohan Honawar being shot by the Japanese. Many in the camps had reportedly been shot for signalling to American planes flying over them.

Back in Bombay, Mohan Honawar’s wife Ratna learnt of an Indian officer, Major JH Patel, who had been with him. She sent him a letter to ask what he knew.

In December 1945, Patel replied: “We were staying together in the same hut and we shared the sufferings of each other.”At their last meeting on September 7, 1944, Patel said the Japanese had ordered all the Indian prisoners of war in their camp in New Guinea to march to a new location the next day. It was a month’s walk away over mountains, a certain death sentence given their precarious state of health.

At first, all the prisoners made a plan to escape that night. But at the last minute Honawar decided to instead seek the help of Papuans to hide in the jungle. That was the last time Patel met with Mohan Honawar.

That night, 80 men including Patel escaped from the camp. Mohan Honawar and others stayed behind. Both options were fraught with risk: 42 of Patel’s 180 men died before they could be rescued. As it happened, all those who stayed behind also died – from sickness, starvation or being shot while attempting to escape later.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that Mohan Honawar died on October 31, 1944, though the cause was not mentioned.

As it turns out, I actually had a little more information about Mohan Honawar. When I was researching my book The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II, I had chanced upon more details about his life.

I knew that Mohan Honawar had joined the Indian National Army under its first commander, General Mohan Singh. The force had been fostered by a pre-war alliance between Japanese Army Intelligence and Indian nationalists outside India.

But when Singh realised that the Japanese were not serious about fully arming his men and supporting them in their campaign to free India from British rule, he refused to cooperate and was arrested. The Indian National Army was disbanded.

When the Indian National Army was resurrected in 1943 under Rash Behari Bose, Honawar declined to rejoin the organisation. He was shipped off to hard labour camps in New Guinea. Of the 3,000 Indian prisoners of war there, over 2,800 died.

Accounts in the National Archives of India described how Honawar had bravely stood up for his men.

It still isn’t clear how Captain Mohan Honawar died. It is likely that he was either shot by the Japanese in a mass-killing or beheaded in an incident related to escapes.

However, I had been unable to find any members of this family to tell them what I knew.

In November, when I spoke about my book at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, I told the audience about my inability to trace the Honawar family. Astonishingly, someone in the audience put up his hand and said he knew them very well.

Two days later, I met Captain Honawar’s niece Naina Jayaram in Delhi. All that she and her cousins knew about their uncle was what his siblings had told them – and that was only snippets of their story. I was able to tell them what I’d learnt from the archives of his life in captivity.

Eight decades after he had left home, the Honawar family learned the truth of his war: his suffering, his bravery and about how he had possibly met his death. It provided closure to the family mystery about their fabled Mohan Kaka.

Gautam Hazarika is a Singapore-based researcher and the author of The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II (Penguin Random House India & Pen & Sword UK). His email address is ghazarika70@yahoo.com.sg. He will speak about his book at the Sarmaya Arts Foundation in Mumbai on February 21, Captain Honawar’s grandniece Radhika More will also speak at the event.

The Commission for Air Quality Management on Wednesday revoked Stage 2 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi and the National Capital Region after air quality improved marginally amid favourable weather conditions.

Stage 2 restrictions had been in force since October 19.

In an order issued on Wednesday evening, the commission said Delhi’s Air Quality Index was recorded at 214 at 4 pm, an improvement from Tuesday’s 249. Both recordings were in the “poor” category.

The commission also said that air quality forecasts provided by the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology suggest that in coming days, the AQI may remain in the “moderate” to “poor” category.

Based on this review, it decided to revoke the Stage 2 measures that are imposed when the air quality is in the “very poor” category.

The statement added that anti-pollution measures under Stage 1 will continue to be implemented to ensure that AQI levels do not deteriorate further.

Stage 1 of GRAP, activated when the AQI falls between 201 and 300, focuses on preventive steps such as strict dust control at construction sites, mechanised road sweeping and water sprinkling, proper waste disposal and intensified checks on polluting vehicles and industries.

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.

As of 9.05 am on Thursday, the average AQI in Delhi was 164, which is in the “moderate” category, according to data from the Sameer application.

On Wednesday, the average AQI stood at 215, which is in the “poor” category, showed the application, which provides hourly updates from the Central Pollution Control Board.

An index value between 0 and 50 indicates “good” air quality, between 51 and 100 indicates “satisfactory” air quality and between 101 and 200 indicates “moderate” air quality. As the index value increases further, air quality deteriorates. A value of 201 and 300 means “poor” air quality, while between 301 and 400 indicates “very poor” air.

Between 401 and 450 indicates “severe” air pollution, while anything above the 450 threshold is termed “severe plus”.

Stage 3 restrictions had been imposed on January 16 after air quality slipped into the “very poor” category. A day later, Stage 4 measures were enforced when air quality deteriorated further into the “severe” category. The Stage 3 restrictions were revoked on January 22.

The cities adjoining the capital also reported “moderate” air quality levels on Thursday. Noida recorded an AQI of 173, Greater Noida 181, Ghaziabad 199 and Gurugram 144.

Light rain was recorded in parts of Delhi-NCR on Wednesday. The minimum temperature was 15.8 degrees Celsius, 4.8 degrees Celsius above the seasonal average. The maximum temperature was 21.1 degrees Celsius, 3.3 degrees Celsius below normal.

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The Delhi Police has registered a first information report against Aam Aadmi Party leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj, Sanjeev Jha and Adil Ahmed Khan for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by posting on social media a video skit, which showed men dressed as Santa Claus fainting due to high levels of pollution in the national capital, reported ANI on Thursday.

According to the FIR, the “political skit” showed “individuals dressed as Santa Claus – a revered religious and cultural icon for Christians worldwide – in a derogatory and mocking manner”, reported ANI.

“The videos depict these religious icons ‘fainting’ and ‘collapsing’ on the street to be used as mere props for political messaging,” it added.

The video was posted by Aam Aadmi Party leaders on December 17 and December 18, ahead of Christmas celebrations. It was shot in Delhi’s Connaught Place area and titled: “Santa Claus fainted in Delhi pollution”.

It showed Bharadwaj, the party’s Delhi unit chief, trying to revive the men through cardiopulmonary resuscitation after they fell down upon seeing that the Air Quality Index in the national capital was in the “very poor” category.

Bharadwaj was also heard criticising Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta for her inaction in curbing air pollution in the city.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of an advocate, Khushboo George, who alleged that AAP leaders maliciously committed acts intended to outrage religious feelings, reported The Tribune.

Responding to the case, Bharadwaj said that photos of the complainant “are all over social media with Bharatiya Janata Party leaders”. He shared photos of George with the Delhi chief minister and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari.

“We shouldn’t give these folks free publicity,” he added.

AQI in Delhi

Delhi’s air quality on Thursday remained in the “poor” category, according to data from the Sameer application at 7.05 pm.

The national capital’s average AQI stood at 241, 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, while anything above the 450 threshold is termed “severe plus”.

As the AQI further improved on Wednesday, the Commission for Air Quality Management revoked Stage 4 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

Stage 4 restrictions had come into force on December 13.

The commission, however, said on Wednesday that air quality forecasts provided by the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology suggest that in the coming days, the air quality index may increase because of slower winds.

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.

The Union government told the Delhi High Court on Friday that reducing the Goods and Services Tax on air purifiers to 5% from 18% without following due process will open up a “Pandora’s box”, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Justices Vikas Mahajan and Vinod Kumar was hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate Kapil Madan, seeking directions to categorise air purifiers as a “medical device” and lower the tax levied on them.

On Wednesday, the court directed the GST Council to convene an urgent meeting and consider lowering the levies on air purifiers in view of the high levels of pollution in Delhi and the surrounding areas.

During the hearing on Friday, Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, representing the Union government, said that the matter was being examined at the highest level, Bar and Bench reported.

Seeking more time to give a measured response, he said that the Union government will inform in its counter-affidavit when a GST Council meeting can be scheduled.

Venkataraman also said that there was a legislative process to deal with recommendations made in parliamentary standing committee reports, as well as how GST Council meetings deliberate on proposals, The Indian Express reported.

“How can this process be scuttled through a court process?” the newspaper quoted the additional solicitor general as asking.

He said that the GST Council was a constitutional body. “It is a federal levy,” Bar and Bench quoted Venkataraman as saying. “All states and Union ministry has to argue... If anything has to be voted, it can only be done physically...”

However, Madan said that the residents of the national capital will continue to suffer if a decision is not taken promptly, adding that it was a simple process. “Not only is the clean air taxed, it is being taxed wrongly,” the legal news portal quoted him as saying.

In response, the court also noted that these decisions may have to wait until the GST Council meets.

During the proceedings, the additional solicitor general also asked whether a public interest litigation could be filed in the matter, stating that the petitioner could instead make a representation before the Union government.

“We want to know who is behind this writ petition,” Bar and Bench quoted Venkataraman as saying. “It is not a PIL at all.”

Madan, however, opposed the argument, stating that his petition was not “adversarial”.

“Maybe the learned counsel for UOI [Union of India] has not seen the notification by which these slabs have been imposed,” Bar and Bench quoted the advocate as saying. “On a bare reading of this notification itself, I will be able to demonstrate that they are taxing air purifiers under the wrong category.”

The court, on its part, maintained that something should be done to bring down the cost of air purifiers in Delhi in light of the air pollution crisis in the national capital.

“Why can’t it be done?” the bench asked. “Do whatever you have to do. Right now, an air purifier costs Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. Why not bring down the GST to a reasonable level where even a common man can afford an air purifier?”

The court directed the Union government to file its counter-affidavit within ten days and listed the matter for further hearing on January 9. The petitioner has also been allowed to file his rejoinder by then.

During the last hearing on Wednesday, the court criticised the Union government for its failure to tackle air pollution in the national capital, saying that the least it could do was to reduce the GST on air purifiers during such an “emergency”.

“How many times do you breathe in a day?” the bench had said at the time. “21,000 times. Just calculate the harm you are doing to yourself.”

AQI in Delhi

The hearing came as the Air Quality Index in the national capital plunged again to the “very poor” category, after improving earlier this week.

Delhi’s average AQI stood at 336 at 5.05 pm, according to data from the Sameer 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, while anything above the 450 threshold is termed “severe plus”.

On Wednesday, the Commission for Air Quality Management revoked Stage 4 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

The commission, however, said that air quality forecasts provided by the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology suggest that in the coming days, the air quality index may increase because of slower winds.

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.

The Commission for Air Quality Management on Wednesday 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 came into force on December 13 after the air quality slipped into the “severe plus” category.

The commission said on Wednesday that the Air Quality Index in Delhi has shown significant improvement since Tuesday night due to high winds and favourable meteorological conditions.

It added that average AQI in the national capital stood at 271 on Wednesday, which is in the “poor category”.

However, the commission added that air quality forecasts provided by the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology suggest that in the coming days, the air quality index may increase because of slower winds.

Noting that restrictions Stage 4 restrictions under the GRAP has been revoked with immediate effect, the statement added that actions 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.

The air quality in the national capital had worsened to the “severe plus” category between December 13 and December 15, but had improved marginally to the “very poor” category till Monday.

However, the average AQI in Delhi worsened to 412 on Tuesday before improving on Wednesday.

What the GRAP measures entail

Stage 4 restrictions under GRAP include a ban on trucks entering the region and halting construction activities for public and private projects. All schools, except for classes 10 and 12, also shift to hybrid mode.

Stage 3 measures include a ban on non-essential construction work and the closure of stone crushers and mining activities, in addition to the measures already imposed under Stage 1 and Stage 2.

They also include the shifting of primary school up to Class 5 to hybrid mode. Parents and students have the option to choose between offline and online classes wherever available.

Additionally, the use of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel cars is restricted in Delhi and the NCR.

BS norms, or Bharat Stage Emission Standards, are regulations set by the Indian government to control air pollutants from motor vehicles. The higher the BS norm, the stricter the standard and the lower the permissible emissions.

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 Tropical Meteorology 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 Commission for Air Quality Management on Thursday revoked Stage 3 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi and the National Capital Region after air quality improved.

Stage 3 restrictions had been imposed on January 16 after air quality slipped into the “very poor” category. A day later, Stage 4 measures were enforced when air quality deteriorated further into the “severe” category. The Stage 4 restrictions were revoked on Tuesday following an improvement in air quality.

The commission said on Thursday that Delhi’s air quality had improved due to favourable meteorological conditions.

It added that the average Air Quality Index in the national capital stood at 322 on Tuesday, which is in the “very poor” category.

The commission also said that air quality forecasts provided by the India Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology suggest that in coming days, the AQI may remain in the “moderate” to “poor” category.

Noting that Stage 3 restrictions under the GRAP were being revoked, the statement added that anti-pollution measures under Stage 1 and Stage 2 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.

As of 7.07 pm on Thursday, the average AQI in Delhi was 330, which is in the “very poor” category, according to data from the Sameer application. In 29 of the 38 monitoring stations, it was in the “very poor” category, showed the application, which provides hourly updates from the Central Pollution Control Board.

On Wednesday, Delhi’s average AQI was 322, also in the “very poor” category.

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 342, Greater Noida 311, Ghaziabad 377 and Gurugram 374 – all in the “very poor” category.

SC asks NCR states to act on CAQM recommendations

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Delhi government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and agencies of the National Capital Region states to submit action taken reports on the Commission for Air Quality Management’s recommendations for long-term measures to tackle air pollution in the region, Live Law reported.

Appearing for the commission, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati told the court that vehicular pollution was the single largest contributor to air pollution in Delhi-NCR.

She said that the commission had recommended 15 long-term measures, such as phasing out polluting vehicles, strengthening the pollution-under-control regime, expanding rail and metro networks, revising electric vehicle policies and offering higher incentives for scrapping old vehicles.

On Wednesday, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi said that it would not entertain objections to the commission’s recommendations.

Meanwhile, advocate Apprajita Singh, the amicus curiae in the matter, urged the court to have concrete timelines fixed for the proposed recommendations, Live Law reported.

Also read:

• Delhi’s failure to act against the biggest source of its air pollution – vehicles
• India’s car-first cities should prioritise walking to help tackle smog

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has called for a “structural reset” of India’s federal system, proposing that the Constitution be amended to give more powers to states, PTI reported..

Stalin said that India’s Constitution had been amended 106 times in 76 years and argued that it could be amended again to vest state governments with the necessary powers.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief stated that meaningful federalism was “not about control, but about trust, autonomy, and governance that responds to people’s realities”.

Stalin tabled the first part of the Justice Kurian Joseph Committee report on Centre-states relations in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

During his address in the Assembly, he said: "Federalism is not a concession to the states, it is a protective shield for the nation itself.”

In an opinion article for The Hindu, Stalin argued that although the Constitution of India is federal in structure, it was framed with a pronounced centralising bias.

Yesterday, I received the Part-I of the Report of the High-Level Committee on Union-State Relations constituted by our Government.

It is in this backdrop that I share my op-ed in today’s @the_hindu on why India’s federalism needs a structural reset.

Meaningful federalism is not… pic.twitter.com/UNjps8ChlY

— M.K.Stalin - தமிழ்நாட்டை தலைகுனிய விடமாட்டேன் (@mkstalin) February 17, 2026

According to Stalin, centralising tendencies were reinforced in the decades after Independence by the dominance of a single national party at both Union and state levels.

He wrote in the article for The Hindu that although the rise of coalition governments and regional parties later created a more balanced federal order, centralisation had continued through constitutional amendments, Union legislation on concurrent list subjects, conditional Finance Commission transfers and centrally sponsored schemes.

The High-Level Committee on Centre-state relations constituted by the Tamil Nadu government in April is chaired by Justice Kurian Joseph, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India, with K Ashok Vardhan Shetty and M Naganathan as members.

Part I of its report, submitted on Monday to the chief minister addresses subjects including the role of governors, language policy, delimitation, elections, education, health and the goods and services tax, The Hindu reported.

Two further parts are under preparation.

Stalin has for long accused the Union government of withholding funds as a tactic to coerce states to adopt centrally-mandated programmes.

Startup India was launched in January 2016 with an ambitious promise: India would stop waiting for technological futures to arrive from elsewhere and begin producing them at scale. The aversion to risk-taking and failure would be reimagined as part of innovation.

Ten years later, the headlines are impressive: over two lakh recognised startups, more than 125 unicorns – as startups valued at over $1 billion are known – and India’s position as the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, says a government press release.

Startup India has also reshaped the collective imagination of techno-futures: the Indian version of the US television show, Shark Tank, entered its fifth season while tech entrepreneurs are being described as “wealth creators”.

But it is harder to explain what has not emerged.

India has not produced a transformative technology that reshapes global markets on its own terms. Most unicorn startups remain unprofitable. Most patents, filed to impress investors, were rejected in the first round.

Much-hyped Digital Public Infrastructures, such as the UPI payment system, continue to rely on state subsidies, with limited global uptake. Despite the scale of talent, data and users, India remains peripheral to frontier AI development. The standard explanation is that India is still “catching up”.

But if Startup India’s goal was to catch up with venture capitalism’s model of futurity as exemplified by Silicon Valley tech firms and investors, with imagined futures shaping actions and decisions in the present, it has succeeded in mastering one of its defining features: failure.

Globally, over 90% of startups fail. Startup India has not merely generated thousands of state-supported startups, many of which have failed. It has also institutionalised a relationship to futurity in which failure is endlessly displaced and managed without ever becoming instructive.

The first decade of Startup India can be read as four phases of the successful governance of failure.

Leaps and bounds

First, from 2016 to 2019, Startup India focused on rapid ecosystem-building: incubators or organisations that support early-stage firms, seed schemes offering financial support, recognition frameworks that motivate participants and state-wise rankings systems to monitor regional disparities.

Innovation became something that was visible to the government and trackable. For instance, the Startup India website tracks how many companies are recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, and uses the Bharat Startup Knowledge Access Registry, or BHASKAR, for collaboration.

The wager was that once the machinery existed, innovation would follow. What went largely unquestioned was the imagination embedded in that machinery. Innovation was defined through a borrowed horizon in which venture capital judged value, rapid scaling was a sign of merit, and platforms and exits defined success – where building digital and social platforms, however unprofitable, and the exit of investors like venture capitalists and angel investors, is the main criteria for success.

Tier-2 and -3 cities were folded into this vision not as sites of alternative experimentation but as future replicas of metropolitan ecosystems that account for 90% of investments.

When startups and incubators struggled outside Bengaluru or the Delhi-National Capital Region, explanations rarely pointed to institutional support such as weak research and development ecosystems. Instead, failure was attributed to culture, mindset or entrepreneurial immaturity. Failure disciplined those who were considered unprepared for the future, while the future itself remained unquestioned.

Second, the Covid-19 pandemic briefly threatened this narrative as startups stalled, demand collapsed and uncertainty spread. But that moment passed quickly. By 2021-’22, the pandemic had become an accelerant rather than a rupture, with India briefly overtaking China in notching up new unicorns. National Startup Day was instituted in 2022, and the prime minister hailed startups as the “backbone of New India”.

In the pandemic crisis, EdTech platforms such as Byju’s substituted for schools, the government’s health app AarogyaSetu hid the collapse of public health while betting apps normalised largescale speculation.

Governance constraints due to the pandemic blurred questions of sustainability, labour conditions and institutional capacity. Instead of building durable systems, the state drifted towards brokering rapid digital fixes through opaque public-private arrangements powered by India Stack – a set of technologies that verify identities digitally and enables online transactions.

This can be seen in the launch of a new government EdTech platform, Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing App, or DIKSHA, developed by tech entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani’s foundation. Similarly, Bharat Health Stack was made by “volunteers” at the tech lobbying group iSpirt – the Indian Software Products Round Table.

This acceleration was underwritten by zero-interest-rate global capital that flooded technology markets, allowing speculation to stand in for innovation. Hiring spiked, valuations swelled and expansion was framed as inevitability. Failure in this phase was drowned out by acceleration. Burn, churn and precarity were absorbed into crisis rhetoric, while deeper costs were treated as temporary frictions. The digital-first future appeared to arrive early, albeit as a blip.

Third, from 2023, as capital tightened globally, the ecosystem entered what many called a reality check. Funding slowed, layoffs followed and profitability returned as a moral demand. Yet this reckoning did not challenge the imagination of innovation over the previous decade. Instead, it narrowed it further.

Startups doubled down on what monetised fastest, such as quick commerce servicing a tiny urban elite by exploiting gig workers. Problems requiring long-term institutional commitment remained structurally outside the startup horizon. Predatory “decacorns”, such as Byju’s, and thousands of small startups, vanished.

This churn was labelled a necessary attrition. Startups failed, but the future held promise. Each shutdown cleared the ground for the next cohort, the next pitch, the next promise. By treating failure as a corrective signal rather than a structural outcome, much contemporary sobriety about startups reinforced borrowed ideas of technological futurity.

Finally, the current AI moment condenses this history into a single frame. Once again, the language is about races and catching up. Once again, the architectures are borrowed.

Most generative AI systems begin from foundation models trained on massive, predominantly English-language datasets. Local adaptation occurs through fine-tuning and translation layers that import assumptions about language, value and users. Linguistic plurality becomes an engineering constraint rather than a premise for reimagining human-machine relations from the ground up.

When systems underperform across Indian languages and contexts, the explanation returns to data scarcity or technical immaturity. The deeper issue, that derivative horizons were adopted from the beginning, remains untouched.

This oxymoronic endeavour to build “sovereign AI” using Nvidia’s chips and wrappers on foundational models epitomises Startup India’s success in governing failure. Mega-events such as the AI Impact summit inaugurated on February 16 exemplify this. Instead of opening new possibilities, this approach helps maintain publicity cycles of what journalist Ravish Kumar once called “eventocracy”.

No lessons from failure

Across the four phases, failure has been individualised, regionalised or temporally deferred. It has rarely been allowed to grow into institutional learning. This poverty of the imagination is not accidental. Dominant ideas of innovation, merit and risk in India are deeply shaped by caste, where only a tiny, upper-caste elite can afford entrepreneurial risk-taking.

For others, failure is seen as a lack of merit or readiness. Instead of dismantling this hierarchy, Startup India has repackaged it such that innovation became a performance of the elite’s capacity to copy Silicon Valley at scale, while much of the country appeared mainly as labour, data, or untapped markets.

In this system, failure sorts India into a consumption hierarchy coded by a Maslow-meets-Manusmriti fantasy – much like American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s linear pyramid of needs, for India’s racialised and caste-shaped startup ecosystem, the bottom of the pyramid that they call “India 3,” is a “sub-Saharan” population outside the formal digital economy. This closes the possibility of redesigning the techno-social order.

Seen as a short history, Startup India’s most consequential legacy is the normalisation of a techno-futurity in which failure is made governable: it can be absorbed without reckoning and recycled without reimagining.

The argument here is not that India has failed to catch up with the US or China. It is that letting the future be primarily defined by “catching up” guarantees a particular kind of failure, in which imported models enrich a few while the future repeatedly misses its democratic potentials.

If India simply reproduces exhausted horizons at scale, the world does not gain an alternative future. It gains a larger version of already existing failures.

Sandeep Mertia is a professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Stevens Institute of Technology in the USA. He is writing a book on Startup India.

The police in Punjab’s Bathinda on Wednesday lobbed tear gas shells at a group of farmers who allegedly threw stones at police personnel during a protest, PTI reported.

The farmers, who are members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), were seeking the release of two of their jailed senior leaders. They staged the protest in the village of Jeond.

The farmers initially held a sit-in protest on the Bathinda-Chandigarh highway, due to which traffic was disrupted, The Indian Express reported quoting unidentified persons. Ahead of the agitation, there was heavy police deployment in and around Bathinda to prevent protesters from moving towards the Bathinda District Administrative Complex.

The farmers had then shifted the demonstration from the highway to an internal village road in Jeond. However, when they later tried to move towards the city, they were blocked by the police, who fired tear gas shells at them, according to The Indian Express.

Bathinda Senior Superintendent of Police Jyoti Yadav Bains alleged that the protesters were throwing stones at the police from rooftops.

“The mob showed aggression, but we contained it,” Bains was quoted as saying by PTI. “The situation is under control.”

A protester, however, claimed that the police lobbed tear gas shells and and threw stones without provocation.

Shingara Singh Mann, the head of the of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan) in Bathinda district, described the police action as unprovoked and excessive.

“The police attacked us while we were gathered peacefully in a village ‘dera’,” Mann was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “They didn’t even spare a religious place. They demolished the shed of a villager, and his six goats were killed.”

He alleged that a young protestors was forcibly taken into custody from the site, and homes in adjoining villages were raided.

The two farm leaders whose release was being sought were among those arrested in connection with a clash in Jeond in January 2025 over a long-standing land dispute between original landowners and tenant cultivators, The Indian Express reported.

They have been lodged in the Bathinda jail since April.

The controversy involving Galgotias University showcasing a Chinese-manufactured robot dog as its own product on February 17 at the India AI Impact Summit underway in Delhi calls to mind how “greenwashing” by giant corporations has been expanded to the current hype, artificial intelligence.

Many years ago, multinational companies discovered that sustainability was a buzzword, even as they were destroying forests, polluting rivers and seas, and their executives were flying in to work on private jets. But they had to tell their customers, as well as regulators and society at large, that they cared about the environment.

So corporations began promoting paper straws and cloth bags. They bought carbon credits and installed some solar facilities on their premises. They led tree-planting drives in cities while stripping large swathes of the Amazon and Sumatran forests. This practice is now known as “greenwashing,” where companies exaggerate their commitments to sustainability and the environment.

Now, companies have discovered a new and analogous practice: AI-washing. Here, they exaggerate artificial intelligence capabilities, often at great cost to their customers, investors and even society.

Delhi: Professor of Galgotias University, Neha Singh says, "....Our university aligns with the Prime Minister’s vision and mission. We are working towards a Aatmanirbhar Bharat..." pic.twitter.com/a2tlVNYSvP

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) February 18, 2026

AI in a ‘box’

About 250 years ago, a Hungarian inventor named Wolfgang Von Klempen claimed to have invented a chess-playing automaton. He called it the Mechanical Turk. It could play chess and beat even the best players. People were stunned by what seemed like the first instance of artificial intelligence. But the Mechanical Turk was a hoax. The box concealed a chess player inside who was making all the moves.

There are many instances of the Mechanical Turk in the 21st century.

As far back as 2016, viral videos of Amazon’s Go stores took social media by storm. A customer could walk into an unmanned store, pick up stuff and walk out – an AI algorithm would track the customer and their purchases, billing their Amazon account automatically.

But in 2024, it was found that the Go Stores were actually being monitored by call-centre workers in India. In 2024, an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that the team in India “helps train the model” and that associates “validate a small minority of shopping visits”.

Similarly, everyone’s favourite tech guru Elon Musk showcased his amazing autonomous robots – Tesla’s Optimus – at the We Robot event 2024. The robots were later revealed to be remote-controlled by humans.

The case of a high-profile startup called Engineer.ai tells the same story. The founders promised to leverage the power of AI to help users build websites without any coding knowledge. In 2019, it was found that developers in India were doing the job, not AI.

A few years later, Engineer.ai rebranded itself as Builder.ai, attracted even more millions of dollars in funding, this time claiming it would use AI to speed up app development. The company filed for bankruptcy in late 2024.

The Go Store and Builder.ai fiascos were pulled off with low-paid workers based in India.

India aspires to be part of the global AI revolution, but instead are Indians being relegated to the dark back-alleys of the ecosystem?

AI India

AI is a major buzzword in India right now.

State governments and entrepreneurs are announcing AI initiatives by the dozen. AI universities are promising to change the face of higher education. AI-powered cities promise to end problems of homelessness, segregation and sprawl. There is AI in disaster management, tourism and public transport.

Almost every Indian state has unveiled ambitious AI roadmaps and signed memorandums of understanding with leading organisations and philanthropic trusts. The press releases brim with buzzwords and jargon, but many claims feel like puffery – for now.

Then there have also been the familiar problematic themes and scientifically-questionable use-cases of artificial intelligence. The Maharashtra government in January claimed that it will use AI to detect “illegal” immigrants from Bangladesh. Graduates of India’s best technical colleges are developing AI-powered astrology apps for the superstitious, at valuations running into crores of rupees.

Teenagers are turning to AI chat bots for psychological help and counselling, often with disastrous consequences. Lawyers are using generative AI tools to prepare briefs, citing fake cases.

Rather than innovation, AI has successfully enabled fraudulent endeavours.

AI-generated fake invoices are as good as genuine ones – the technology has helped effect a paradigm shift in corporate reimbursement fraud. Some enterprising Indians are now using AI-generated photos of flies and insects in food to get free meals from food delivery platforms.

AI-generated research papers of questionable quality are inundating the peer review teams of academic journals, while school teachers and college professors are grading AI-generated assignments submitted by students. Deep-fake videos using AI have taken fake news to a whole new level.

Meanwhile, serious AI researchers and builders are toiling away doing unglamorous math on chalk boards, writing blocks of code on their laptops, and presenting their niche research in academic conferences and boring academic journals.

When AI-washers and their gimmicks take over the narrative, they compete with genuine players for funds, resources and attention. As dancing robot dogs take over the public imagination, priorities shift as well.

To the layperson and often the policymaker and politician, there is little difference between the serious AI stakeholder and the blowhard. The two share the same forums and the same media outlets, and their opinions are often juxtaposed alongside one another.

AI-washing is not uniquely an Indian phenomenon. But just like India’s space scientists and IT service providers, there is a lot more to prove than western counterparts, simply to stake our claim to legitimacy. Maybe it is time for some deep introspection and to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Prithwiraj Mukherjee is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University. Opinions expressed are his own, and do not reflect those of his employer.

Two Indian workers were assaulted in Ashkelon, a city in southern Israel, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.

According to the broadcast, the incident was a “premeditated” ambush. It was not immediately clear when the attack took place.

On Wednesday, Congress leader Pawan Khera urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to urgently look into the matter.

“[Jaishankar should] confirm the victim’s condition and ensure he has access to adequate, free-of-cost medical care if required,” Khera said in a social media post.

In a broadcast on Monday, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation released a video showing two men being beaten by a group of at least three persons in a park.

The Hebrew caption with the YouTube video said: “With racism and evil, a group of rioters from the south of the country plotted an attack, targeting the Indian workers in the neighborhood – and beating them violently in the heart of a public park.”

Ashkelon is located about 50 km south of Tel Aviv, near the Gaza Strip border.

Yesterday, two Indian citizens were brutally attacked in Ashkelon, Israel.

It was a premeditated racist assault, planned over private chats. This is not the first such attack. And sadly, it may not be the last.

The government’s failure to generate adequate employment at home… pic.twitter.com/ZPFYcrrfj1

— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 (@Pawankhera) February 18, 2026

Sharing the clip on social media on Wednesday, Khera claimed this was “not the first such attack. And sadly, it may not be the last”.

The Congress leader added: “[The government] celebrates Indo-Israel ‘friendship’ when sending Indian labourers there. But when our people face barbaric treatment, it falls silent and shrugs off responsibility.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to make a two-day visit to Israel from February 25.

In November 2023, New Delhi and Tel Aviv signed a bilateral agreement that would allow Israel to employ Indian temporary workers. Israel was seeking to replace around 90,000 Palestinians who became ineligible for work after Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza.

Over 10,000 Indians from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Telangana were selected as construction workers in the first round.

Galgotias University was asked to vacate its stall at the India AI Impact Summit exhibition in Delhi. This came amid a controversy about the Uttar Pradesh-based university displaying a commercially available Chinese robot, claiming that it had been developed by the institute.

Social media users identified the robot as the Go2, manufactured by Chinese robotics company Unitree Robotics. It is available online for about $1,600 or Rs 1.4 lakh.

The summit is being promoted as the first major gathering on artificial intelligence in the Global South. Twenty world leaders, officials from major technology companies and exhibitors from 30 countries are attending the event. Read on.

With Galgotias ‘robot’ dog row, ‘AI-washing’ comes full circle for India, writes Prithwiraj Mukherjee

The Maharashtra government scrapped the process of providing caste verification and validation certificates to Muslims. This formally closes a 2014 policy to provide 5% reservations to the community in jobs and education.

The quota had not been implemented due to legal hurdles. The order withdrawing the policy does not change the existing situation, but terminates the grant of certificates to around 50 Muslim groups seeking benefits under the Special Backward Category-A framework.

Criticising the move, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) spokesperson Clyde Crasto said the decision showed that the BJP-led government “does not value Muslim leaders of BJP and their allies”. Read on.

The Supreme Court issued an interim order restraining the forcible exhumation and relocation of the bodies of Adivasi Christians from their village burial grounds in Chhattisgarh. This came on a petition alleging that the community was being denied burial rights in their villages, and their bodies were being dug up and reburied elsewhere.

The petitioners also alleged that a split verdict delivered by the Supreme Court on January 26, 2025, in another case was being used by the Chhattisgarh Police to prevent the burial of Adivasi Christians in their villages

The bench sought a response from the Chhattisgarh government on the petition. Read on.

The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Zee News for airing an unverified video that falsely linked a traffic jam on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway to a truck driver offering namaz. According to fact-checks and traffic advisories, the highway disruption was because of severe weather conditions and landslides.

The broadcast communalised a routine traffic disruption and presented an unverified social media clip as the cause, the complainants alleged. In its response, Zee News stated it had made clear during the telecast that the video was “viral” and unverified. Read on.

The Enforcement Directorate told the Supreme Court that it was being “terrorised”, after the West Bengal government argued that the central agency had been “weaponised”. The court was hearing a petition by the ED against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and West Bengal Police officers for allegedly obstructing searches at the premises of political consultancy I-PAC on January 8.

The central agency had conducted searches at the political consultancy’s office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area, the home of its head Pratik Jain and the office of a trader as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering. Banerjee had arrived at Jain’s home while the search was underway and came out with a green file, claiming that the central agency’s officials were “taking away” party documents ahead of the Assembly elections. Read on.

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