India recorded an extreme weather event nearly every day between January 2025 and September 2025, an annual study released by the Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth magazine has said.

The study, titled “Climate India 2025: An Assessment of Extreme Weather Events”, stated that the country recorded extreme weather events on 270 of the 273 days from January 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025.

“This means that for almost 99% of the first nine months of this year, India had an extreme weather event breaking in one or more parts of the country,” it said. These included heat and cold waves, lightning and storms, heavy rain, floods and landslides, it added.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defines extreme weather events as occurrences that are “rare at a particular place and time of year”. India does not have an official definition of the term.

However, the India Meteorological Department, in its annual “Statement of Climate of India” reports, classifies lightning and thunderstorms, heavy to very heavy, and extremely heavy rainfall, landslides and floods, coldwaves, heatwaves, cyclones, snowfall, dust and sandstorms, squalls, hailstorms and gales as extreme weather events.

The study stated that India experienced extreme weather events every day for seven of the nine months: February, April, May, June, July, August and September. “Thirty states/UTs recorded extreme weather events for eight consecutive months – February to September 2025,” it added.

These events claimed 4,064 lives, affected 9.47 million hectares of crops, destroyed 99,533 houses, and killed approximately 58,982 animals, it said, adding that the reported damage was likely an underestimate due to incomplete data collection on event-specific losses.

The study also stated that Himachal Pradesh experienced extreme weather on almost 80% of the 273 days in the first nine months of 2025, which was the most in the country.

“However, Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest fatalities at 532, followed by Andhra Pradesh (484 deaths) and Jharkhand (478 deaths),” it added.

Regionally, the northwest experienced the highest frequency of extreme weather events in 2025, with 257 event days, followed by the east and northeast at 229 days, the study said.

The year 2025 also broke several climate records, with January being India’s fifth driest since 1901 and February being the warmest in 124 years.

“These record-breaking statistics are a stark reminder of climate change’s intensifying grip,” the study said. “Events that once occurred once in a century are now happening every few years.”

The frequency is overwhelming India’s most vulnerable populations, who lack the resources to recover from the unending cycle of loss and damage, it added.

The study stated that the findings underscored the urgent need for systems that record the full extent of these losses, both economic and human, to give a clearer picture of climate change’s true impact.

“The findings also signal a crucial shift needed in India’s approach: from disaster response to risk reduction and resilience-building,” it said. “Flood management, for instance, requires more than contingency plans – it demands robust drainage and water-recharge infrastructure, along with the restoration of green spaces and forests that can act as natural water buffers in future storms.”

The study added: “Climate models are unequivocal: extreme weather events will only become more frequent and severe. This is no longer a projection – it is today’s reality.”

The assessment used data from several government sources and media reports to assess the frequency of such extreme events.

Video:

Eco India, Episode 295: Are we ready for extreme weather situations in our cities?

More than 55% of the cases before 362 Juvenile Justice Boards across the country were pending as on October 31, 2023, according to a study conducted by the India Justice Report released on Thursday.

The study, titled “Juvenile Justice and Children in Conflict with the Law: A Study of Capacity at the Frontlines”, showed that 1,00,904 cases were filed against minors between November 1, 2022, and October 31, 2023.

Of this, the Juvenile Justice Boards had only disposed of 45,097.

The boards are constituted under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The Act states that state governments are required to constitute one or more Juvenile Justice Boards in each district for dealing with matters relating to children who have been accused of crime.

The board must comprise a metropolitan magistrate or a judicial magistrate with at least three years’ experience and two social workers, of whom at least one shall be a woman.

The study on the juvenile justice system was conducted based on responses received from 250 Right to Information queries, in the absence of a central and public repository of information on the boards.

The India Justice Report study framed 16 questions on the capacity of the juvenile justice system to state police headquarters, the Department of Women and Child Development, State Child Protection Society and the State Legal Services Authority.

More than 500 responses were received from 28 states and two Union Territories, covering 530 districts.

“In a decade since the passing of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015, the IJR study finds that the decentralised architecture meant to deliver child-centric services suffers from systemic gaps, including a lack of inter-agency coordination and data-sharing,” the report stated.

It pointed out that 92% of the districts in India had constituted Juvenile Justice Boards. However, 24% of the boards were not fully constituted and 30% of the total did not have an attached legal services clinic, a requirement of the National Legal Services Authority.

According to the study, only Odisha, Sikkim, and Jammu and Kashmir had fully constituted boards.

A total of 30% of the 436 sanctioned posts for social workers in 218 Special Juvenile Police Units had also not been filled till October 31, 2023, said the study.

It added that 15 states reported only 28 medical officers in 128 institutions. They also only had 82 full-time superintendent in charge of the institutions.

The states are: Assam, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

Fourteen states and Union Territories – Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and West Bengal – did not have Places of Safety to hold children between the ages of 16 to 18 years who were accused of committing a heinous offence, according to the study.

The Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 allows those aged above 16 to be treated as adults if they have been accused of a heinous crime.

If the minors are tried as adults and convicted, they are be placed in an observation home till they are 21, and then shifted to a jail. They cannot be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without the possibility of release.

The study report stated that only Goa had reported an Observation Home, where a minor is sent during the pendency of an inquiry as a temporary measure, in both its districts. Rajasthan reported 40 in 42 districts, and Mizoram and Maharashtra reported more Observation Homes than districts.

Commenting on the findings, Justice Madan B Lokur, a former Judge of the Supreme Court and chairperson of the United Nations Internal Justice Council, said it was “worrying” that nearly a quarter of the boards were functioning without a full bench 10 years after the Act was passed.

“This has a detrimental effect on children who fall under its purview,” he said. “There should be a concerted effort to routinely collate and disseminate data specifically on Juvenile Justice. Inadequate and patchy data from RTIs is concerning.”

Every time a bomb exploded nearby when Satya Dev Rahul was stranded on board a ship in Yemen, the young seafarer feared for his life.

For nine months in 2024, he was trapped on the MV Captain Tarek, anchored in Hodeidah Port, while Yemen was at war and subjected to regular bombing raids.

As explosions lit up the sky, he could see terror on the faces of his colleagues. All of them had signed on as seafarers a year earlier, but none had been paid – a pattern of exploitation in the shipping industry that they were unaware of.

Months before, their employer, Sata Chartering Shipping and Co, had stopped communicating with them and abandoned the vessel, leaving the crew members to fend for themselves.

“There were blasts left and right, and we were in between. The ship would vibrate. We felt these were our last days,” Rahul, who was 31 at the time, told Context.

This was his first seafaring job after he completed a masters degree in business administration and obtained a maritime Certificate of Competency.

Eight Indian seafarers and eight seafarers from Syria worked aboard the MV Captain Tarek and could neither escape nor sail away. The captain had given their passports and logbooks to port authorities, effectively trapping them on board.

The crew was surviving on meagre rations of one daily meal of instant noodles cooked over a wood fire. They slept on the open deck, as the ship had no diesel to power its generator and without air conditioning, the cabins were unbearably hot. There was no fresh water on board, and to bathe, they would climb overboard into the sea.

“I had a full body allergy and was itching all over,” said Rahul, who is from Ghaziabad, near New Delhi.

For Rahul, the realisation that he and his colleagues had been abandoned was gradual. Contact between the ship owner and captain had grown less regular before stopping altogether.

The crew had not been paid for seven months. The cook stopped making meals for the crew, and the Syrian seafarers stopped working. Rahul quietly panicked.

“When all such things start happening, we realised nobody was there to take care of us,” he said. “And it was a war zone.”

“We take all allegations related to seafarer welfare seriously and reiterate our commitment to upholding international maritime labor standards in all operations under our management,” said Capt M. Hammoud, Sata Chartering’s International Safety Manager in an emailed statement to Context.

Sata Chartering is no longer associated with the vessel MV Captain Tarek, Hammoud added. He did not respond to follow-up questions about when the company ceased managing the vessel.

Yemen, which has been engulfed in a regional conflict with a coalition of Middle Eastern and African countries led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates since 2014, is a hot spot for abandoned vessels.

In 2024, the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah Port was subjected as well to bombing raids by Israeli forces, which Human Rights Watch condemned as “unlawful indiscriminate" attacks on civilians and a possible war crime.

Israeli fighter jets have bombed Hodeidah, the port city in Yemen controlled by the Houthis. The Houthis have repeatedly launched attacks at Israel this year in support of Palestinians in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/dZJwpWUGs6

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 29, 2024

Seafarer abandonment cases have reached unprecedented levels in 2025, with more than 2,280 mariners stranded aboard 222 vessels, marking a 30% increase compared with the same period in 2024.

This surge has resulted in $13.1 million in unpaid wages between January and July this year, the ITF said.

Soaring operational costs, unpredictable freight rates, mounting debts and lax regulatory oversight are issues driving abandonments.

Ship owners may opt to cut ties rather than pay wages, cover repatriation or maintain aging vessels.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation defines seafarer abandonment as a situation in which a ship owner fails to cover a crew's wages, repatriation or basic needs, leaving them stranded aboard a vessel or in a foreign port.

Leaving an abandoned ship is difficult. Many seafarers have their passports and identification documents confiscated by their employer, and port or visa restrictions often prevent them from going ashore. They may choose to remain aboard in hopes that they will eventually be paid.

Context interviewed 11 seafarers abandoned by their employers and left drifting at sea or stranded in ports in this final instalment of an investigative series uncovering exploitation in the shipping industry.

Almost 10% of the world’s seafarers hail from India, the third-highest supplying nation behind China and the Philippines.

In India, irregular recruitment in the maritime sector is widespread, creating risks for seafarers. Sometimes agents work with companies intent on cutting costs and maximising profits at the expense of the crew’s rights and welfare.

Even licensed recruitment agents, who are supposed to hold a valid Recruitment and Placement of Seafarers License from the government's Directorate of Shipping and follow fair labour practices, commonly break the rules.

They are supposed to ensure seafarers are paid their agreed salaries and not charged fees to secure employment, but in practise, recruitment fees and misleading promises about salaries or job destinations are widespread.

Rahul’s agent was licensed, yet he was required to pay $3,000 for the job and purchase a $1,000 Apple Watch “as a gift for the captain’s son”, he said.

The gift request sounded alarm bells at the time, but Rahul needed the work.

“Paying money for a job is normal here. But if they demand anything else, that is not good,” he said.

Gifts and threats

Other rookie seafarers employed on the vessel had been made to pay even more, up to $4,500, he said.

Seafarers tend not to disclose what happens with recruitment agents who may threaten them over raising any alarm about their treatment.

“For family security reasons, nobody speaks about this,” Rahul said.

“There are really cases of slavery, not only severe exploitation. There are cases where seafarers are intentionally kept onboard for 10, 11 months without pay," said Mohamed Arrachedi, the ITF’s director for the Middle East and Iran. “That’s slavery.”

One agent involved in recruiting the seafarers joined Rahul’s ship, taking a role as a crew member to keep them in line. When Rahul asked when they would get paid, the agent threatened to have him removed from the ship.

One of Rahul’s colleagues was subjected to so much violence from the agent he tried to jump overboard. When a hungry crew member on night watch attempted to make himself a snack, he was repeatedly beaten.

The intimidation became almost constant.

“He would say to us ‘You are here, but your family is alone in India," said Rahul.

After a cargo ship capsized in Iran, two young Indian seafarers were left stranded—one lost his leg, both lost their wages. Cases of seafarer abandonment have surged 187% in 2024, leaving thousands without pay or support.

✍️ Katie McQue reports

🔗 https://t.co/Yxig5W9977 pic.twitter.com/xKUDgoKMME

— Context News (@ContextNewsroom) October 29, 2025

No international treaty

Each commercial vessel must be registered with a country’s flag so that they have a legal nationality that determines the laws they must follow and the protections they receive at sea.

In 2024, nearly 90% of abandoned seafarers were stranded aboard ships flying “flags of convenience”, a designation linked to nations with weak oversight and lax enforcement of shipping laws.

“Flags of convenience states are really just tax-saving registries. They don’t have the ability to investigate what goes on the ships,” said Cormac McGarry, director, maritime intelligence and security services, at Control Risks, a global risk and strategic consulting firm.

Ship owners may opt for a flag of convenience to bypass safety standards that may be required in their home country, avoid taxes and skirt laws that protect seafarers’ labour conditions and wages.

“These flags do not have any proper regulations. They are just there to make money,” said Chirag Bahri, operations manager at the International Seafarers' Welfare & Assistance Network, a non-profit that supports maritime workers in distress.

“These bad owners register their ships with them to get free from issues that arise,” he said.

Each year, the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) – an administrative agreement among twenty-seven Maritime Authorities – issues a list grading flag states on their performance.

The least troublesome states are graded white, the riskiest are black and those that fall in between are grey.

Nations landing on the blacklist include Tanzania, Comoros, Palau, Vietnam, Ukraine and Algeria. Panama — one of the world’s most sought-after flag registries, known for its streamlined online registration, low-cost labour policies and tax-free incentives for foreign ship owners — is on the grey list.

There is no international treaty to regulate the black-listed flags. Some are tiny island nations that issue registries to vessels but have no control or regulatory mechanisms whatsoever.

Sometimes, should a ship owner cease paying for its flag, the flag state withdraws the registry, washing its hands of abandoned ships and seafarers in distress.

“The flags run away,” Bahri said.

Under the Maritime Labour Convention, an international treaty established by the International Labour Organization to safeguard seafarers' rights, ship owners bear the ultimate responsibility for covering repatriation costs, unpaid wages, essential needs and medical care.

But when ship owners abandon their obligations, the burden shifts. Flag states, port authorities and recruitment agencies in the seafarers' home countries become responsible for their welfare.

But port authorities in some countries are ineffective due to a lack of clear lines of responsibility, political will or resources.

Expectations and sanctions

For nine months in 2021 and 2022, Nihal Sharma was forced to stay aboard an aged ship named Farvar in Genaveh Port, Iran. He was 26 and had recently graduated with a computer science degree.

The ship for three months had sailed back and forth to Kuwait, transporting camel feed and construction materials. Then the ship owner went out of business due to a loss of contracts.

The vessel was left anchored in Genaveh Port with only Sharma and another Indian seafarer on board. The boat had little fuel left, and the shipmates conserved use of the generator to power the air conditioning. They were also close to starving.

The ship owner kept tabs on them from shore, making it impossible to leave. He would bring scant rations of eggs, some tomatoes and onions, dried beans and peas every week or so. They were forced to beg for food from other ships that sailed into the port. The water supplied by the port made their throats hurt.

“I am calling him daily, messaging him. Please give me my salary,” said Sharma. “I told him I have to give some money to my father, and he is not responding. Sometimes bad thoughts also come into my mind. Sometimes, I think I will do suicide.”

Sharma had paid more than $4,600 for his seafaring job. In India, the recruitment agent promised him a salary of $550 per month. When he arrived in Iran, his employer told him the salary was actually $200. After the first two months, the payments stopped.

“Everybody is cheating, everybody takes advantage of us,” he said.

INDIAN SEAFARERS ABANDONED

401 in 2023
899 in 2024

India shamefully Ranks #1 accounting 29% of Seafarer Abandonment Cases

Abandonment a breach of international labour norms and human rights.
Indian seafarers cannot, and must not, be left stranded.

FSUI appeals: Immediate… pic.twitter.com/cKdbo2IZr4

— FSUI (@FSUIINDIA) August 17, 2025

Mohamed Arrachedi, the ITF’s director for the Middle East and Iran, gets hundreds of WhatsApp messages every day from stranded seafarers asking for help. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Karif Wat

Arrachedi, from the ITF, is used to carrying two phones with him. One is constantly flickers with WhatsApp messages that come by the hundreds each day and throughout the night. Seafarers, usually very young and inexperienced, stuck in impossible situations around the Middle East, are begging for his help.

The burden is great for Arrachedi, an affable middle-aged Moroccan man who is constantly travelling from his home in Bilbao, Spain, for his work.

One of his toughest tasks is managing the expectations of the desperate seafarers and their families, he said. It is difficult to extract them and fly them to safety, especially in the Middle East, where rescues can be hampered by red tape, visa requirements, sanctions, conflict and uncooperative governments.

Often, by the time seafarers reach out for help, their situations have deteriorated to dire, he said.

“We have seafarers who come to us because they have no food,” Arrachedi told Context.

At the time of this interview in March, Arrachedi’s team was providing assistance to abandoned vessels that included one in a Sudanese port, where the Russian and Indian crew members had not been paid for 18 months. To get them home, the ITF needed immigration passes on their behalf and a lawyer to allow them to leave the country. They also needed airfare.

Sometimes, the only way to pay the crew is to sell the ship and give them the proceeds, Arrachedi said.

But the crew cannot get their money if they have already left, and if international sanctions are involved, they may not be eligible to get the money at all.

The United States has imposed restrictions on activities with Iran under various legal authorities since 1979, following the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

During President Donald Trump’s first term, the U.S. withdrew from its nuclear deal with Iran and ramped up sanctions on its petrochemical industry and other sectors, including construction materials and aerospace equipment.

Various other countries subject to U.S. sanctions include Sudan, Libya and Venezuela.

“We have files in Iran where seafarers are detained, in prison, accused of fuel trafficking. The seafarers and their families come to us desperate, asking for our help,” said Arrachedi. “We have cases of abandonment in Tehran, where even the flag state is Iranian, and they do absolutely nothing to assist these cases.”

Abandonment cases are particularly difficult in countries under U.S. or United Nations sanctions where even buying food or sending money on a humanitarian basis is not possible, according to experts.

Noodles cook on a pot over an open fire in this illustration photo. Stranded at sea, the ship crew survived on meagre rations of one daily meal of instant noodles cooked over a wood fire. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Karif Wat

“In order for us to send money for humanitarian purposes, it is impossible. Money for visa overstaying is also an issue. We cannot send money to Iran because we cannot breach sanctions,” said Arrachedi.

The United States Department of the Treasury did not respond to a comment request about why there are no sanctions carve-outs for humanitarian purposes.

As bombs dropped over Hodeidah last September, Rahul and four Indian colleagues decided they needed to leave Yemen.

The ITF and local partners appealed on their behalf to a local agent to allow them to leave. At the time, foreigners were not permitted to use the nearest airport at Sanaa, and the only option was a 14-hour bus ride to Aden, where they could take a direct flight to Mumbai.

The crew was nervous because the journey would take them through militant-controlled areas peppered with checkpoints set up by groups including Al-Qaeda. Each stop carried the risk of questioning, detention or worse, and they knew a wrong word or a suspicious glance could spell doom.

Arrachedi, who helped coordinate the escape, waited anxiously for updates as the crew passed through checkpoint after checkpoint. His phone would go silent for hours, and each gap in contact felt like a sign something had gone wrong. There was a real possibility that at any point, a suspicious or jumpy militant could have simply shot them, he said.

“They were very exposed and vulnerable,” Arrachedi said. “But what other option did they have?”

Rahul made it home to India, but the ordeal was costly. He is still owed $14,000 in wages for the seven months he spent aboard the MV Captain Tarek, and the harrowing experience convinced him to abandon a seafaring career altogether.

Afraid of retaliation, he has chosen not to seek retribution against the ship owner or the recruitment agent with the authorities in India, worried they could act on their earlier threats.

“Seafarers don’t have the right to become angry,” he said. “For our safety, and for our family’s safety.”

This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network.

This article first appeared on Context, powered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The National Investigation Agency has arrested four more men linked to the November 10 blast near Delhi’s Red Fort metro station, taking the total arrests to six. The four persons have been identified as Muzammil Shakeel Ganai from Pulwama, Adeel Ahmed Rather from Anantnag, Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay from Shopian and Shaheen Saeed from Lucknow.

They were taken into custody in Srinagar on production orders from a Patiala House Court judge.

The central agency claimed all four played a “key role” in the attack on NOvember 10, which killed 13 persons. Two days after the blast, the Union government termed it a “terrorist incident”. Read on.

How a Kashmir probe into Jaish posters nearly unmasked Delhi blast plot

The Supreme Court has ruled that courts cannot impose timelines on the president or governors for granting assent to bills. The court held that declaring “deemed assent” for bills pending beyond prescribed periods contradicted the Constitution and violated the separation of powers.

It said such a decision would amount to the judiciary assuming the governor’s role. However, the court noted that it may order a governor to decide within a specific period if delays “frustrate the legislative process”.

The court was answering a reference made in May by President Droupadi Murmu regarding the Supreme Court’s April 8 judgement that had set such timelines. That earlier verdict held that governors must decide on bills within a reasonable time under Article 200, and that the president must act within three months under Article 201, with any delay explained to the state government.

Murmu had sought the court’s opinion on whether the actions of governors and the president could be subject to judicial scrutiny. A bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai heard the matter and reserved its judgement in September. Read on.

The administration in Assam’s Sonitpur district has ordered five declared foreigners to leave the state within 24 hours under the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act. The residents of Dhobokata village – Hanufa, Mariyam Nessa, Fatema, Monowara and Amjad Ali – had been declared as foreigners by the Sonitpur foreigners tribunal on October 24.

District Commissioner Ananda Kumar Das said their presence was “detrimental” to public interest and internal security.

The notices directed the authorities to delete the names of the five persons from the electoral rolls, cancel their ration cards, freeze or cancel their Aadhaar cards and remove them from all government schemes.

Das has directed them to leave the state through the Dhubri, Sribhumi or South Salmara-Mankachar routes, and warned that non-compliance would lead to forcible removal under the 1950 Act. Read on.

Why experts contest Assam CM’s use of 1950 law to justify forcing out people into Bangladesh

Jammu and Kashmir’s State Investigation Agency on Thursday raided the Jammu office of the newspaper Kashmir Times, alleging that the organisation was engaged in activities “inimical to the state”. Editors Prabodh Jamwal and Anuradha Bhasin rejected the accusations as “baseless” and said the “coordinated crackdown” was another attempt to silence the news outlet.

The raids followed a first information report accusing the newspaper of anti-national activity and attempts to spread disaffection against the country. In a statement, the editors said that criticising the government was not the same as being inimical to the state and argued that a questioning press was vital to democracy.

The added the allegations were meant to “intimidate, to delegitimise, and ultimately to silence” the organisation.

“Journalism is not a crime,” they further said. “Accountability is not treason.” Read on.

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

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Radha Mohan Das Agrawal on Tuesday claimed that his party could have won the bye-election in Rajasthan’s Anta Assembly seat using wrongful means but deliberately chose not to, ETV Bharat Rajasthan reported.

The Congress’ Pramod Jain won in Anta on November 14, defeating the ruling BJP’s Morpal Suman with a margin of 15,612 votes.

Speaking to reporters in Jaipur on Tuesday, Agrawal, who is a national general secretary of the BJP, claimed that the Anta bye-election results were proof of his party’s commitment to conducting free and fair elections.

“The Anta bye-poll has proved that the BJP conducts elections with neutrality in this country,” The Wire quoted the Rajya Sabha MP as saying. “If we wanted to wrongly control the elections on the basis of politics, voter list, administration, then the Anta election would have been in our pocket.”

He added: “But we respected the people’s mandate with all honesty.”

Agrawal also questioned critics who have accused the BJP of engaging in electoral malpractice, claiming that the results in Anta were a “tight slap on their cheek”.

The Congress has repeatedly accused the Election Commission of large-scale vote rigging, including in the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections held in 2024, alleging what they called “industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of national institutions.”

The Election Commission has rejected these allegations.

The National Investigation Agency on Thursday said it has arrested four more prime accused persons linked to the November 10 blast near the Red Fort metro station in Delhi. This takes the total number of arrests in the case to six.

The agency said that the four persons were identified as Muzammil Shakeel Ganai from Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, Adeel Ahmed Rather from Anantnag, Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay from Shopian and Shaheen Saeed from Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow.

“The four accused were taken into custody by the NIA in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on production orders from the District Sessions Judge, Patiala House Court,” the statement added.

The NIA claimed that all four of them played a “key role” in the terror attack.

The blast near the Red Fort metro station on November 10 had left 13 persons dead. A doctor named Umar Nabi was believed to have been driving the car that exploded. Two days after the explosion, the Union government described it as a “terrorist incident”.

On Sunday, the agency had arrested an aide allegedly linked to Nabi, who was identified as Amir Rashid Ali. The NIA alleged that the Hyundai i20 car used in the blast was registered in Ali’s name. This was the first arrest in the case.

A day later, the NIA arrested another alleged key associate linked to the doctor, identified as Jasir Bilal Wani alias Danish, a resident of Qazigund in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag, from Srinagar.

“NIA investigations have revealed that Jasir had allegedly provided technical support for carrying out terror attacks by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets ahead of the deadly car bomb blast…” the agency said then.

Wani was an “active co-conspirator” behind the attack and had worked closely with Nabi to “plan the terror carnage”, the agency alleged.

A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded Wani to 10 days custody of the NIA.

The NIA said on Thursday that it is working closely with state police forces “to track and arrest every member of the terrorist module involved in the carnage”.

NIA Arrests 4 more Prime Accused in Red Fort Blast Case, Taking total to 6 pic.twitter.com/mLPFiFndTg

— NIA India (@NIA_India) November 20, 2025

Hours before the blast, the police said that it had cracked an “inter-state and transnational terror module” in Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. Two doctors from Kashmir – Adeel Ahmad Rather and Muzamil Shakeel – were among those arrested in the alleged case.

The police said at the time that it had recovered 2,900 kg of improvised explosive device-making material in raids in several states.

In the backdrop of the blast and the terror module case, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on November 12 conducted raids at more than 300 locations in the Kashmir valley allegedly linked to persons affiliated with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami.

The actions came after intelligence that elements linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami, banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, were trying to revive the organisation under different names, the police said.

The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have not officially linked the terror module and blast cases with the ongoing raids.

The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association on Monday flagged that Kashmiri students in several northern states are facing profiling, eviction and intimidation in the aftermath of the November 10 blast.

Also read: How a Kashmir probe into Jaish posters nearly unmasked Delhi blast plot

The Supreme Court on Thursday held that courts cannot impose timelines on the president or governors for granting assent to bills, Live Law reported.

The ruling came while answering a reference made by President Droupadi Murmu in May regarding the Supreme Court’s April 8 judgement that had prescribed timelines.

The court had held that governors must decide on bills within a reasonable time and cannot delay indefinitely under Article 200. Similarly, the president must act within three months under Article 201 and any delay beyond that must be explained and communicated to the state government.

Article 200 and Article 201 outline the process of assent to bills by governors and the president.

Murmu had asked for the court’s opinion on whether the actions of governors and the president could be tried in court, and whether such timelines could be imposed on them in the absence of any such provision in the law.

Article 143(1) allows the president to ask for the opinion and the advice of the court on matters of legal and public importance.

A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai, and Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, PS Narasimha and AS Chandurkar had heard the matter and reserved its judgement in September.

On Thursday, the bench held that the idea of courts declaring “deemed assent”, allowing pending bills to be considered approved if timelines for governors to act were breached, was in contrast to the spirit of the Constitution, Live Law reported.

It added that the process also violated the doctrine of separation of powers.

Declaring “deemed assent” would amount to the judiciary taking over functions reserved for the governor, the bench observed.

However, it also held that if there is a prolonged or unexplained delay by a governor that “frustrates the legislative process”, the court can exercise limited judicial review to direct the governor to decide within a time-bound manner, Live Law reported.

The April ruling came on a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government after Governor RN Ravi did not act on several bills for more than three years before rejecting them and sending some to the president.

The court had held that governors must decide on bills within a reasonable time and cannot delay indefinitely under Article 200. Similarly, the president must act within three months under Article 201 and any delay beyond that must be explained and communicated to the state government.

The judgement had also introduced the concept of “deemed assent” in cases of prolonged inaction.

On September 11, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, contested the submissions of Opposition-ruled states – Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh – that opposed the presidential reference.

Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Goa and Chhattisgarh had defended the functional autonomy of governors and the president in assenting to bills passed by state legislatures.

Earlier, advocate KK Venugopal, representing Kerala, and Kapil Sibal, appearing for Tamil Nadu, had argued that the issues raised by the president were already settled by a series of Supreme Court rulings, including the April 8 verdict.

Also read:

• Pocket vetoed: Governors are sitting on bills – and undermining federalism

• How effective is Modi’s strategy of using hostile governors in Opposition states?

Jammu and Kashmir’s State Investigation Agency on Thursday raided the office of the newspaper Kashmir Times in Jammu, claiming that the news organisation’s activities were “inimical to the state”.

The editors of Kashmir Times, Prabodh Jamwal and Anuradha Bhasin, described the accusations as “baseless” and said that the “coordinated crackdown” was yet another attempt to silence the news organisation.

The raids by the State Investigation Agency, a specialised investigative body under the Union Territory’s home department, came after the registration of a first information report alleging the involvement of the news organisation in anti-national activities and attempts to spread disaffection against the country, The Indian Express quoted unidentified officials as saying.

Jamwal and Anuradha Bhasin, in a statement, said that criticising the government was not the same as being inimical to the state.

“In fact, it is the very opposite,” the editors said. “A robust, questioning press is essential to a healthy democracy. Our work of holding power to account, investigating corruption, amplifying marginalised voices strengthens our nation. It does not weaken it.”

The statement said that the Kashmir Times, whose founding editor was Ved Bhasin, had stood as a pillar of independent journalism since 1954, adding that the news organisation had “chronicled the region’s triumphs and failures” with equal rigour.

“We have asked difficult questions when others remained silent,” it added. “We are being targeted precisely because we continue to do this work. In an era when critical voices are increasingly scarce, we remain one of the few independent outlets willing to speak truth to power.”

The editors said that the accusations levelled against the news organisation were designed to “intimidate, to delegitimise, and ultimately to silence”.

“We will not be silenced,” they asserted.

The editors called on the authorities to “immediately cease this harassment, withdraw these unfounded allegations, and respect the constitutional guarantees of press freedom”.

The statement also called on colleagues in the media to stand with the Kashmir Times.

“We call on civil society, on citizens who value their right to know, to recognise that this moment is a test of whether journalism can survive in an environment of increasing authoritarianism,” it said.

The editors added: “Journalism is not a crime. Accountability is not treason. And we will continue to inform, investigate, and advocate for those who depend on us. The state may have the power to raid our offices. But it cannot raid our commitment to the truth.”

The statement also noted that the print edition of the Kashmir Times was suspended in 2021-’22 after “relentless targeting”.

The FIR filed ahead of the raid mentioned alleged activities and communications that were under scrutiny for “potential threats to the sovereignty and integrity of India”, according to The Indian Express.

The newspaper quoted officials as saying that the raid started at about 6 am. State Investigation Agency officials examined documents, digital equipment and other material as part of the raid.

While Jamwal is listed as the editor of the news organisation on its website, Anuradha Bhasin is the managing editor. Both of them had moved to the United States a while back and have been staying there, The Indian Express reported.

Washington has approved the sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Excalibur guided artillery munitions to India, the United States’ Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on Wednesday.

The sale is worth $92.8 million, or about Rs 822 crore, in all.

The US Department of Defense said that the sale would improve “the security of a major defence partner which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia regions”.

It also noted that India would have “no difficulty absorbing these articles and services into its armed forces”.

According to the department, the first package, valued at $45.7 million, or about Rs 405 crore, includes units of the Javelin system, one fly-to-buy missile and 25 Lightweight Command Launch Units, NDTV reported.

It also covers non-major defence equipment such as basic skills trainers, missile simulation rounds, battery coolant units, operator manuals, technical data, refurbishment services and other related elements of logistics and programme support.

The second package approves the possible sale of up to 216 Excalibur tactical projectiles and associated equipment for an estimated $47.1 million, or around Rs 417 crore.

India already uses Excalibur precision-guided artillery ammunition in its M777 howitzer guns, Reuters reported.

This marks New Delhi’s first purchase of US defence equipment under Washington’s foreign military sales programme since bilateral ties deteriorated in August after President Donald Trump doubled the tariffs on goods imported from India to 50% for purchasing Russian oil amid the war in Ukraine.

Trump has repeatedly alleged that India’s imports were fuelling Russia’s war on Ukraine.

After the “reciprocal” levies were announced, New Delhi had said it was “extremely unfortunate” that the US had chosen to impose additional tariffs on India “for actions that several other countries are also taking in their own national interest”.

On November 10, Trump said that Washington would bring down the tariffs imposed on India “at some point” and claimed that New Delhi had substantially reduced its purchase of Russian oil.

Trump also said that his country was getting close to a “fair deal” with India.

On October 31, the two countries had also signed a 10-year framework for “major defence partnership”.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said that the agreement would “usher in a new era in our already strong defence partnership”.

The US had designated India as its “major defence partner” in 2016. In 2018, India was elevated to tier one of the Strategic Trade Authorisation, which allows New Delhi to receive license-free access to a range of US military and dual-use technologies.

Also read:

• Should India enter into a military alliance with the US against China?

• Shift in India-US ties as ‘multipolar’ world order dawns

The Air Quality Index at 18 of the 39 monitoring stations in Delhi on Thursday recorded readings above 400, categorised as “severe”, showed the Sameer application, which provides hourly updates published by the Central Pollution Control Board, at 1.06 pm.

The application did not have any data from one of the stations at the time.

Despite ongoing restrictions to curb pollution, Delhi’s average AQI stood at 394, placing it at the higher end of the “very poor” category, the data showed.

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”.

An Air Quality Index in the “severe” category signifies hazardous pollution levels that can pose serious risks even to healthy individuals.

In areas adjoining the national capital, Ghaziabad recorded the most severe pollution levels with an AQI of 430, followed by Noida, which logged 409. Greater Noida reported “very poor” air quality with an index of 384.

In Haryana, Gurugram registered an AQI of 303, placing it in the “very poor” category, while Faridabad recorded an AQI of 257.

Delhi has been recording air quality in the “poor” or worse categories since mid-October, leading to Stage 3 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan being imposed on November 11.

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.

Restrictions under Stage 3 entail 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.

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, along with the lighting of firecrackers, vehicular pollution, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court asked the Commission for Air Quality Management to consider shifting sports activities scheduled in November and December in Delhi and the national capital region to “safer and less susceptible months”.

It ordered that matters pertaining to air pollution in the capital be heard on a monthly basis, so as to monitor the measures being taken by the authorities.

The air quality panel was also told the commission that it was allowed to take “any proactive measure” to curb air pollution, The Hindu reported.

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to impose year-round restrictions on activities prohibited under GRAP holding that the national capital “cannot be brought to a standstill” in the name of fighting air pollution.

Also read: Why air quality numbers in Delhi vary widely

The administration in Assam’s Sonitpur district ordered five declared foreigners to leave the state within 24 hours on Wednesday.

The five residents of the Dhobokata village – Hanufa, Mariyam Nessa, Fatema, Monowara and Amjad Ali – were issued the order under the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act.

The Act grants power to district commissioners and senior superintendents of police to expel “illegal migrants” from the state by bypassing the foreigners tribunals.

In notices issued on Tuesday, Sonitpur District Commissioner Ananda Kumar Das told the five persons that “being a declared foreigner, your presence in India/Assam is detrimental to the interest of the general public and also for the internal security of the state”.

Sonitpur foreigners tribunal had on October 24 declared the five persons as foreign citizens in separate cases filed by the Tezpur superintendent of police (border) in 2006.

Das directed them to leave the state through the Dhubri, Sribhumi or South Salmara-Mankachar routes.

The notices also directed the authorities to delete the names of the five persons from the electoral rolls, cancel their ration cards, freeze or cancel their Aadhaar cards and remove them from all government schemes.

The district commissioner warned that if the five persons failed to comply, the authorities would take action to remove them from Assam under the 1950 Act.

In September, the Assam Cabinet approved the framing of a standard operating procedure under the Act. Earlier, cases pertaining to undocumented migrants were handled by foreigners tribunals.

Sarma had said that the standard operating procedure to use the 1950 Act had been approved, which would, to a large extent, “nullify” the role of the foreigners tribunals.

Foreigners tribunals in Assam are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship. However, the tribunals have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and of declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.

As per the standard operating procedure, if a district commissioner receives information from the police or other sources that a person is suspected to be an “illegal immigrant”, the official will direct the person to produce evidence of his citizenship within 10 days, Sarma had at the time.

If the district commissioner finds that the evidence submitted is not satisfactory, he can pass an expulsion order by invoking the 1950 Act, ordering the removal of the undocumented immigrant from Assam “by giving 24 hours’ time and by the route so specified”.

In June, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed the Assembly that the state government was planning to invoke the 1950 law to “push back” more suspected foreigners.

Sarma had claimed that the expulsion of declared foreigners was justified in the legal framework provided by the Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act.

The chief minister had said that the Supreme Court in October 2024 upheld Section 6A of the 1955 Citizenship Act, which gave “sweeping powers to the Assam government” to act under the 1950 law and that a deputy commissioner has the power to evict any person if there is prima facie evidence of their being an “illegal foreigner”.

Section 6A was introduced as a special provision when the Assam Accord was signed between the Union government and leaders of the Assam Movement in 1985. It allows foreigners who came to Assam between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, to seek Indian citizenship.

Indigenous groups in Assam have alleged that this provision in the Act has legalised infiltration by migrants from Bangladesh.

A brief history of the 1950 Act

Partition and subsequent communal riots had led to a movement of refugees and other migrants into Assam from East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. According to a 2012 white paper by the Assam government, around five lakh migrants and refugees entered the state in the initial years.

As discontent grew about the migration, the Union government had brought in the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act to tackle the presence of alleged foreigners in the state.

The law empowered the government to expel “a person or a class of persons” who were “ordinarily resident outside India and have come into Assam, if it believes that their stay “is detrimental to the interests of the general public of India”.

However, the law gave relief to refugees fleeing Pakistan on account of “civil disturbances or fear of such disturbances”, given the context of Partition.

Between 1962 and 1964, the police began a crackdown on alleged foreigners.

The drive soon stirred up a storm. “The process of detection and deportation was so atrocious that … Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, an Asamiya Muslim, who was then finance minister of Assam, and later became Union minister and president of India, had to take up the issue of atrocities and inhuman torture meted out to the innocent Indian Muslim citizens,” wrote political scientist Monirul Hussian in his book Assam Movement: Class, Ideology and Identity.

Ahmed threatened to resign over the harassment of those wrongly accused of being foreigners.

According to the Assam government’s white paper on the foreigners’ matter, Pakistan also threatened to drag the issue of deportation to the United Nations.

Eventually, it was “decided by the central government that before eviction every individual case should be examined by judicial authority...to stand the test of scrutiny before the international forum”, the white paper said.

In effect, the contentious implementation of the 1950 legislation opened the doors to Assam’s most important citizenship determination mechanism – the foreigners tribunals. Four such tribunals were set up by a statutory order on September 23, 1964, and more were to follow.

Legal experts have argued that the Sarma government, by invoking the 1950 law, was dragging the state back to the days of arbitrary expulsions, without even the “fig leaf” of due process provided by the foreigners tribunals.

Also read: Why experts contest Assam CM’s use of 1950 law to justify forcing out people into Bangladesh

Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on Thursday was sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar for the 10th time.

Kumar has been the chief minister for about 20 years, except for a nine-month period between 2014 and 2015. This makes him one of the longest-serving chief ministers.

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha took oath as ministers. They are expected to retain their positions as the deputy chief ministers.

Several ministers were inducted into the state Cabinet.

Governor Arif Mohammad Khan administered the oath of office to Kumar and others. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several chief ministers and Union ministers.

The National Democratic Alliance won the Bihar Assembly polls on November 14, bagging 202 of the 243 seats. A party or an alliance needs 122 seats in the 243-member Assembly to form the government.

The Opposition Mahagathbandhan won 35 seats.

As part of the NDA, Kumar’s JD(U) won 85 seats, almost doubling its tally of 43 seats from the 2020 polls. The BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 89 of the 101 constituencies it contested. Union minister Chirag Paswan’s faction of the Lok Janshakti Party won 19.

Kumar was the Union railway minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government between 1998 and 1999, and from 2001 to 2004. He also held the agriculture and surface transport portfolios at the Centre for brief periods between 1998 and 2001.

Also read:

• Explainer: Why Nitish Kumar is the real winner of the Bihar election
• Five reasons why Biharis are not done with Nitish Kumar yet
• What the Opposition got so wrong in Bihar

This is a judgement passed by the author to throw mud on Indian culture (“How early vernacular cookbooks set the template for domesticity, caste purity”). Gender inequality was everywhere in the world and is still prevailing. Also, as if, she is specially entitled, she is calling the old practices as backward. As such,this is a garbage thrown at general public in the name of history, with a narrow minded and deeply biases.

Does this authority not expect purity from the kitchen of a five-star hotel?.We conveniently forget the fundamentals, that quality and purity are often inter-changeable. If she is not expecting quality from star hotels where she dined, then what in those texts could be called purity of caste?

Olden day versions of today’s modern science is mostly absurd and outdated. But it evolved every day. Similarly, the texts have carried some documentation of what was thought of as a good practice at that time. We should filter the good aspects if it that can be applied to modern life rather than making this thoughtless commentary about gender, caste and religion.

The takeaway for me in this article is the list of original works. I will find time to read them to make my own judgement. – Raghuramam B

***

I quite enjoyed Sohel Sarkar's essay on vernacular cookbooks. She is spot-on in her reading and analysis of the world view created and cemented by these cookbooks. I now read the fading pages of my mother's go-to kitchen guide, the Tamil Brahmin cooking Bible Samaythu Paar (in three volumes translated and now available in many languages as Cook and See), as ethnographic sites because the descriptions and contexts for each recipe create a certain world.

In this world every festival meal is preceded by specific rituals for young women, young unmarried women in particular, foregrounding the anxiety and tension about them. It also lays out how the elder males of the family must be fed on these festivals. These books were surrogates in time when letters took months and mothers/mother-in-law were miles away from the young bride/mother/housewife.

Customs, traditions and taboos are laid out precisely and in easy to replicate steps. They epitomise Sarkar's analysis. I also appreciate Sarkar's extensive references and links. Ffollowing up on them! –Mahalakshmi Jayaram

***

Not even once does the author hint that vegetarianism is egalitarian (every meat eater tacitly endorses animal cruelty) and frames the issue as dominant caste (read brahminical) usurpation of culinary narrative. Meat eaters are morally inferior. – Bob Marlay

Eggless brownies

Lovely article (“The eggless brownie and the conundrum of cultural purity”). As a home baker I'm defeated regularly – for the sake of business.

They say money is in the eggless game and I'm selling bakes I just don’t want to taste myself, like eggless brownies add eggless chocolate sponge. However, I simply put my foot down if I’m asked for eggless plum cakes or macaroons.

Even if one of my clients enjoys egg in the bakes and orders a celebration cake, there is a possibility that 60% of the guests at a gathering will want an eggless dessert. So the story never ends and we are denying ourselves of good bakes. – Shalini Thomas

Kerala poverty debate

They have a point in asking the government to publish data-based evidence in the public domain (“Professors, economists question Kerala’s claims about eradicating ‘extreme poverty’”). Without doing so first, it was rather silly on the part of the administration to announce that Kerala had eradicated “extreme poverty”. Chief secretaries should have raised this matter. Bureaucrats officers should be professional, proficient and impartial. – Arunkumar Holla

***
In the book Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next, written by John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay, experts on reducing costs, space and time, Kasarda mentions that his favourite book is Toffler’s Powershift (“Rejoinder: Why superhighways risk derailing the ‘Kerala model’ of development”). Kasarda boils down Powershift to three words, speed, speed and speed, and the motto, the survival of the fastest. Our vain votaries of velocity too seem to be genuflecting at this altar of hubris. It will also be instructive to read The Routes of Man by Ted Conover, to realise, among other things, how these greed breeds congestion and pollution, and propels avoidable competition for increasingly scarce and exorbitant fuel. – Sudhir Devadas

Kerala needs to change from the romanticised idea of its old model and move towards development. Highways are a step in the right direction. If not, the present trend of youngsters migrating out of Kerala in large numbers will continue and the state will be reduced into an old age home of the elderly recollecting past glory. Already there are several villages and towns with not enough youngsters to even take care of the elders. Upper-middle-class girls are reluctant to marry men who have no plans to migrate. Praising the old Kerala model makes little sense today, as the biggest problem now is retaining youth, whose priorities are clear: migrate to regions of the world where there is material progress, professionalism and infrastructure. The article completely ignores this social reality. – KM Krishnan

Rohingya refugees

I fully share Harsh Mander's extraordinary views published in Scroll, of which I am proud to be a member (“‘We heard about India’s insaniyat. How wrong we were’: Testimony of the Rohingya thrown into the sea”). I congratulate Mander as a great writer, social activist and a former bureaucrat. – Shamsul Alam

Writing about India

I really enjoyed reading this and thank you for publishing such essays (“‘Heat and Dust’ at 50: The ideas of India in Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Booker Prize-winning novel”). But I think, while talking about a patronising attitude towards India, an important book has been missed: VS Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness published in 1964. An Area of Darkness was equally patronising towards India, a forebearer to Heat and Dust which came out nine years later.

Of course, the two books are very different – one is fiction and the other a travelogue – but similar in their worldview if a little separated in literary merit; Naipaul’s book is still treated as a classic. This attitude was disrupted by Midnight’s Children leading to Vikram Seth and Amitava Ghosh and more authors who not only presented the insiders’ view of India but also dealt with it in much more detail and sensitivity. Not mentioning An Area of Darkness localises the essay to a short period of the ’70s, denying it a much larger narrative arc. – Indrasish Banerjee

Love for animals

This is a brilliant, logical and objective take on the love and compassion shown to voiceless street dogs, by us, the liberal middle class and especially the Hindu liberal middle class (“What the outrage over stray dogs says about the moral compass of middle-class Indians”). The truth is that Hindus see in the abandoned dog in the street the face of a human who is born again to suffer for “bad karma” and they can restore the soul to its elevated human state through acts of goodness and compassion. But then what about the same love and kindness to our kind, whom we brush shoulders every day in this very life? Is that not central to human existence? – Annie Joseph.

***

The loving spirit of Ratan Tata endures in the universe, showering his love and kindness on all his animal friends, known and unknown (“A new book remembers industrialist Ratan Tata’s love for animals”). – Sunity

Persian poetry

Thank you for introducing the wonders of the Persian language to the world (“‘Discard your ego-self. Begin the journey’: Read 12th-century Persian poet Attar in English”). – Saeed Sadeghpour

***

This was absolutely soul-touching, beautiful and wondrous. – GK Ramachandra

Queer desire

Why is this intellectual honesty not shown when we discuss wars in India involving Muslims? (“‘Forbidden Desire’: Indian queer history cannot be decolonised by ignoring the violence of caste.”) The answer is we don't want to put that baggage on today’s Indian Muslims. So why is the same baggage put on Indians belonging to the general castes even though we have moved miles away from the caste system?

How many Hindus from the privileged castes have the Manusmriti or any radical caste books at home? The answer is none. If we want a modern balanced society, we need to discuss in every religion Hindus are a non-stop evolving society. – Rahul Raj Singh

Mental health

The article on the Ride for Mental Health deeply moved me "(“Weary, wary and alone: From Delhi to Kerala, the mental distress Indians struggle with”). Thank you Istikhar Ali for this profound listening journey across India's emotional landscape.

As an elderly person from Kerala, I see the crisis you describe intensifying among our youth. While the entire piece resonated, your segment on "Political Priorities" was particularly vital. You perfectly articulated that mental health is not an individual failing, but a barometer of structural forces – economic precarity, social solitude, and political fear.

Here, the pressure on young people is palpable, masked by high literacy yet fueled by competition and digital isolation. Your call for a “politics of care” is the necessary conclusion. We cannot treat this in clinics alone; policy must address the roots in employment, education, and our social fabric.

Your work has amplified a crucial truth: our distress is shared, and so must be our healing. – John Kurien

The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned how the practice of Talaq-e-Hasan for divorcing Muslim women can be allowed to continue in a civilised society, reported Bar and Bench.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh also noted that the practice may need to be “regulated”, instead of being struck down like instant triple talaq, or Talaq-e-Biddah, reported Live Law.

Talaq-e-Hasan is a practice in which a Muslim man divorces his wife by uttering the word “talaq” once a month over 90 days. The divorce is considered final after the third utterance.

Triple talaq allows a Muslim man to instantly divorce his wife by pronouncing “talaq” three times. The practice was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2019.

On Wednesday, the court was hearing petitions against Talaq-e-Hasan, including one filed by journalist Benazeer Heena, who challenged its constitutionality in 2022 on the grounds that it is discriminatory against women.

“What kind of thing is this?” Bar and Bench quoted the court as asking. “How are you promoting this in 2025? Whatever best religious practice we follow, is this what you allow? Is this how a dignity of a woman be upheld? Should a civilised society allow this kind of practice?”

The bench said that as the matter affects society at large, the court may have to intervene and asked the petitioners to submit broad questions that may arise while considering it.

“Once you give us a brief note, we will consider the desirability of referring it to a five-judge bench,” said the bench.

In her plea, Heena said her husband divorced her by sending Talaq-e-Hasan notices through a lawyer after her family refused to pay dowry.

As the notices did not have her husband’s signature, Heena’s advocate told the court that she has been unable to prove that she is divorced, reported Live Law.

“The problem started with the schools where I wanted to get my child admitted,” her petition stated. “Everywhere I said I was a divorcee, my papers were not accepted. Admission was rejected. I said the father has moved on and married again. I don’t know the technicalities.”

The court posted the matter for November 26 and also directed the husband to be present for the next hearing.

“It’s Constitution Day and therefore we must do something,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.

In August 2022, a different bench of the Supreme Court had noted that the practice of Talaq-e-Hasan was not prima facie improper.

“Women also have an option,” a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh had said. “Khula is there.”

Khula is a form of divorce in which the wife returns her Mehr amount to the husband. Mehr is the exclusive property, goods or money given by the groom to the bride as a mark of respect.

The United States government on Tuesday took note of reports that China had launched a disinformation campaign after Operation Sindoor in May to hurt the sales of the French Rafale aircraft in favour of its own J-35 fighter jets.

The Chinese campaign used fake social media accounts to spread Artificial Intelligence-generated photos of supposed debris from Indian fighter jets that Chinese weapons allegedly destroyed, the US report said.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs ministry has not yet commented on the report.

The annual report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission was submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday. The independent commission provides recommendations to the US government on matters pertaining to China such as technology, trade and national security.

The report said that Pakistan’s use of Chinese weapons “to down French Rafale fighter jets used by India also became a particular selling point for Chinese embassy defence sales efforts”.

This was “despite the fact that only three jets flown by India’s military were reportedly downed and all may not have been Rafales”, it added.

The US report made the observation citing a report by the Associated Press in July, which quoted French Air Force chief General Jérôme Bellanger as saying that he had seen evidence pointing to three Indian fighter jet losses: a Rafale, a Russian-made Su-30MKI and a Mirage 2000.

The Mirage 2000 is also a French-made fighter jet, but of an earlier generation.

The US report submitted to the Congress on Tuesday said that “Pakistan’s military success over India” in the four-day conflict “showcased Chinese weaponry”. The commission did not elaborate why it had described it as Pakistani success in the conflict.

The US report cited the AP article to also say that “according to French intelligence”, China’s disinformation campaign also used “video game images” to discredit the Rafale and push its own J-35 aircraft.

The J-35 is a fifth-generation fighter jet being inducted into the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force. Pakistan is also planning to procure the jets, according to reports.

The US commission stopped short of describing the conflict in May as a “proxy war” between India and China, saying that doing so “may overstate China’s role as an instigator”.

However, the report said that Beijing “opportunistically leveraged” the conflict to test and advertise the sophistication of its weapons. The Pakistani military also relied upon Chinese intelligence, it added.

The observations were made based on comments by the Indian military in July.

Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, the deputy Indian Army chief (capability development and sustenance), had said on July 4 that Pakistan was receiving real-time intelligence from China about India’s important military deployments during Operation Sindoor.

Singh said that in the last five years 81% of the military hardware that Pakistan received was Chinese.

“[China] is able to test [its] weapons against various other weapon systems that are there, so it’s like a live lab available to them,” Singh had said.

On Thursday, the Congress said that the observations made in the US report were “simply unacceptable” to India.

Party leader Jairam Ramesh said on social media that parts of the report pertaining to the India-Pakistan conflict were “simply astonishing and beyond understanding”.

He pointed to sections of the report that described the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam “orchestrated by Pakistan as an ‘insurgent attack’”. The Congress leader also noted that the report “speaks of ‘Pakistan’s military success over India’”.

“Will the [prime minister] and the [Ministry of External Affairs] register their objections and protest?” Ramesh asked. “Our diplomacy has suffered yet another severe setback.”

The four-day conflict

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

On May 10, the two sides reached an “understanding” to halt firing.

Pakistan has claimed that it shot down Indian fighter jets during air-to-air combat. The claims made by Islamabad have not been independently verified.

India has acknowledged suffering aircraft losses during the initial phase of the conflict, but has not disclosed the number of planes lost.

On July 7, Indian Defence Secretary RK Singh told CNBC-TV18 that it was incorrect to say that multiple Rafale jets of the Indian Air Force were shot down. “You have used the term Rafales in the plural, I can assure you that is absolutely not correct,” the official told the channel.

The Indian Air Force has also said that it downed five Pakistan aircraft of the F-16 and JF-17 classes during the conflict. While F-16 jets are manufactured in the US, JF-17 aircraft are Chinese-made.

In August, Indian Air Force Chief AP Singh had said that one large Pakistani aircraft, which was either an electronic intelligence plane or an airborne early warning system, was also shot down.

This followed the Indian military’s claim on May 12, two days after the ceasefire, that the Pakistan Air Force had lost “a few” aircraft.

While Islamabad has not commented on losing any of its aircraft, it has acknowledged that several of its airbases were struck by India during the hostilities.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said that Kashmiris are apprehensive about travelling outside the Union Territory as they are “being portrayed as suspects” after the Delhi blast, The Indian Express reported.

He added that “even he feared driving around in New Delhi in a vehicle with a J&K number on it”.

The blast near the Red Fort metro station on November 10 killed 13 persons. Two days after the explosion, the Union government described it as a “terrorist incident”. The doctor believed to have been driving the car that exploded was identified as Umar Nabi, a resident of Kashmir.

Speaking at an event in Kulgam on Wednesday, Abdullah said that a “few persons” were responsible for the attack, “but a perception is being created where all Kashmiris are being looked at with suspicion”.

“In the prevailing circumstances after the blast, parents will not want to send their children outside,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “When we are looked at with suspicion, when we are defamed for someone else’s wrongdoing…it will be very difficult for us to leave Kashmir.”

He said that even driving a Jammu and Kashmir-registered vehicle in Delhi “is being seen as a crime”.

Abdullah added: “I wonder if I should take out my own car if there aren’t too many security personnel around me, because what if I’m intercepted and asked for credentials.”

He also questioned the Union government’s claim that peace had returned to Jammu and Kashmir after Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated in 2019, The Hindu reported.

“We were told that after 2019, the bloodshed of the past 30 to 35 years would not repeat,” The Indian Express quoted Abdullah as saying. “But it has not stopped.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre had abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state, in August 2019. It also bifurcated the state into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

In December 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 2019 order abrogating Article 370 and ordered the Union government to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

Demands for restoring the region’s special status have grown over the years.

On Monday, the Jammu and Kashmir Students Association alleged that Kashmiri students in several northern states were facing profiling, eviction and intimidation in the aftermath of the Delhi blast.

The association’s National Convenor Nasir Khuehami urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene to “call off the vilification” of the community.

On November 14, Abdullah called for the strictest punishment against those involved in the Delhi blast, but added that the actions of a “handful of people” must not define the majority of peace-loving residents of the Union Territory.

“Every resident of Jammu and Kashmir is not a terrorist,” he had told reporters. “Not every Kashmiri is on the side of terrorists. It is only a handful of people who have tried to disturb the peace and harmony here.”

Also read:

• How a Kashmir probe into Jaish posters nearly unmasked Delhi blast plot
• Why a Kashmiri tailor was among the dead in blast at Srinagar police station

The Union government’s rollout last month of Sahyog, a new system for coordinating content takedowns across social media platforms, marks a quiet but significant shift in India’s digital governance.

Although the government describes Sahyog as a tool to improve “cooperation” and “efficiency” in content moderation, legal experts say this signals a move towards more centralised, less transparent control over online speech.

On October 22, the government amended Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information and Technology Rules, 2021, giving formal legal backing to the Sahyog platform (now known as the Sahyog Rules, 2025).

This amendment was effected through the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2025.

The move came a month after the Karnataka High Court on September 24 upheld the constitutionality of the Sahyog portal in a petition filed by X Corp (formerly known as Twitter). The petition had challenged orders issued by Central and state authorities under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act to take down some posts on X.

Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000 grants online intermediaries, such as social media and e-commerce platforms, “safe harbour” from liability for third-party content, provided they exercise due diligence. This protection is lost if they fail to remove unlawful content after gaining knowledge of it or receiving a government notice.

The Karnataka order, said X Corp, would “allow millions of police officers to issue arbitrary takedown orders” through Sahyog, which it described as a “secretive online portal. The order, it contended, “fails to address the core constitutional issues in our challenge”.

The corporation said it would appeal the order to “defend free expression”.

However, before the appeal could be filed, the government amended the IT rules to give legal backing to the Sahyog portal.

The Sahyog Rules were notified directly in the Gazette and will take effect on November 15 without being released for public consultation. This is a departure from the government’s own policy requiring draft rules to be open for comments for at least 30 days.

The legal challenges to Sahyog provides a clear lens into the government’s expanding role in regulating online content and the growing pressure on platforms to comply.

The Karnataka High Court proceedings move the debate beyond policy documents and into the courtroom, revealing how the government views Sahyog, what powers it seeks to assert and what this means for free expression, platform autonomy and transparency in India’s digital ecosystem.

The Karnataka High Court has held that Centre's 'SAHYOG portal' is not an "instrument of censorship", but a facilitation mechanism, intended to streamline communication between authorized agencies and intermediaries.
Read more: https://t.co/PsrcqCw9DK#KarnatakaHC #Sahyogportal pic.twitter.com/msuIf7edS0

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) September 29, 2025

Issues of public concern

On March 5, X Corp challenged the Sahyog portal in the High Court after the Ministry of Railways used Section 79(3)(b) of the Information and Technology Act to order the removal of hundreds of posts on the platform.

These posts included comments, videos, news reports, and articles about train accidents, a stampede in Delhi on February 15 during the Uttar Pradesh Mahakumbh, and overcrowded train coaches – all issues of public concern.

Section 79(3)(b) of the Information and Technology Act says that if the government tells a social media platform to take down illegal content, the platform must comply quickly.

X told the Union government that it removed the posts only because it was ordered to do so. But it argued that the takedowns were effected without following the proper procedure under Section 69A. This contravened the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Shreya Singhal case, the company said.

In the Shreya Singhal v Union of India case in 2015, the Supreme Court made it clear that content can only be taken down if there is a court order or a properly authorised government direction based on constitutional grounds.

X Corp argued that the Sahyog system violates basic rules of due process. Under Section 69A of the Information and Technology Act, the government must give notice to the intermediary, allow a hearing, give written reasons and allow review of takedown orders.

But Section 79(3)(b) has no such safeguards, X contended. This has been used by Sahyog to remove content quietly, without letting users defend themselves and without any option for appeal.

The company told the court that this secrecy and lack of protections violates constitutional rights under Articles 14 (right to equality), 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech), and 21 (right to life and personal liberty).

The 1978 Maneka Gandhi judgment, a landmark Supreme Court ruling, broadened the scope of the right to personal liberty under Article 21, holding that any government action affecting individual rights must be fair, just and free from arbitrariness.

The petition added that speech cannot be blocked by a simple executive order. Restrictions must be backed by a proper law and follow due process under Article 19(2), X said. This provision allows the government to impose reasonable restrictions on the right to freedom of speech and expression to protect the sovereignty of India, the security of the state public order, among other grounds.

Lacking authority

The petition claimed that the government has created a censorship mechanism that appears lawful on paper but lacks real legal authority.

It argued that Sahyog had been established purely through executive action, without statutory backing. It has enabled officials to compel platforms to remove posts even though they do not have the legal powers to block content.

By doing so, the government bypassed the constitutional and statutory framework that controls or sets the rules for how powers can be passed on to others, and effectively circumvented the safeguards built into Section 69A and the 2009 Blocking Rules, it added.

According to the petition, Sahyog operated as a covert censorship system, never authorised by parliament and intentionally designed to evade the requirements of due process.

X Corp challenges legality of ‘Sahyog’ portal takedown process before Karnataka HChttps://t.co/XEZ842aZgw

— The Hindu (@the_hindu) November 17, 2025

X Corp submitted that the government cannot by itself decide what content is unlawful under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information and Technology Act. Determining this is not an executive function but a judicial one.

For example, defamation is a non-cognisable offence and requires a court finding before any action is taken, it said. The police or executive authorities cannot label content defamatory on their own, it argued.

It further argued that, if the government wants content removed for reasons like national security or public order, it must use Section 69A and follow the 2009 Blocking Rules.

Protection of news media

Digipub, representing digital news outlets and journalists, also filed an intervention application before the Karnataka High Court, arguing that their freedom of speech was being directly affected. They submitted that takedown orders issued under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information and Technology Act, without any opportunity to be heard, not only restrict journalists’ right to publish but also deprive the public of access to important information.

They pointed out that the government’s argument, treating all “platform users” alike, ignores the special constitutional role of journalists. News organisations rely on digital platforms to publish and distribute news so any arbitrary removal of content deeply impacts the functioning of the press, which is a vital pillar of democracy, they argued.

The applicants also challenged Rule 3(1)(d) of the Information and Technology Rules, 2021, which requires platforms to remove content deemed to contain “unlawful information”.

They argued that this term is vague and undefined in both the Rules and the parent Act. Without clarity on what constitutes “unlawful”, platforms may take down content out of fear, leading to arbitrary censorship and chilling effects on free speech.

DigiPub News India Foundation has approached the Karnataka HC in appeal, challenging rejection of X Corp's (formerly Twitter) challenge to Centre's content blocking power through Sahyog Portal.

Read more: https://t.co/Z0HtvsB9SS pic.twitter.com/KAa8Jv2dmh

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 19, 2025

Forced participation

The Internet Freedom Foundation reported that the government had insisted that X Corp. appoint a “nodal officer” to handle takedown requests on the Sahyog portal, despite there being no such requirement in the Information and Technology Act.

Forcing private platforms to comply with such demands, they said, effectively pushes them into an unconstitutional system with no legal backing or procedural safeguards, the foundation said.

In a reply before the High Court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government, stated that intermediaries are not limited to social media platforms. He mentioned that a wide range of entities fall under the definition of intermediaries and so have regulatory obligations: they include telecom operators, internet service providers, search engines, e-commerce sites, online gaming platforms, email services, content-hosting and blogging sites, and collaborative platforms.

Clarifying procedure

The October 2025 Amendment Rules clarify who can issue takedown notices to online intermediaries and how such notices must be handled.

Earlier, they did not specify the ranks of officers authorised to issue these notices. The new rules now state that only senior officials of at least joint secretary rank (or equivalent), or, if no joint secretary has been appointed, a director may issue a takedown notice on behalf of the Central or state government.

In addition, if a government agency is authorised to act, it must do so through one designated officer.

The Amendment Rules also requires every takedown notice to be written and reasoned, clearly stating the legal provisions relied upon, the nature of the alleged unlawful act and the exact data, URLs or electronic content to be removed or disabled. The content must be taken down within 36 hours after the platform receives official notice from the authorised authority.

In addition, all takedown notices issued must now undergo a monthly review by a secretary-level officer of the government department. However, the procedure for such reviews and whether they can lead to the withdrawal or cancellation of earlier notices has not yet been clarified.

On October 22, 2025 the Union Government notified amendments to Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules, 2021 titled as Information Technology Amendment Rules, 2025 which cements the “Sahyog Platform” (referred to as the “Sahyog Rules, 2025”). IFF has issued a statement on this. 1/8…

— Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) (@internetfreedom) October 23, 2025

A parallel system

In its statement on October 23, the Internet Freedom Foundation said that the new Sahyog Rules create a “parallel system” for content takedowns, giving many government departments the power to issue such orders directly. Because the process is faster, online and lacks hearings or independent review, it could become a major tool for censorship, it added.

Internet Freedom Foundation warned that this system may lead to “more takedowns, less accountability, and a chilling effect on free speech”.

Lawyer Ankit Sahni, a partner at a law firm in Delhi, told Scroll that the 2025 amendment improves the takedown process by requiring clear, written orders from senior officers or courts, addressing vague notices.

However, broad grounds such as “public order” still pose risks of over-removal and a chilling effect on free speech, he added.

“Its success will depend less on the text of the rule and more on how transparently and proportionately the government exercises this power,” Sahni said. “In that sense, it is a procedural advance, but not yet a substantive safeguard for free speech in India’s digital sphere.”

Rohit Jain, Managing Partner at Singhania & Co., noted that the 36-hour compliance window puts pressure on platforms to over-remove content, creating “a potential chilling effect on speech”.

He said that while the changes tighten procedure, they do not “rebalance power between the state, platforms, and users”, leaving the core problems raised by X Corp unresolved.

Scroll’s Rokibuz Zaman on Wednesday won a 2025 Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in the English language web news report category.

Zaman received the honour for his article about how a disc jockey from Guwahati was held captive by her family to stop her from getting married to a Kashmiri Muslim man. He highlighted that police forces in three states – Assam, Maharashtra and Meghalaya – did not file a first information report against the woman’s family members, despite her partner filing multiple complaints.

The citation for the award said that Zaman had been conferred the award for “spotlighting a chilling case of family control and police apathy in obstructing an inter-faith marriage, and for foregrounding the urgent need to uphold women’s agency and choice”.

Read: How a Guwahati DJ was held captive by her family to stop her marriage to a Muslim man

The Laadli Media Award was instituted in 2007 by Population First, a nonprofit supported by the United Nations Population Fund. The awards honour, recognise and celebrate the efforts of those in news media and advertising who highlight gender sensitivity.

Zaman was also among the winners of the award in 2024 for his reporting on how Assam Police’s crackdown on child marriage in February 2023 led to broken families.

On Wednesday, Scroll’s Johanna Deeksha also won a jury citation for her article on how an iPhone manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur placed restrictions on the movements of its women workers. The factory is run by Foxconn, a Taiwanese company that is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics.

The article was part of Scroll’s Common Ground series.

Read: India’s iPhone factory is keeping women workers isolated

An inspector of Madhya Pradesh’s Hawk Force unit, Ashish Sharma, was killed in a gunfight with suspected Maoists in a forested area near the Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra tri-junction.

The Hawk Force is a specialised anti-Maoist unit of the Madhya Pradesh Police.

The 26-year-old inspector was shot allegedly by the Maoists during a joint operation conducted by personnel from the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra police in a forest in Balaghat, the Hindustan Times reported.

Pankaj Srivastava, anti-Maoist operations deputy director general of police, told the newspaper that information had been received about Maoists hiding near Bor Talab on the border of the three states.

“Upon arrival, the police asked them to surrender but they started firing,” the Hindustan Times quoted Srivastava as saying. “The force also retaliated. In the gunfight, inspector Ashish Sharma, who was leading the three-person team, was shot.”

The inspector was taken to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries.

Hawk Force Commandant Shiyaz KM told The Hindu that casualties on the Maoist side were not clear yet as a search operation was still going on.

Sharma, who hailed from Bohani village in Gadarwara in Madhya Pradesh’s Narsinghpur district, was selected as a sub-inspector in 2016, the Hindustan Times reported. He had been posted in Balaghat since 2018.

Sharma had earlier received two gallantry medals for his service, The Hindu reported. He had also received an out-of-turn promotion earlier this year after he led an operation in February in which three women Maoists were killed in Balaghat.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav paid tribute to Sharma on social media and expressed his condolences to the inspector’s family.

“He [Sharma] displayed unprecedented valour and courage during an anti-Naxal operation conducted by a joint team of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra in the forests of Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said. “His supreme sacrifice in the national campaign to eradicate Maoists will always be unforgettable.”

Hours earlier on Wednesday, seven suspected members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district.

This came a day after Madvi Hidma, one of the most wanted Maoist leaders, and five others were killed in the same district. The police had said on Tuesday that some Maoists had fled the site of the earlier gunfight and that a search was underway to apprehend them.

Separately, the Andhra Pradesh Police arrested 50 other persons suspected to be Maoists who had travelled from Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

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

Last month, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said that the number of districts across different states affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to 11 from 18 in March.

In 2025, the number of “most affected” districts has also come down from six to three, it added. These are Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.

On October 16, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said that in the past 22 months, 477 suspected Maoists were killed, 2,110 had surrendered and 1,785 had been arrested in the state.

My journey in a long chain of carriages
I’m travelling in it too
The repeated thuds of wheels on the tracks –
Is there any connection with the bounding wildlife of the montane forests?

I am moving on a single path of the double tracks
From one town to another, far away
The train connects the otherwise unconnected
What can I say, how can I say
Only lovers of long-distance trains will understand
The journeys a train makes on these iron tracks.

A long journey

The Omon Mahila Sangathan – a women’s self-help group in Noamundi, Jharkhand – had invited some of us from the Thulir Magalir Kuzhu, a women’s self-help group I belong to in Kodaikanal, to join their Women’s Day celebrations on 8th March this year.

Three of us – Valarmathi, Kaleeshwari and I – took part, accompanied by my father, Balamurugan, and Vaibhav Vaidya, an acquaintance who works with our group. This was our first train journey, and we were travelling to Jharkhand to meet other Adivasis, making the whole experience new and exciting for us.

The train started from Tirunelveli in the south of Tamil Nadu and went on to Purulia in far-off West Bengal. We boarded at Dindigul, the station nearest to Kodaikanal. The sight of multiple trains simultaneously arriving and departing Dindigul Railway Station filled us with wonder and excitement.

Our destination was Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, 1,800 km away. Initially, we did not realise the full implications of this long, non-stop journey – travelling two days and a night, cramped together in the same berth! The train was very crowded and we had to double up in berths at night. My father found that especially difficult, feeling as if he’d been “tied down”!

Valarmathi akka had to overcome resistance from her family over her fortnight-long absence— “who will manage the house and children” – but she enjoyed the change. Kaleeshwari anni had only been as far as Chennai before, but she did not mind the discomfort of long-distance travel and different food.

Towns and villages zoomed past. At each stop, there was a bustle of activity, with people getting on and off, and I watched all of it with fascination. Vendors sold tea, coffee, biscuits, other beverages, chips, and other packaged foods in an endless stream – a strange and curious sight for us.

We crossed out of Tamil Nadu before nightfall, and people and languages changed around us. We bought our dinner from vendors, and, unaccustomed to the flavours, I almost threw it away, but my father scolded me for wasting food, so I ate it all.

We arrived in Bhubaneswar the next evening, where we stayed at the circuit house for the night. The next morning, we boarded an air-conditioned train to Chaibasa, Jharkhand. This time, the train coaches were comfortable, and the food was excellent – a stark change from the previous day’s journey!

Stepping onto the land of Birsa Munda, one of the first leaders to fight for Adivasi rights in the region, was an emotional experience. My father and I bowed before his statue erected within the municipality building, seeking blessings as we would from an ancestor.

The bus journey from Chaibasa to Noamundi was a more familiar experience. However, the fares were surprising: the 50-km journey cost Rs 100 each, much more expensive than Tamil Nadu, where the 150-km ride from Madurai to Kodaikanal costs only Rs 50 each.

Coming together in Jharkhand

We arrived at Noamundi at 6 pm, where the Omon Mahila Sangathan had its main office and guest accommodation.

The Sangathan has branches in several other villages where they also run hodopathy pharmacies serving the medical needs of tribal women in remote areas. Hodopathy is a system of traditional herbal medicine practiced by the Adivasis of Jharkhand, built on generations of ancient traditional knowledge.

The women of the Sangathan gather herbs from the forests, prepare decoctions and other medicines, and distribute them at minimal or no cost – something they do as a community service for their fellow tribals, without salaries. They prepare remedies to address menstrual health, lactation in new mothers, joint pains, injuries, fevers, and for general immunity among young mothers and babies.

Ajitha, the Sangathan’s founder, welcomed us warmly, and Vaibhav anna played the role of our translator throughout.

We were offered the traditional welcome drink called hadiya (or handia), a fermented rice beer similar to the rice kanji we have at home, except this one was fermented. It left me feeling slightly high and light-headed! Perhaps one would not be so affected if they had it more frequently.

That evening, the Ho, Munda and Santhal villagers were celebrating Baha Parab, or “flower festival”. They greeted us joyfully, delighted to have a group of Pazhaiyars from far-off Kodaikanal join them in their celebrations. We did not yet know what was being celebrated (until much later!), but we gladly joined in the singing and dancing.

Baha Parab, a major spring festival there, is celebrated in March when the Sal tree, endemic to India, and the state tree of Jharkhand, blooms. A close cousin of the Sal – called Meranti or Meron by the Pazhaiyars – once grew widely in the Western Ghats too, but sadly, is now at risk. When the Sal tree blooms in Jharkhand, the Hos, Mundas, and Santhals place the flowers at their family deity’s altar with a pot of water, leaves from seven other trees, kaattu sambrani (wild incense) and turmeric, for worship. We Pazhaiyars have the same rituals.

Shanti, a Ho, helped us settle in for the night at the Oman Mahila Sangathan’s office. The next day, International Women’s Day, representing the Thulir Magalir Kuzhu, we joined the celebrations as honoured guests. The festivities included singing, dancing, and talks and interactive sessions.

There were quite a few speakers from all three tribes – the Santhals, Mundas and Hos – and it seemed that issues like domestic violence and the lack of economic freedom for women plagued them as much as it did us back home! The speakers all stressed on the importance of self-help groups in empowering women in the society. After lunch, we spent the rest of the day with the people, learning their traditional dances.

Hospitable and warm, is how I would describe the tribals of Jharkhand. Guests are treated like kin: welcomed with a drink upon arrival, invited to share their food, and offered a place to stay in their homes. Though our own traditions value hospitality in a similar way, this was far beyond our expectations – it was incredible!

However, I could not sleep that night. Years ago, in Kodaikanal, I had heavily bargained down two woven saris for a thousand rupees. Then, I had no idea that the men who called themselves “Adivasis from North India” were Santhals, carrying the traditional Ho weaves.

Interacting with the people now made me realise those men were no different from the Pazhaiyars – taking their traditional craft to the outside world to earn a living. The memory of having driven a hard bargain with them left me feeling guilty, but that I could now wear their weaves while participating in their festivities was a somewhat comforting thought.

The Mahua tree, like the Sal, is also native to the forests of the historical Dandakaranya region, spread across parts of Central and Eastern India. The flowers are rich in nectar and quite intoxicating when fermented into liquor. In fact, even elephants get drunk on fermented Mahua nectar! Predictably, brewing Mahua liquor has been banned for some years now.

The Hos, like the Pazhaiyars, were once hunter-gatherers. However, some were also artists and artisans; developing skills in weaving their own fabrics, making baskets and other utility items out of bamboo and wood, and painting on rock faces or caves to depict their lifestyle. They had unique, intricate patterns that they spun and wove into shawls and blankets.

In contrast, only a few paintings have been seen in the rock caves the Pazhaiyars lived in. According to Thanaraj, who had worked with the Tribal Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu, the paintings were primarily found near the Theni area of the Ghats.

Before leaving, we bowed in reverence to the five women who were running the Sangathan, paying our respect for their service to their community. We then departed for Ranchi where we stayed with Asha and her husband, Xavier. On the bus, we met some locals who had worked in a garment factory in Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, making me marvel at how small the world is!

Through conversations with Asha and Xavier, we learnt about the Ho way of life and their struggles that started when high quality ĺiron ore was discovered in the erstwhile state of Bihar. Vast tracts of land were acquired for large-scale mining around seventy years ago, displacing the indigenous communities with little or no compensation.

It is immensely sad that generations later, many of them still live like refugees in their own homeland. Compared to their decades of suffering, our struggles in the forests of the Western Ghats seemed minor.

Is this the fate of tribal people everywhere in the country?

The next day, we went to Hazaribagh to meet Bulu Imam, the renowned environmental and cultural activist, who has published many books on tribal art and built a museum to preserve Santhal art. Delighted to meet a group of Pazhaiyar adivasis that travelled from Kodaikanal to meet him, he gave me one of his pens as a memento with his blessing – an honour indeed! Bulu Imam is keen on keeping Santhal art alive among the younger generations, teaching them Santhal weaving and painting.

Our time in Chaibasa with the tribals was brief, but the sense of belonging and shared traditions and practices, despite the regional differences, made us feel instantly connected.

After a quick visit to the tribal emporium to pick up gifts for our loved ones back home, our long return journey began, tracing our route by bus and train as we had come, all the way back to Kodaikanal.

This journey to Jharkhand not only gave us all fresh new sights, but also gave us an understanding of the country’s astounding diversity and unity. There is much more to see, experience and absorb about our timeless traditions, culture, and people and my thirst to learn more has only increased.

One recurring thought stays in my mind: the Santhals, the Ho, we Pazhaiyars, and other Adivasis across India are of one origin. Though we migrated to regions far and wide, we kept our traditions and culture alive, with a few changes adapting to place and time. I will teach my son and his generation to meet and learn about Adivasis – the Ancient Ones – spread across our land. That is my resolve, a promise to myself.

All the Ancient Tribes are related to me

They are all

My People.

Murugeshwari Balan is a writer and a member of the Pazhaiyar adivasi community, among the oldest inhabitants of the Palani Hills in Tamil Nadu. Her articles have been in syndicated in Voices of Rural India and Adivasi Lives Matter, and anthologized in Between Heaven and Earth: Writings on the Indian Hills. She is the recipient of a grant from Shared Ecologies - Shyama Foundation, which is funding a series of articles for Sky Islands. She lives in Bharati Anna Nagar, Perumalmalai.

Translated and edited by Kamakshi Narayanan.

This story is supported by a grant from Shared Ecologies. It was first published on Sky Islands, a platform for and from the Western Ghats.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to activist Jyoti Jagtap, one of the 16 persons accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, Bar and Bench reported.

Jagtap’s counsel told a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma that she had been in custody for over five years, after which she was granted interim bail.

Jagtap, who is a member of cultural organisation Kabir Kala Manch, has been in prison since September 8, 2020.

The National Investigation Agency has alleged that the organisation, which was formed after the 2002 Gujarat riots, was a frontal organisation of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). However, Jagtap’s lawyer has previously argued before the Bombay High Court that not everyone who was a member of the frontal organisation was a part of the main organisation.

In 2022, the Bombay High Court had rejected a bail application filed by Jagtap observing that the case filed against her by the National Investigation Agency was prima facie true.

The Bhima Koregaon case

The case is related to the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon village near Pune on January 1, 2018, a day after the Elgar Parishad conclave was organised to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon.

One person died in the violence and several others were injured.

Jagtap is accused of singing and shouting provocative slogans at the event along with other members of the Kabir Kala Manch, PTI reported.

The NIA has also said that Jagtap, along with other accused persons, undertook efforts to bring together a crowd of Dalits to create hatred against the government.

Seven years on, the trial in the case is yet to begin. One person accused in the case, Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, died in prison in 2021.

When the Supreme Court in 2023 granted bail to two people accused in the case, it noted that the primary evidence cited by the National Investigation Agency – a batch of letters – was of “weak probative value or quality”. In addition, a digital forensics firm, Arsenal Consulting, concluded that false evidence had been planted on the laptops and devices of the accused.

Also read: How Kabir Kala Manch, the anti-caste cultural troupe, challenges the hierarchical social order

A booth-level officer in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district was found hanging outside her home on Wednesday, after which her family alleged that she was overworked due to the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state. The officer, Shanti Muni Ekka was given the responsibility to distribute enumeration forms in a booth area, but she could not speak, read or write Bengali, which made her task difficult.

West Bengal was among 12 states and Union Territories where the Election Commission began the enumeration phase of the exercise on November 4.

After Ekka’s death, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that she “took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the ongoing SIR work”. She alleged that many lives are being lost due to “the unplanned, relentless workload” imposed by the poll panel.

On Sunday as well, two booth level officers in Kerala and Rajasthan died by suicide because of alleged work pressure linked to the revision of voter rolls. More on Scroll.

The Supreme Court urged the Commission for Air Quality Management to consider directing schools in Delhi and the broader National Capital Region to shift sports activities scheduled for November and December to “safer and less susceptible months”. Amicus curiae Aparajita Singh highlighted that “holding sports now is like putting them [children] in gas chambers”.

The court also ordered that matters pertaining to air pollution in the capital be heard on a monthly basis, so as to monitor the measures being taken by the authorities.

The city has recorded air quality in the “poor” or worse categories since mid-October, leading to the imposition of Stage 3 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan, or GRAP, on November 11. Read more.

Activist Jyoti Jagtap, one of those accused of involvement in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, has been granted interim bail by the Supreme Court. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma passed the order after it was told that she had been in custody for over five years.

Jagtap, a member of cultural organisation Kabir Kala Manch, has been in prison since September 8, 2020. The National Investigation Agency has alleged that the organisation, which was formed after the 2002 Gujarat riots, was a frontal organisation of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The case is related to the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon village near Pune on January 1, 2018, a day after the Elgar Parishad conclave was organised to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. Jagtap is accused of singing and chanting provocative slogans at the event along with other members of the Kabir Kala Manch.

Seven years on, the trial in the case is yet to begin. Read more.

Press bodies have expressed concern about the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, contending that the “ambiguous obligations” under them could open the door for indirect censorship. The Union government notified the rules on Friday, bringing into effect the Digital Personal Data Protection Act passed in 2023.

With this, the provision that amends the Right to Information Act – to bar the disclosure of personal information about public officials even when such disclosure may serve a larger public interest – also came into effect.

The Editors Guild of India said that the Rules “continue to leave critical questions unresolved” for journalists and media organisations. Digipub News India Foundation, an association of independent digital news organisations and journalists of which Scroll is a member, echoed the concerns. Read on.

Also Read: Why the draft personal data protection rules are contentious

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday urged the Commission for Air Quality Management to consider directing schools in Delhi and the broader National Capital Region to shift sports activities scheduled in November and December to “safer and less susceptible months,” Live Law reported.

During the hearing, amicus curiae Aparajita Singh highlighted that children were among the most vulnerable to pollution, and that “holding sports now is like putting them in gas chambers,” Live Law reported.

An amicus curiae is a person that is not a party to the case but provides advice or information to the court.

The court on Wednesday ordered that matters pertaining to air pollution in the capital be heard on a monthly basis, so as to monitor the measures being taken by the authorities, Bar and Bench reported.

The judges also directed lawyers for states that comprise the National Capital Region to take instructions about payment of subsistence allowance to construction workers who have been affected by air pollution-related restrictions.

The city has been recording air quality in the “poor” or worse categories since mid-October, leading to Stage 3 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan, or GRAP, being imposed on November 11.

Restrictions under Stage 3 entail 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.

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to impose year-round restrictions on activities prohibited under GRAP holding that the national capital “cannot be brought to a standstill” in the name of fighting air pollution.

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital. As the temperature falls, a layer of cold air forms close to the ground and traps pollution instead of letting it rise and disperse.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, along with the lighting of firecrackers, vehicular pollution, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

Delhi has already reported three “severe” air quality days in the first half of November.

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”.

An air quality index in the “severe” category signifies hazardous pollution levels that can pose serious risks even to healthy individuals.

Also read: Why air quality numbers in Delhi vary widely

Anmol Bishnoi, the younger brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on Wednesday after he was brought to India following his deportation from the United States.

He was arrested by the authorities in the US in November 2024 and was deported a day after his asylum application was rejected by a Louisiana court, The Indian Express reported.

Anmol Bishnoi landed in New Delhi on Wednesday morning and was taken to the Patiala House court, Hindustan Times reported.

India began the process to extradite Anmol Bishnoi in November 2024 after authorities in the US issued an alert about his presence in their country.

In March, the US Department of State had sought information about cases in which he was directly involved, along with technical evidence against him and financial details, The Indian Express reported.

On Wednesday, the National Investigation Agency said that Anmol Bishnoi was the 19th person to be arrested for “involvement in the terror syndicate” led by Lawrence Bishnoi, who is being held at Sabarmati Central Jail in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad.

Lawrence Bishnoi has been linked to several crimes, including the Canadian government’s allegations that agents of the Indian government were working with his gang to plan and execute violence in North America.

Anmol Bishnoi, who has been on the run since 2022, was believed to have been living in Canada, from where he frequently travelled to the US. The authorities have alleged that with Lawrence Bishnoi in jail, Anmol Bishnoi planned several criminal activities.

The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday claimed that Anmol Bishnoi “continued to run terror syndicates and execute terrorist acts from the US”. The agency claimed that he provided shelter and helped with logistics for the gang’s ground operations.

Anmol Bishnoi has several cases pending against him in India. He is wanted for the murder of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique in October 2024 and for the shooting incident outside Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s Mumbai home in April 2024.

Siddique was shot dead allegedly by three men in Mumbai’s Bandra East area on the evening of October 12, 2024. Shubham Lonkar, an alleged member of Lawrence Bishnoi’s group, had in a social media post claimed responsibility for the killing.

Lonkar said that Siddique was killed because of his close relationship with Khan and alleged connections to members of the underworld, including fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

A lookout circular had been earlier issued for Anmol Bishnoi after he claimed responsibility for the shooting outside Khan’s residence.

In August 2022, the National Investigation Agency had filed a first information report against nine persons, including the Bishnoi brothers, for conspiring to “raise funds, recruit youth to carry out terrorist acts in the Union Territory of Delhi and other parts of the country”, in addition to the “targeted killings of prominent persons”.

In March 2023, it filed a chargesheet against Anmol Bishnoi after it was established that he had “actively aided designated individual terrorist Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi in the commission of various acts of terrorism in the country” between 2020 and 2023.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the 2021 Tribunal Reforms Act, which pertains to the appointments, tenure and service conditions of tribunal members, ruling that it violated judicial independence, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice Vinod Chandran noted that provisions that had been struck down by the court in its earlier judgements were reintroduced in the Act by the Union government with minor tweaks, Bar and Bench reported.

The bench held that the Act cannot be sustained as it violated constitutional principles related to the separation of powers and judicial independence, Live Law reported.

“The impugned Act directly contradicts binding judicial pronouncements that have repeatedly clarified the standards governing the appointment, tenure, and functioning of tribunal members,” Live Law quoted the judgement as saying. “Instead of curing the defects identified by this court, the impugned Act merely reproduces, in slightly altered form, the very provisions earlier struck down.”

The judgement said that this amounted to a “legislative override in the strictest sense: an attempt to nullify binding judicial directions without addressing the underlying constitutional infirmities”.

The bench added that the Act failed to remove the defects identified in prior judgements and instead re-enacted them under a new label, thereby falling “afoul of the doctrine of constitutional supremacy”, Live Law reported.

The court went on to strike down the new provisions as unconstitutional.

The bench issued the verdict on a petition filed by the Madras Bar Association in 2021 that challenged the Act as contrary to the previous rulings of the court.

The 2021 Tribunal Reforms Act had replaced the earlier 2021 Tribunals Reforms Rationalisation and Conditions of Service Ordinance, Bar and Bench reported.

Tribunals are judicial or quasi-judicial bodies that settle administrative and tax-related disputes.

In July 2021, the court had struck down Section 184 of the 2017 Finance Act as amended by the 2021 ordinance that had prescribed the tenure of tribunal members and chairpersons to four years.

This came after the court in November 2020 had ordered that the term of office of the chairperson and tribunal members should be five years. However, the Union government had introduced the 2021 ordinance that kept the tenure at four years.

The court, in its July 2021 order, had struck down this move, after which the 2021 Tribunals Reforms Act was enacted.

This 2021 legislation was then challenged by the Madras Bar Association, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and other petitioners, Bar and Bench reported.

In the verdict on Wednesday, the bench rejected the argument presented by the Union government that a law cannot be tested on “abstract principles” such as judicial independence and separation of powers, adding that these provisions were firmly embedded in the previous rulings.

The court was quoted as saying by Live Law: “When Parliament designs or alters the tribunal system, it must do so in a manner consistent with the constitutional requirements of independence, impartiality, and effective adjudication.”

The ruling said that legislation that undermines foundational values, including by enabling executive control over appointments, curtailing tenure arbitrarily or weakening institutional autonomy, does not merely offend an “abstract principle”.

“It strikes at the core of the constitutional arrangement,” the bench said.

Until the Parliament enacts a new Act giving effect to the directions in the previous judgement, the directions given in the previous Madras Bar Association cases would continue to operate matters pertaining to appointment, qualifications, tenure, service conditions and other aspects of tribunal members and chairpersons, the court held.

The bench also noted that the appointments of tribunal members and chairpersons whose selection or recommendation by the search-cum-selection committee was completed before the 2021 Tribunal Reforms Act but whose formal appointment notifications were issued after the Act came into force shall be protected, Live Law reported.

Such appointments will continue to be governed by the parent statutes and by the conditions of service as laid down in the previous judgements rather than by the truncated tenure and altered service conditions introduced by the 2021 Act, it added.

The court also directed the Union government to form a National Tribunals Commission within four month, adding that its creation was an important safeguard to ensure independence and transparency.

The bench said that this commission must adhere to the principles set by the court, particularly concerning independence from executive control, professional expertise, transparent processes, and oversight mechanisms that reinforce public confidence in the system, Bar and Bench reported.

A woman working as a booth-level officer in Mal block of West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri was found hanging outside her home on Wednesday morning, reported The Telegraph.

The family of Shanti Muni Ekka alleged that she was overworked due to door-to-door visits she had to make for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state.

West Bengal was among 12 states and Union Territories where the Election Commission began the enumeration phase of the exercise on November 4.

Ekka was given the responsibility to distribute the enumeration forms in the 101 booth in Rangamati gram panchayat. However, she could not speak, read or write Bangla, which made her work difficult, according to The Telegraph.

“Since the SIR exercise started she had to leave every morning at 7 am and could return only around the afternoon,” her husband, Sukhu Ekka, told reporters.

The family claimed that Shanti Muni Ekka had requested the joint block development officer of Mal block to relieve her as a booth-level officer, but she was told to continue, reported The Telegraph.

In a social media post, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was “deeply shocked and saddened” by Ekka’s death.

She claimed that Ekka “took her own life under the unbearable pressure of the ongoing SIR work”.

The chief minister also claimed that 28 persons have died since the announcement of the voter roll revision in the state, “some due to fear and uncertainty, others due to stress and overload”.

“Such precious lives are being lost because of the unplanned, relentless workload imposed by the so-called Election Commission of India,” Banerjee said. “A process that earlier took 3 years is now being forced into 2 months on the eve of elections to please political masters, putting inhuman pressure on BLOs.”

She urged the Election Commission “to act with conscience” and halt the process to revise the electoral rolls, which she claimed was “unplanned”.

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On Sunday, two booth level officers in Kerala and Rajasthan died by suicide because of alleged work pressure linked to the revision of voter rolls.

In addition to West Bengal, Kerala and Rajasthan, the voter rolls are also being revised in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Puducherry, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Lakshadweep.

Assembly polls are expected to take place in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry in the first half of 2026.

The task of preparing voter lists before elections is typically assigned to primary school teachers and anganwadi or health care workers, who are employed by state governments. They are required to go door-to-door and check the identities of new voters and verify the details of those who have died or permanently moved out of an area.

In the commission’s parlance, they are called booth-level officers. Each booth-level officer is responsible for maintaining the voter list for one polling booth, which can sometimes have as many as 1,500 registered voters.

The draft electoral rolls for the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9. Voters can file claims and objections from December 9 to January 8, while hearings and verifications will take place from December 9 to January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

Several petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court against the exercise over concerns that the special intensive revision of voter rolls could disenfranchise eligible voters.

The voter list revision in Bihar was announced by the poll panel in June and completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November. In the final electoral roll published on September 30, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded.

Also read:

• ‘In Bengal, SIR is NRC’: Why revision of the electoral roll has spread panic in the state

• In Bengal, BJP faces growing anger of Hindu migrants over SIR

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on Wednesday unanimously elected as the legislature party leader of the Janata Dal (United).

The decision was taken during a meeting of newly elected MLAs in Patna. The JD(U) chief is also set to be elected as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance in the state later in the day, after which he will tender his resignation as head of the outgoing government to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan.

The developments come a day ahead of Kumar’s swearing-in as the Bihar chief minister again at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna. This will be the tenth time that the JD(U) chief will take oath as the state’s chief minister.

On Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party also elected Samrat Choudhary as its legislature party leader in Bihar, while Vijay Kumar Sinha was named as the deputy legislature party leader, The Hindu reported.

Chaudhary and Sinha will continue as deputy chief ministers after the formation of the new government, The New Indian Express reported.

On Monday, Kumar submitted the Cabinet’s recommendation to dissolve the current Assembly to the governor. All ministers subsequently tendered their resignations.

The ruling NDA won the Bihar Assembly elections on Friday, bagging 202 of the 243 total seats.

The tally of the Opposition Mahagathbandhan was 35 seats.

As part of the NDA, Kumar’s JD(U) won 85 seats, almost doubling its tally of 43 seats from the 2020 polls. The BJP emerged as the single largest in terms of seat share after winning 89 of the 101 constituencies it contested, while the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) won 19.

From the Opposition alliance, the Rashtriya Janata Dal won 25 seats, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation clinched two. The Congress won six seats.

A party or an alliance needs 122 seats in the 243-member Assembly to form the government.

The Congress on Wednesday said it found no reason to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Ramnath Goenka Lecture, and wondered how party leader Shashi Tharoor found a reason to do so, ANI reported.

“I did not find anything in the speech worth appreciating,” party leader Supriya Shrinate said.

She was answering a question about Tharoor taking a different position from the party after he described Modi’s speech as a blend of “economic outlook and a cultural call to action, urging the nation to be restless for progress”.

Modi delivered the sixth Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture in New Delhi on Monday.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was “glad to have been in the audience” where Modi spoke of India’s “constructive impatience” for development and strongly pushed for a post-colonial mindset.

Shrinate called the speech “petty” and instead asked the prime minister to reveal what problem he has with “fair journalism,” ANI reported.

“He should tell us what his problem is with fair journalism,” she said. “He should have told us why is he not happy with those who show and speak truth.”

She further said that Modi’s criticism of the Congress during his address only goes to show that “PM thinks of Congress day and night”.

Earlier this month, the Congress had also dissociated itself from a social media post by Tharoor, who described Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani as a “true statesman”.

Several social media users questioned Tharoor’s praise for Advani, pointing to the BJP leader having led a campaign in the late 1980s and early 1990s to build a Ram temple in place of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

In response, the Thiruvananthapuram MP argued that reducing Advani’s long political career to one episode, however significant, was unfair.

In July, the party had distanced itself from Tharoor’s praise for Modi’s approach to the conflict between India and Pakistan in the wake of the attack on April 22 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

Tharoor, in an article for The Hindu, had described Modi’s “energy, dynamism and willingness to engage” as a “prime asset” for India on the world stage, adding that the prime minister deserved more support.

In response, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had said that while his party believed in putting India first, “some people” placed the prime minister before the country.

Press bodies have expressed concern about the recently-notified Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, saying that the “ambiguous obligations” they impose could open the door for indirect censorship.

The Union government notified the rules on Friday, bringing into effect the Digital Personal Data Protection Act passed in 2023.

With this, the provision that amends the Right to Information Act – to bar the disclosure of personal information about public officials even when such disclosure may serve a larger public interest – also came into effect.

Critics had described this change as a serious threat to the principles of transparency and accountability that the Right to Information Act was designed to uphold.

On Wednesday, the Editors Guild of India stated that the Rules “continue to leave critical questions unresolved for journalists and media organisations”.

The guild pointed out that the secretary to the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had assured press bodies in July that journalistic work would not fall under the purview of the Act.

The press bodies had at the time urged the Union government to issue a “legally tenable clarification or amendatory provision” to explicitly safeguard journalistic activities, it added.

It said that questions and scenarios had also been submitted to the ministry to seek clarity on matters related to consent, exemptions, data retention, research and reporting in the public interest.

“However, there has been no official response since then,” said the guild, adding that the notified Rules also do not address the concerns.

“Ambiguous obligations around consent risk exposing journalists and newsrooms to compliance burdens that may impede routine reportage,” the guild stated.

Digipub News India Foundation, an association of independent digital news organisations and journalists of which Scroll is a member, echoed the concerns. It said that the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act “create a regulatory framework that endangers journalism”.

“They endanger source confidentiality, hinder public-interest investigations, obstruct anti-corruption disclosures, and weaken the information framework essential for democratic accountability,” alleged the association on Tuesday.

It also pointed out that the Union government is yet to respond to the questions the press bodies had earlier raised or address their concerns.

“This reflects a serious departure from the democratic consultative process expected in delegated legislation and demonstrates disregard for press freedom and the constitutional right to information,” said Digipub.

The Editors Guild and the Digipub urged the Union government to urgently clarify that journalistic activities would be exempted from the ambit of the Act.

“In the absence of such clarity, confusion and over-compliance will weaken press freedom and obstruct the media’s essential role in a democratic society,” said the Guild.

Digipub also urged the government to amend the provisions that allegedly undermine media freedom and the Right to Information.

Also Read: Why the draft personal data protection rules are contentious

Seven suspected members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district on Wednesday, The Hindu reported.

This came a day after Madvi Hidma, one of the most wanted Maoist leaders, and five others were killed in the same district.

The police had said on Tuesday that some Maoists had fled the site of the earlier gunfight and that a search was underway to apprehend them.

Those killed on Wednesday were four men and three women, The Times of India reported.

Additional Director General of Police Mahesh Chandra Laddha told the newspaper that one of those killed was Metturi Joga Rao, also known as Tech Shankar, who was in charge of the Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee.

The police said he was known for assembling improvised explosive devices and for developing several mines in the region.

The identities of the others are still being verified.

Laddha told The Hindu that Wednesday’s gunfight took place in the Maredumilli forests at around 7 am and was still underway.

Separately, the Andhra Pradesh Police arrested 50 other persons suspected to be Maoists who had travelled from Chhattisgarh and Telangana, Laddha told ANI.

He said that among those arrested were three state committee members, five divisional committee members and 17 area committee members.

“All are active members of the Maoist organisation,” the police officer was quoted as saying. “Their plan was to revive Maoism in the area. Based on accurate information, we acted and arrested them.”

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

Last month, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said that the number of districts across different states affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to 11 from 18 in March.

In 2025, the number of “most affected” districts has also come down from six to three, it added. These are Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.

On October 16, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said that in the past 22 months, 477 suspected Maoists were killed, 2,110 had surrendered and 1,785 had been arrested in the state.

Malini Subramaniam has reported for Scroll that while many of those killed in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region in 2024 were declared by the police to be reward-carrying Maoists, several families dispute the claim. The families claim that the persons killed were civilians.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday accused the Union government of rejecting the proposals to build metro rail networks in Coimbatore and Madurai on “flimsy grounds”.

On November 14, the Union Ministry of Housing Affairs returned the project proposals, stating that the population of the two cities, according to the 2011 Census, does not meet the criteria to build a metro network, reported The Hindu.

While Madurai has a population of 15 lakh, Coimbatore is home to 15.8 lakh residents, according to the last Census. The Metro Rail Policy, 2017, states that the population of a city needs to be 20 lakh or more to build a metro rail system.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Stalin said that the Union government “exists to serve people without bias”.

“Yet the Union BJP treats Tamil Nadu’s democratic choice as a reason to take revenge,” said the chief minister. “Pushing such a political custom, in which BJP ruled states get Metros for smaller Tier II cities while Opposition ruled states are deprived, is a disgraceful approach.”

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader said that Tamil Nadu is the “land of self-respect”, and will not accept “distortion of federal principles”.

He also accused the Union government of attempting to stall the Chennai metro project, saying that the state government “overcame those malicious attempts”.

“With the same determination, we will secure the metro rail that Madurai and Coimbatore need for their future growth,” said Stalin. “Tamil Nadu will fight! Tamil Nadu will win!”

This came months ahead of the Assembly elections in the state, which are expected to be held in April or May 2026.

Stalin made the accusations on the same day that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Coimbatore to inaugurate the South India Natural Farming Summit.

He will also release the 21st instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, an income-support scheme for farmers.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad in Chhattisgarh has detained two minors in Raipur for their alleged links to terror group Islamic State, PTI quoted Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma as saying on Tuesday.

The two boys have been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the police said.

Sharma, who is also the home minister, said that the Anti-Terrorism Squad detained the two after an investigation found that they were allegedly in contact with Islamic State modules based in Pakistan and were active on social media using fake identities.

“[The minors] were themselves influenced by extremist content and were attempting to influence others on Instagram,” PTI quoted Sharma as saying. “They had access to considerable information and were extensively using the internet and social media under the [Islamic State’s] name.”

The deputy chief minister said this was the first such case reported in the state and that efforts were being made to identify whether more persons are involved.

“By expanding the ATS team, especially in Raipur and other major cities of Chhattisgarh and throughout the state, such individuals will be identified and action will be taken against them,” PTI quoted him as saying. “I will also request the Chief Minister [Vishnu Deo Sai] to further expand the ATS team.”

Sharma also urged the public to report social media accounts circulating “anti-national content”.

The Delhi Police on Monday told the Supreme Court that activist Umar Khalid, accused of being part of a “larger conspiracy” behind the 2020 Delhi riots, cannot demand the same treatment as co-accused Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha because the High Court’s 2021 bail order in their favour was passed on an incorrect interpretation of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Live Law reported.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said that in 2021, while granting bail to Kalita and others, the High Court had erred in holding that the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act applied only to offences concerning the “defence of India”, the legal news outlet reported.

This meant that the High Court had wrongly treated the statutory bar on bail in Section 43D(5) of the anti-terror law as inapplicable, Raju argued.

Section 43D(5) of the Act is intended to make it difficult for those accused of serious offences under the Act, particularly terrorism-related offences, to obtain bail. It bars a court from granting bail if there are “reasonable grounds” to believe the accusation against the persons is prima facie true.

Raju told the court that once the High Court concluded the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act did not apply, it incorrectly invoked Section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code instead of Section 437, Live Law reported.

Section 437 CrPC governs bail in non-bailable offences as a magistrate considers them and contains specific restrictions when the offence carries death, life imprisonment or imprisonment of seven years or more, including tighter limits on granting bail where there are reasonable grounds to believe the accused is guilty.

Section 439 gives the High Court and the Sessions Court broader powers to grant bail, with fewer statutory bars than those that bind a magistrate.

The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita replaced the 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure in July 2024.

Raju also argued that the Supreme Court did not cancel the bail of Kalita and the others because cancelling it needs stronger reasons than refusing bail in the first place, Live Law reported.

The additional solicitor general told a bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria that Khalid cannot claim parity with the co-accused because “if bail is granted on a wrong interpretation of judgment or law, there is nothing like parity”, Live Law reported.

He also said that the Supreme Court itself had made it clear that the High Court’s bail order for Kalita and others could not be treated as a precedent, Bar and Bench reported.

Raju also pointed out that Khalid had raised the parity argument in earlier bail petitions, and the court had rejected it then as well.

He said the same argument cannot be brought up again unless there is a change in circumstances, Bar and Bench reported.

The case

Khalid and four others have challenged a judgement issued by the High Court on September 2, dismissing their bail applications.

Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gulshifa Fatima, Meeran Haider and Shifa Ur Rehma had been arrested between January and September 2020 in connection with the communal violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020 between supporters of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and those opposing it. The violence had left 53 dead and hundreds injured. Most of those killed were Muslims.

Khalid, Imam, Fatima, Haider and Rehman were charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Arms Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

On October 30, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the Delhi Police opposed their petitions, arguing that their alleged actions were part of a coordinated “regime change operation” carried out under the guise of civil dissent.

The police also alleged that Khalid was the chief conspirator behind the riots and had mentored Imam in planning the first phase of the violence.

Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Khalid, had earlier told the Supreme Court that the prosecution was delaying the trial and placing the blame on Khalid.

Sibal had argued that no weapons or incriminating material had been recovered from Khalid, and that there was no evidence linking him to any act of violence.

He said the only allegation against Khalid was that he delivered a speech in Maharashtra on February 17, 2020. However, this speech invoked Gandhian principles of non-violence and cannot be regarded as “provocative” by any stretch, he had added.

Also read: Who has the right to protest in Modi’s India?

India is preparing for a countrywide rollout of the human papillomavirus vaccine, marking an important step towards reducing cervical cancer-related morbidity and mortality.

In April, the health ministry began training frontline workers following the interim budget announcement in February 2024 that the government would encourage vaccination against HPV for girls between the ages of nine to 14.

But limiting the vaccine to women and girls does not address the larger public health burden posed by HPV, a virus that affects people of all genders, not just women.

Apart from cervical cancer, HPV is implicated in other cancers – vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal, and oropharyngeal – and genital warts.

According to an American study conducted in 2019, nearly 85% of women and 91% of men with at least one sexual partner of the opposite sex are estimated to contract HPV during their lifetime. Research further indicates that men are more likely than women to carry high-risk HPV strains.

Globally, HPV-associated cancers are a substantial burden across genders. Apart from penile cancer, which affects men, anal cancer affects all genders with around 50,000 new cases and 19,000 deaths estimated worldwide in 2020.

Evidence from a 2012 US study indicates that anal cancer incidence rates are higher among men who have sex with men, especially those living with HIV – the human immunodeficiency virus.

In India, a study found a high incidence of HPV-associated cancers among men, who account for a significant portion of non-cervical cases: for 2025, the study projected nearly 25,000 cases of HPV-associated cancers among men and nearly a lakh among women.

Another study in two Indian cities of 300 HIV-positive men who have sex with men found a 95% prevalence of anal HPV infection among the men. Given the prevalence of HPV across all sexually active populations, vaccination must be inclusive of all genders to tackle HPV-related cancers.

Feminisation of HPV

The focus on vaccinating women is justified, given the disproportionate cervical cancer burden. But this framing perpetuates gender stereotypes and risks “feminising HPV” as a women’s issue, reinforcing the idea women are solely responsible for sexual and reproductive health.

It can also limit secondary prevention efforts, such as screening and treatment, to women while excluding men, preventing them from being aware of their own risks. The absence of HPV screening for men adds to this narrative.

The combined effect is that the diagnostic and treatment burden is placed primarily on women while men’s role in transmission and prevention is sidelined.

Moreover, restricting vaccination ends up further marginalising populations like men who have sex with men, transgender communities, and gender-diverse persons who are already vulnerable to systemic discrimination in healthcare.

HPV vaccines in the private sector are also out of reach for most Indians. Cervavac, India’s indigenous vaccine, costs about Rs 2,000 per dose, while Gardasil-9 is priced as high as Rs 11,000 per dose.

Recognising this cost barrier, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation had recommended the inclusion of the HPV vaccine in India’s universal immunisation programme as early as 2022. In August, a parliamentary panel said the recommendation should be expedited “to reduce cervical cancer incidence and improve women’s health outcomes”.

Over 75K women die due to cervical cancer in India annually. It’s preventable thru HPV vaccine which costs 10K rupees! Thats unaffordable for most women & girls. Issued notice to Centre seeking
introduction of HPV vaccine in Universal Immunization Programme for adolescent girls. pic.twitter.com/SAT75d25fx

— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) August 16, 2023

What can India do

The challenges in India’s HPV vaccination programme can be addressed by a nuanced, rights-based, evidence-informed and gender-inclusive perspective.

First, school-based HPV vaccination programmes – already under way in Sikkim and Bihar – should be expanded to include all adolescents, regardless of gender. This would normalise vaccination as core preventive healthcare. As national efforts move from pilot to phased rollouts, subsequent drives should focus on vaccinating children of all genders, closing the current gap in protection.

Second, India needs large-scale, India-focused studies on men to build robust, country-specific evidence and challenge persistent misconceptions that HPV is not a male health concern. A study found that HPV vaccination awareness was lower among male healthcare students in Mangaluru than among their female counterparts. Female participants expressed willingness to be vaccinated but male students were hesitant even after receiving relevant health education, the study found.

Third, the success of any immunisation programme depends on community acceptance and political support. Vaccine hesitancy, for example, may arise from misconceptions, such as the false belief that vaccination leads to early sexual activity among adolescent girls. To counter this, the government must pair vaccine rollout with awareness initiatives. Campaigns emphasise that HPV is a concern for everyone, regardless of gender.

Outreach efforts must be sensitive, affirming and stigma-free. Inclusive messaging builds trust, increases vaccine uptake and helps break down stereotypes that frame reproductive healthcare solely as a woman’s concern.

Finally, a comprehensive HPV control strategy must strengthen and ensure accessible screening and testing for all, addressing the diagnostic gap that renders men “invisible” to HPV detection.

Global evidence shows that gender-just HPV vaccination reduces overall transmission by creating herd protection and protecting heterosexual and same-sex partnerships.

Countries such as Australia and the UK, which instituted gender-inclusive HPV vaccination, have shown a significant decrease in HPV-related disease burden. The European Cancer Organisation estimates that 42 countries are vaccinating boys and girls against HPV.

Closer home, Bhutan in 2010 became the first low-middle-income country to launch a national HPV vaccination programme, successfully attaining coverage rates exceeding 90%. In 2020, Bhutan began vaccinating adolescent boys as well.

India has taken a critical first step with the national rollout of the vaccine. The next step must be to ensure that this intervention is inclusive, accessible and transformative for all.

Shreya Eliza Sunny is a Research Associate at the Centre for Health Equity, Law & Policy, ILS Pune.

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday arrested Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui, the chairperson of the Al-Falah group, in a money-laundering case linked to alleged fraudulent accreditation claims and financial irregularities at the group’s educational institutions, the Hindustan Times reported.

The Al-Falah Medical College in Faridabad, Haryana has been under scrutiny in the investigation linked to the November 10 Delhi blast.

The blast near the Red Fort metro station had left 13 persons dead. The Union government has described it as a “terrorist incident”.

The Delhi Police has alleged that the key suspects, including faculty member Umar Un Nabi, who was allegedly driving the car that exploded, used a room on campus to plan logistics for transporting ammonium nitrate for multiple blasts in the National Capital Region. The vehicle used in the blast had been parked inside the campus for nearly 20 days, the police said.

Siddiqui, who has been the chancellor of the Al-Falah University in Faridabad since 2014, was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after investigators examined material seized during searches conducted on Tuesday.

The Enforcement Directorate’s case is based on two first information reports filed by the Delhi Police Crime Branch, which alleged that the Al-Falah University had falsely claimed accreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council and misrepresented its eligibility under the University Grants Commission Act.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council is an autonomous body under the University Grants Commission that assesses and accredits higher educational institutions such as colleges and universities to determine their “quality status”.

The University Grants Commission has claimed that the university is recognised only as a state private university and has never been eligible for central grants, The Indian Express reported.

During searches at 19 locations in the National Capital Region, including the university and homes of its senior staff, the Enforcement Directorate said it found evidence of large-scale fund diversion.

Investigators alleged that the proceeds of crime running into several crores were routed to entities owned by Siddiqui’s family, with construction and catering contracts awarded to firms linked to his wife and children, the Hindustan Times reported.

The agency seized Rs 48 lakh in cash, digital devices and documents, and identified several shell companies suspected to be part of the alleged money laundering network.

An unidentified official of the central law enforcement agency said the evidence of fund layering, diversion and recovery of cash established Siddiqui’s role, the Hindustan Times reported.

He was produced before a Delhi court, which remanded him to 13-day ED custody, ANI reported.

Also read: How a Kashmir probe into Jaish posters nearly unmasked Delhi blast plot

The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association on Monday alleged that Kashmiri students in several northern states are facing profiling, eviction and intimidation in the aftermath of the November 10 blast near Delhi’s Red Fort, PTI reported.

The blast near the Red Fort metro station on November 10 had left 13 persons dead. Two days after the explosion, the Union government described it as a “terrorist incident”. The doctor believed to have been driving the car that exploded was identified as Umar Nabi, a resident of Kashmir.

During a press conference in New Delhi on Monday, the student body’s National Convenor Nasir Khuehami urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene to “call off the vilification” of the community.

Khuehami said that “a particular community is being targeted after the attack”, claiming that Kashmiri students were being harassed in universities and neighbourhoods in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi, the news agency reported.

“Kashmiri students believe in India's democracy and in the mainstream, not in terrorism,” PTI quoted Khuehami as saying. “But they are being profiled and vilified by authorities and local people across states. Many landlords have asked Kashmiri tenants to vacate their rooms, forcing several students to return home out of fear.”

Khuehami added that the association had “no objection to any investigation” into the blast but urged the Centre to ensure the safety of Kashmiri students and prevent “collective suspicion”.

"We request the prime minister to make a public statement,” PTI quoted Khuehami as saying. “Kashmiris are as much a part of this country as any other citizen.”

Since the explosion, police in Faridabad have checked more than 500 persons from Jammu and Kashmir as part of heightened security measures, PTI reported.

The National Investigation Agency has taken over the case, which was filed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

On Monday, the National Investigation Agency said that it had arrested an alleged key associate of Nabi. A day earlier, the agency had arrested another aide allegedly linked to Nabi, who was identified as Amir Rashid Ali. The NIA alleged that the Hyundai i20 car used in the blast was registered in Ali’s name.

The agency identified the second arrested person as Jasir Bilal Wani aka Danish, a resident of Qazigund in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

He was arrested in Srinagar.

“NIA investigations have revealed that Jasir had allegedly provided technical support for carrying out terror attacks by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets ahead of the deadly car bomb blast…” stated the agency.

Wani was an “active co-conspirator” behind the attack and had worked closely with Nabi to “plan the terror carnage”, it alleged.

Delhi Police summons Al Falah University head

The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police has summoned Al Falah University chairman and founder Javed Ahmed Siddiqui in connection with alleged fraud and irregularities flagged by the University Grants Commission and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council following the Delhi blast, The Indian Express reported.

An unidentified officer told the newspaper that Siddiqui has been asked to appear before the Crime Branch with documents related to the accreditation and funding of the Al Falah Charitable Trust, under which nine organisations operate.

Among the nine organisations is the Al Falah Medical Research Foundation, where blast accused Nabi and Muzammil Ganai were employed.

The Crime Branch has also registered two separate FIRs after the National Assessment and Accreditation Council issued notice to the university, stating that its accreditation had expired and asking why legal action should not be initiated.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council, an autonomous body under the UGC, assesses and accredits higher educational institutions to determine their “quality status”.

44 J&K workers detained in Assam

On Monday, a group of 44 workers from Jammu and Kashmir who were on their way to Arunachal Pradesh for work were detained by locals at a railway station in Assam’s Tinsukia, The Indian Express reported.

The local residents had alleged that the workers, who were from from Doda and Kishtwar, appeared “suspicious”.

Visuals showed the men sitting on a road outside the railway station, and some of the local residents saying that they wanted officials to check “whether they are from Pakistan”, The Indian Express reported.

The police subsequently verified the identities of the workers and allowed them to leave.

Also read: How a Kashmir probe into Jaish posters nearly unmasked Delhi blast plot

A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded an alleged key associate of Umar Nabi, the doctor who was believed to have been driving the car that exploded near the Red Fort metro station, to 10 days custody of the National Investigation Agency, ANI reported.

Jasir Bilal Wani alias Danish, a resident of Qazigund in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district, was arrested on Monday from Srinagar.

“NIA investigations have revealed that Jasir had allegedly provided technical support for carrying out terror attacks by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets ahead of the deadly car bomb blast…” the agency said then.

Wani was an “active co-conspirator” behind the attack and had worked closely with Nabi to “plan the terror carnage”, the agency alleged.

The blast near the Red Fort metro station on November 10 had left 13 persons dead. Two days after the explosion, the Union government described it as a “terrorist incident”.

Wani was produced before a special National Investigation Agency court in Delhi on Monday for a closed courtroom hearing.

The agency told the court that the blast intended to create an atmosphere of panic in the country, ANI reported quoting unidentified persons.

Hours before the blast, the police said that it had cracked an “inter-state and transnational terror module” in Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. Two doctors from Kashmir – Adeel Ahmad Rather and Muzamil Shakeel – were among those arrested in the alleged case.

The police said at the time that it had recovered 2,900 kg of improvised explosive device-making material in raids in several states.

In the backdrop of the blast and the terror module case, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on November 12 conducted raids at more than 300 locations in the Kashmir valley allegedly linked to persons affiliated with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami.

The actions came after intelligence that elements linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami, banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, were trying to revive the organisation under different names, the police said.

The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have not officially linked the terror module and blast cases with the ongoing raids.

The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association on Monday flagged that Kashmiri students in several northern states are facing profiling, eviction and intimidation in the aftermath of the November 10 blast.

Also read: How a Kashmir probe into Jaish posters nearly unmasked Delhi blast plot

Iran has suspended the visa waiver facility available to Indian passport holders from Saturday amid several incidents of Indian nationals being “lured” into the country on false promises of employment or with assurances of onward transit to third countries, New Delhi said on Monday.

In a press release, the Ministry of External Affairs said that the suspension is intended to “prevent further misuse of the facility by criminal elements”.

Tehran had introduced a visa waiver for Indians in February 2024, which was valid once every six months for a non-extendable stay of 15 days solely for tourism. Starting Saturday, Indians holding ordinary passports will be required to obtain a visa to enter or transit through Iran.

The ministry, in its press release, said that several Indians had been “tricked” into travelling to Iran by “taking advantage of the visa waiver facility”. However, they were kidnapped for ransom once they arrived in the country, the ministry added.

The ministry urged Indians intending to travel to the country to “remain vigilant” and avoid agents offering visa-free travel or onward transit to third countries via Iran.

In September, the ministry had issued a similar advisory cautioning Indians to exercise “strictest vigilance” in view of such cases of fake job offers.

“In particular, it may be noted that the government of Iran allows visa-free entry to Indians only for tourism purposes,” it had said at the time. “Any agents promising visa-free entry into Iran for employment or other purposes may well be in connivance with criminal gangs.”

Madvi Hidma, the most wanted leader within the Maoist ranks, was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district on Tuesday, The Indian Express reported.

Hidma alias Santosh, a central committee member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and leader of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, was allegedly responsible for at least 26 lethal armed attacks.

Unidentified security officials told the newspaper that 51-year-old Hidma, his wife Madakam Raje and four others were fleeing from Chhattisgarh when they were surrounded by security forces in the Maredumilli forest in the district between 6 am and 7 am.

The other four Maoists – Deve, Lakmal, Malla and Kamlu – served as guards to Hidma, The Hindu reported.

“All six bodies, including those of Madvi and Raje, have been recovered from the spot of the encounter,” The Hindu quoted Andhra Pradesh Intelligence Chief Mahesh Chandra Laddha as saying. “They have been shifted to Rampachodavaram Area Hospital for post-mortem.”

Laddha added that a few Maoists also ran away from the place where the exchange of fire had taken place, adding that a search is on for them.

Security forces recovered two AK-47s, 15 electrical detonators and 150 non-electrical detonators, along with a few other weapons and ammunition, from the site during the operation, The Hindu reported.

Another security official told The Indian Express that inputs from the Andhra Pradesh Special Investigation Branch, along with other intelligence inputs, over the past few weeks had specifically indicated the movement of Maoists near the Andhra Pradesh-Chhattisgarh-Odisha border.

“…based on those inputs, we operated and got this success,” the officer added.

Hidma was killed by security forces in the gunfight on Tuesday 12 days before the November 30 deadline set by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to eliminate him, PTI reported.

“The Union home minister had set a deadline of March 31, 2026, for the eradication of the Maoist problem from the country,” an unidentified official told PTI. “At a security review meeting, Shah also told the top security officials engaged in anti-Naxal operations to eliminate Hidma before November 30…”

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

Last month, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said that the number of districts across different states affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to 11 from 18 in March.

In 2025, the number of “most affected” districts has also come down from six to three, it added. These are Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.

On October 16, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai also said that over the past 22 months, 477 suspected Maoists were killed, 2,110 had surrendered and 1,785 had been arrested in the state.

This year alone, 259 suspected Maoists have been killed by security forces in the state.

Malini Subramaniam has reported for Scroll that while many of those killed in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region in 2024 were declared by the police to be reward-carrying Maoists, several families dispute the claim. The families claim that the persons killed were civilians.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed its earlier ruling that had barred the government from granting environmental clearances to projects after they had already begun, Live Law reported.

In a 2:1 decision, the court recalled its May judgement that declared such post-facto approvals illegal. The verdict on Tuesday allows the Centre to once again consider granting environment clearances to projects retrospectively.

The review petitions were heard by a bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai, and Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran. Gavai and Chandran formed the majority, and Bhuyan dissented.

The majority said that the earlier judgment would have required the demolition of many buildings and public projects that had been approved through ex post facto clearances over the years, The Hindu reported.

Gavai reportedly said that several of these projects were worth more than Rs 20,000 crore and that destroying them now would cause more environmental harm than good.

The majority held that projects that are otherwise permissible can be granted post-facto clearances.

Gavai and Chandran also agreed that there were earlier Supreme Court judgements both upholding and rejecting ex post facto clearances, and the earlier bench of Justices AS Oka (now retired) and Bhuyan should have ideally referred the case to a larger bench in exercise of “judicial discipline”, The Hindu reported.

Bhuyan, however, disagreed.

He said that “ex post facto environment clearance” was a concept alien to environmental jurisprudence, The Hindu reported.

“The grant of such clearance is derogatory to the environment,” Bhuyan was quoted as saying. “The grant of ex post facto environmental clearance is anathema to the environment.

The May judgement had restrained the Union government from granting ex post facto clearances in any form to regularise illegal constructions.

The Court had struck down a 2017 notification and a 2021 Office Memorandum that allowed the government to grant post-facto environmental clearances, calling these and related circulars and orders illegal and arbitrary, The Hindu reported.

However, the bench had clarified at the time that environmental clearances already granted under the 2017 notification and the 2021 Office Memorandum would continue to remain valid.

Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor on Tuesday acknowledged that his party was not successful in “changing the system” during the recently-concluded Bihar Assembly polls, and was unable to “even change the government”.

The former political strategist’s party had failed to win any seat in the Bihar Assembly election, despite contesting in 238 constituencies.

The party even lost its deposits in 236 seats as the candidates did not win even one-sixth of the total vote share.

“We came to Bihar three years ago to change the system and made an honest effort, but we did not succeed,” The Indian Express quoted Kishor as saying. “We couldn’t even change the government, but we have changed politics to some extent.”

“I own all the blame for the election results,” he further said and apologized for the debacle.

Kishor added that he will observe a day-long fast of silence at the Gandhi Bhitiharwa Ashram on Thursday as atonement for “failing to explain to the people of Bihar the basis on which they should vote and why they should create a new system”.

#WATCH | Patna, Bihar | Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor says, "...I will work twice as hard as you've seen me work over the past three years and put in all my energy. There's no question of backing down. There's no turning back until I fulfil my resolve to make Bihar better."… pic.twitter.com/UEgXdD53Kr

— ANI (@ANI) November 18, 2025

However Kishor further underlined that despite winning only 3.5% of the votes the party still managed to rake up “so much media attention” which he claimed to be a sign of having pulled off something meaningful.

He added that while the party failed to gain the trust of the people of Bihar, they had not committed any crime.

“We have not committed the crime of spreading caste-based poison in society,” he claimed. “We have not played Hindu-Muslim politics in Bihar. We have not committed the crime of dividing people in the name of religion. We have not committed the crime of giving money to the poor, innocent people of Bihar and buying their votes.”

Clarifying his claims of quitting politics if Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) wins more than 25 seats, Kishor asked reporters what position he was holding that he should resign from.

However he added that he would “definitely quit” politics if the National Democratic Alliance government fulfils its poll promise and gives Rs 2 lakh each to Rs 1.5 crore women under self-employment initiatives.

“People who don't get the money in six months’ time can come to Jan Suraaj, we will fight to ensure they get the amount,” he said.

Kishor had launched the party on October 2, 2024, saying that it would seek to end political helplessness in Bihar by creating a united alternative party for its citizens.

Ahead of the election, there had been speculation that Kishor himself could contest the election. However, he announced on October 15 that he would not contest any seat.

The ruling National Democratic Alliance swept the Bihar Assembly elections on Friday, bagging 202 of the 243 total seats, according to the Election Commission data.

The tally of the Opposition Mahagathbandhan was 35 seats.

The Maharashtra unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday stayed the induction of Kashinath Choudhary, a leader from Palghar who had been accused by the party of being involved in the 2020 lynching of two monks, The Indian Express reported.

The move came hours after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis defended the decision to bring Choudhary into the party.

“The case has been fully investigated,” The Times of India quoted Fadnavis as saying. “Local party workers said they looked at all information and only thereafter was the decision taken [to induct Choudhary].”

BJP Spokesperson Navnath Ban said that Choudhary was not named as an accused in any chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is why he was inducted into the party, the newspaper reported

The 2020 lynching had taken place in Gadchinchle, a tribal village in a remote part of Palghar. Two monks and their driver were travelling to a funeral in Surat when a mob, acting on rumours that they were child kidnappers and organ harvesters, stopped their car and attacked them with stones, logs and axes.

The incident had taken place amid a spate of similar lynchings in the country triggered by misinformation and WhatsApp rumours.

The case had triggered a political row in Maharashtra. The Bharatiya Janata Party, then in Opposition, had demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, while the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government had accused the party of politicising the incident. A total of 251 persons were arrested and 15 juveniles were detained in the case. Choudhary was not among them.

At the time, Choudhary was a member of the undivided Nationalist Congress Party.

On Monday, after the BJP inducted Choudhary into the party, the Opposition criticised the move. Rohit Pawar, MLA from the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, accused the BJP of double standards, calling the party a “washing machine”.

Washing machine is a term Opposition leaders use to suggest that cases against political figures are pursued when they are in the Opposition but are put on hold once they join the BJP.

“The mantra of the new BJP is to not follow any ethics and only aim for power,” Rohit Pawar said in a social media post. “Had it not been the case, how come the party welcomed an individual whom it had accused of lynching a monk? Whoever faces allegations becomes clean when he comes to you, like a washing machine.”

Responding to Pawar, Fadnavis said that Choudhary had earlier belonged to parties now criticising the BJP, The Indian Express reported.

“Until he was with them, no allegations were made. Today, when he joined us, allegations have begun,” the chief minister was quoted as saying.

He added that the case had been investigated and “several things are now out in public”.

However, later on Monday, Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan announced that Choudhary’s induction had been put on hold.

The party added that official investigation records show his name does not appear in any first information report or chargesheet, and that the local unit had considered this before moving ahead, The Indian Express reported.

The Kerala government has approached the Supreme Court seeking the revision of voter rolls in the state to be deferred until after local body elections, Bar and Bench reported on Tuesday.

Local body polls in the state are due to be held in two phases on December 9 and December 11, with votes scheduled to be counted on December 13. The last date for completion of the election is December 18.

On November 4, the Election Commission began the enumeration phase of the exercise in 12 states and Union Territories, including Kerala.

The Kerala High Court had on November 14 refrained from deferring the exercise and asked the Left Democratic Front government to approach the Supreme Court.

In its petition, the Kerala government has told the Supreme Court that revising voter rolls and conducting the polls simultaneously will lead to an “administrative impasse” and disrupt the elections, Live Law reported.

According to the state’s petition, the elections would require about 1.7 lakh government personnel apart from 68,000 police officials and security staff. The voter roll revision exercise would demand an additional 25,668 personnel, Bar and Bench quoted the petition as saying.

“This puts a severe strain on the state administration bringing routine administrative work to a standstill,” the government argued.

It also underlined that, unlike the local body polls that are mandated to be conducted within a strict schedule, there is no such requirement for the special intensive revision exercise.

“The ECI has also not made out any special reasons for conduct of a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in the state,” Live Law quoted the plea as saying. “Therefore, no prejudice will be caused to any sides if the SIR stands deferred.”

The Kerala government told the court that while the state may challenge the need for a revision of voter rolls separately, the current petition only pertains to deferring the exercise, Bar and Bench reported.

The draft electoral rolls for the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9. Voters can file claims and objections from December 9 to January 8, while hearings and verifications will take place from December 9 to January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

In September, the Kerala Assembly unanimously passed a resolution against the Election Commission’s decision to conduct the revision, saying that the “hasty” move could harm the rights of citizens.

On Sunday, a booth-level officer in the state’s Kannur area died by suicide, allegedly because of work pressure linked to the revision of voter rolls.

On November 11, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to respond within two weeks on petitions filed against the exercise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

A mob vandalised shops in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani on Sunday night after rumours circulated that the head of a calf had been found near a school located close to a temple, The Indian Express reported.

A crowd began gathering in Banbhulpura after videos and messages about the alleged discovery spread on social media, following which several shops and vehicles were vandalised.

The police lathi-charged the mob and deployed additional forces to prevent further unrest, The Indian Express reported.

A complaint was filed by a resident, Ravinder Gupta, against an unidentified person, and the remains were sent for forensic examination.

Superintendent of Police (Crime) Jagdish Chandra said that initial CCTV footage suggested a dog had dragged “a piece of meat towards that side”, The Lallantop reported.

He added that further analysis was underway.

A first information report was registered in connection with the vandalism against 40-50 unidentified persons. So far, seven persons have been detained in connection with the violence.

The case was filed under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections pertaining to voluntarily causing hurt, act endangering life or personal safety of others, rioting, criminal intimidation among others.

On Monday, the Nainital Police urged residents not to fall for misinformation and appealed to everyone to verify any information before sharing it.

Mrinalkanti Mridha, a singer and tabla teacher from the Matua community, arrived in West Bengal’s Nadia district from Khulna district in Bangladesh in 1993.

He chose to leave the country of his birth as he feared religious persecution, he said.

By 1995, he was able to manage to buy some land in Nadia.

In 2003, he moved to Charghat village in North 24 Parganas district, which is closer to Thakurnargar, the religious seat of the Matuas close to the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Matuas are the followers of an anti-caste religion and are mostly members of the Namasudra community, the second-largest Scheduled Caste group in Bengal.

As he settled down in Nadia, Mridha made several unsuccessful attempts to get his name on the electoral roll. In 2005, he succeeded.

“I paid Rs 5,000 to enroll my name in the voter list,” the 55-year-old told Scroll last week.

But as the special intensive revision of electoral rolls takes off in Bengal, Mritha is afraid.

The 2002 electoral roll forms the basis of the SIR being carried out in West Bengal. All those whose names appear on the roll, or whose relatives are listed on it do not need to furnish additional documentation to be included in the final electoral roll, to be prepared by February 7, 2026.

“All our votes will be deleted,” Mridha said. “My family, my uncles and their families. Many Matuas will lose their votes.”

As Scroll has reported, in several parts of Bengal, residents are in a state of panic as the exclusion from the voter roll is being perceived as a step towards losing citizenship.

“Will they send us to a detention camp or Bangladesh? Or will they make us non-citizens?” Mridha asked. “What will be our children’s future? Without voting rights, we will become identity-less. We will not be able to avail government benefits, especially the subsidised ration. Our bank accounts will be frozen.”

Mridha rued that he would have no other option but to return to Bangladesh.

What makes it worse is that the special intensive revision is being backed by the party Mridha belongs to – the Bharatiya Janata Party. “I know 40 people in my village who are in the same ordeal without any documents. All of us are BJP members.”

Once a “proud” advocate of the party, and especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Mridha is dismayed by the party’s support for the SIR. “Modi-Shah are intent on finishing us. They have put BJP members like us in danger.”

BJP leaders in the region admitted that large numbers of Matuas may be excluded from the electoral roll during the revision of the rolls, as they arrived in India after 2002. As a solution, they have been urging members of the community to apply for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act, claiming that it offers a way out to them.

The BJP and the Matuas

Like many other Matuas, Mridha was a Trinamool Congress voter till the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Mamata Banerjee was one of the first Bengal leaders to court the influential group, and their support was key to her coming to power in the 2011 Assembly elections.

The Matuas’ – and Mridha’s – loyalties shifted to the BJP in 2015 when senior Matua leader Manjul Krishna Thakur, who was in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, quit Trinamool Congress to join BJP.

That was the time many Matuas were drawn to the BJP because of its aggressive campaign to bring in amendments to India’s citizenship law that would allow undocumented migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who had entered India before December 31, 2014, to become Indian citizens – as long as they were not Muslim.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill was tabled in 2016 and passed in 2019 by the Narendra Modi government early on in its second term. While the law triggered protests across the country, it cemented the party’s support among the Matuas, who believed they would benefit from it.

But as Scroll has reported in the past, the law has had few takers among the communities it promises to help – Hindu migrants from Bangladesh in Assam and Bengal – because of the fear that it marks them out as undocumented migrants.

With the special intensive revision of rolls spreading panic, the BJP has been trying to control the damage – by pushing for the CAA.

Senior leaders like Bongaon BJP MP Shantanu Thakur, who heads the All India Matua Mahasangh, has declared that if anyone from the community was excluded after the SIR process, the party would help them secure a voter card again through the amended citizenship law.

“If you get citizenship, you will be given a voter card again,” Thakur, who is a member of the Union cabinet, said at Thakurbari, the community’s spiritual seat. “And if you do not have a voter card, come to me, I will make you a voter card.”

For weeks now, BJP has been organising camps in areas of south and north Bengal with sizeable populations of Matuas and Namasudras to help them file CAA applications.

Separately, the All India Matua Mahasangh led by Shantanu Thakur has been giving out “Hindu cards” to hundreds of Matuas at Thakurbari.

Among the set of documents required for securing Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act is a “religious identity card.”

Officials at Mahasangh said there has been an increase in people seeking the “Hindu card” after the SIR was announced, though the cards were being distributed in previous months too.

“We are asking our people to apply under CAA,” general secretary of Matua Mahasangh Sukhendranath Gaye told Scroll. “Those who will be left out from SIR will apply under the CAA.”

Mridha, too, got himself a card at a cost of Rs 180. But he was sceptical about its benefit and bitter about the options being foisted on them. “Poor Hindu people have been running around, paying for ‘Hindu’ certificates. But there is no certainty whether CAA can help them,” he said.

He added: “Maybe, the BJP just does not bother about recent Hindu migrants because we are from the lower castes.”

Can CAA help pass the SIR test?

Other members of the Matua Mahasangha admitted that CAA might not offer any solution to the challenge to undocumented migrants posed by SIR.

Mahitosh Baidya, the general secretary of the Matua Mahasangha, said, “Not even one per cent of CAA applicants have received a citizenship certificate.”

He also agreed that the “Hindu certificate” issued by the Thakurbari will not ensure citizenship of the applicant. “It is only one of the documents needed for the application.”

Baidya underlined that the enumeration form handed by the Election Commission is “silent” about the people who came after 2002 or who do not have names in the 2002 voter list. Neither is there a separate column about the CAA or citizenship certificate.

“If that option was there, even if one doesn’t have his name in the 2002 voter list but has the citizenship certificate acquired by CAA, people would not be under such stress,” he said. “There is no clarity for those who arrived before 2014 or after. That is why people are terrified. I have been getting frantic calls every day.”

Political scientist Ayan Guha, whose research focuses on the Matuas points out the limited utility of the “Matua Mahasangha card” as a legal document. “It is not a government document and its legal validity is limited to being a community certificate under the CAA rules,” he said. “But many common people are under the impression that solely through this card they will get citizenship.”

A political challenge

In private, BJP leaders acknowledge that a large number of Matuas may be excluded from the electoral roll after the SIR.

“This is a reality as many have come to India after 2002,” a senior BJP leader of the state refugee cell told Scroll.

In 2001, Begum Khaleda Zia became the Bangladesh prime minister. “In her five-year rule, there was extreme repression and many people came here,” the leader said.

He also admitted that Shantanu Thakur’s assurance that those excluded by SIR would be protected by CAA “has no basis”.

“There is no connection between the CAA and SIR,” he said. “It is political rhetoric just like how the Trinamool Congress claims that if one applies under the CAA, one will become Bangladeshis.”

Meanwhile, members of the All India Matua Mahasangh who lean towards the Trinamool Congress have been on a “fast-unto-death” in Thakurnagar, demanding the unconditional rollback of the special intensive revision of Bengal’s elector rolls.

The protesters also demand “unconditional” citizenship for all those who migrated from Bangladesh up until 2024. “People’s votes will be deleted in order to create pressure on the people to apply under CAA,” alleged Amit Biswas, a CPM member belonging to the Matua community at Thakurnagar, who attended the protest organised by the Trinamool Congress.

Biswas said there is “extreme fear” among people he encountered at booth level meetings. “In my booth in Thakurnagar, 50% of voters will be removed if 2002 is the base year, as their names or parents or grandparents are not there. This leads to the panic.”

Biswas accused the BJP and Matua leaders Subrata Thakur and Shantanu Thakur of playing on the fear of people to sell “Hindu cards”. “In this time of distress, they are using people’s suffering to gain money,” he said.

People from Matua community were promised citizenship under CAA in 2019 by Modi govt

CAA was passed in 2019 but implemented in 2024 ahead of LS polls

CAA application required documents that’s most of these Hindu migrants from Bangladesh didn’t have. So, hardly anyone applied.… pic.twitter.com/JKuZyCRn6B

— Tamal Saha (@Tamal0401) November 3, 2025

The senior BJP leader admitted that the SIR has roiled up emotions, and might end up adversely affecting the party in this belt.

Angry party members like Mridha warn of much the same.

“If my name is deleted, at least 100 of my family members and relatives won’t vote for the BJP,” he said. “People have started to call out the BJP and abuse [Union minister] Santanu Thakur. What have they started?”

He said BJP members are being mocked by those loyal to the Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M). “Khal kete kumir anso, they say,” he said. You have invited the crocodile into your midst.

Political scientist Guha pointed out that while SIR has created anxiety among the Matuas “many are in favour of such a process so long as steps are taken to ensure that Hindu names are not deleted from the voter list.”

Mridha, for example, called on his party and the Prime Minister to “identify Muslims and expel them.” “Why are they harassing us who have already fled to save their lives?”

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to impose year-round restrictions on activities prohibited under the Graded Response Action Plan, or GRAP, such as blanket construction bans or curbs on vehicular movement, reported PTI.

A bench headed by Chief Justice BR Gavai stated that the national capital “cannot be brought to a standstill” in the name of fighting air pollution.

GRAP is a set of incremental anti-pollution measures that are activated to prevent further worsening of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold in Delhi and the adjoining areas comprising the National Capital region.

The city has recorded air quality in the “poor” or worse categories since mid-October, leading to the imposition of Stage 3 restrictions under GRAP on November 11.

Restrictions under Stage 3 entail 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.

On Monday, the bench said that the court cannot order measures that would paralyse the economic activity or deprive hundreds of thousands of migrant workers of wages, even as air quality is expected to worsen in the coming days, the Hindustan Times reported.

“We cannot bring everything to a standstill,” the newspaper quoted Gavai as saying. “There cannot be a complete stoppage of all activities.”

“We also have to think of migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh who are here to work and are daily wagers,” the bench, also comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria, was quoted as saying. “The solution proposed cannot be worse than the problem.”

The bench was responding to submissions by advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan that Delhi had turned into a “gas chamber” and that the situation required “drastic steps” such as shutting down all activities covered even under GRAP-1 for the entire year, the Hindustan Times reported.

GRAP-1 restrictions focus on controlling dust and vehicle emissions, including a ban on diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years, tightening of traffic rules at major intersections, ban on burning of garbage, leaves and biomass among others.

The bench observed that such extreme steps are neither contemplated under the regulatory framework nor constitutionally manageable.

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital. As the temperature falls, a layer of cold air forms close to the ground and traps pollution instead of letting it rise and disperse.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, along with the lighting of firecrackers, vehicular pollution, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

Delhi has already reported three “severe” air quality days and 10 “very poor” days in the first half of November. Minimum temperatures fell sharply, touching 9°C on Sunday, the lowest for November since 2022.

An AQI in the “very poor” or “severe” range is considered hazardous and can pose risks even to healthy individuals.

On Monday, the Supreme Court also asked the Punjab and Haryana governments to strictly follow the directions of the Commission for Air Quality Management on stubble burning, PTI reported.

“If [the commission’s] suggestions to Punjab and Haryana are implemented, then stubble burning can be adequately tackled,” PTI quoted the bench as saying. “We direct both states to have a combined meeting and ensure that t[the commission’s] suggestions are scrupulously implemented.”

Also read: Why air quality numbers in Delhi vary widely

A newly-formed pro-Khalistan group, the Sher-e-Punjab Brigade, on Monday claimed responsibility for the murder of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader’s son in Ferozepur city of Punjab, The Times of India reported.

Khalistan refers to a proposed independent state for Sikhs sought by some groups.

Naveen Arora, the son of RSS leader Baldev Raj Arora, was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants around 7 pm on Saturday when he was walking home from his shop.

The attackers reportedly fired at him from point-blank range near the Baba Noor Shah Wali dargah.

He was taken to a private hospital, where doctors declared that he had been brought dead.

On Monday, the Sher-e-Punjab Brigade accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of “assimilating Sikhs into Hinduism in Punjab”, The Times of India reported.

Signed in the name of Paramjit Singh and issued by spokesperson Bahadur Singh Sandhu, it stated that the group was formed for the “cause of Khalistan’s freedom”.

The letter warned that members of the RSS, Shiv Sena, police and military personnel would be targeted in the future, The Indian Express reported.

Ferozepur Senior Superintendent of Police Sidhu urged residents not to react to any misinformation being shared online, The Times of India reported. “Police teams are on the job and we will nab the culprits shortly,” Sidhu told the newspaper.

An unidentified Punjab Police officer told The Indian Express that the authenticity of the letter was yet to be verified.

“It could be a fake letter or group or it could be an attempt…to mislead the investigation into the murder of Naveen Arora,” the officer was quoted as saying.

Another senior intelligence officer told the newspaper that technical data would be analysed to determine who is behind the newly-formed outfit. “In the past…many fake claims have been made to take credit for crimes in the state. We will investigate this closely to ascertain who is behind this letter,” the intelligence officer was quoted as saying.

The police have not yet identified a motive for the killing.

Bangladesh on Monday urged India to immediately hand over its former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was earlier in the day sentenced to death by a tribunal that found her guilty of crimes against humanity.

Dhaka also demanded the extradition of the country’s former interior minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, to Bangladesh, India Today reported.

The tribunal on Monday sentenced the former interior minister as well to death. Both Hasina and Kamal were tried in absentia, and are believed to be in India.

The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that handing over Hasina and Kamal was a “mandatory duty” for India under the existing extradition treaty.

The acting head of Bangladesh’s law ministry, Asif Nazrul, was quoted by Al-Jazeera as saying: “If India continues to give refuge to someone responsible for mass killings, it must understand the hostility this creates towards Bangladesh and its people.”

Earlier on Monday, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal held Hasina guilty of having ordered a deadly crackdown on the protests against her government in 2024.

The verdict was the first in a series of four cases related to crimes allegedly committed during her government’s response to the several weeks of widespread student-led protests against the Awami League government in July and August 2024.

The tribunal said that the attacks during last year’s protests were “directed against the civilian population” and were “widespread and systematic”.

In February, a United Nations report on the violence said that the Hasina government, the country’s security and intelligence services and “violent elements” associated with her Awami League party had engaged in serious human rights violations to quell the protests in 2024.

Of the 1,400 killed and thousands injured between July 1, 2024, and August 15, 2024, the vast majority were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces, the UN report said. Of these, 12% to 13% killed were children.

Hasina, however, on Monday described the tribunal as biased and politically motivated, and denied having ordered firing on protesters. She said that the verdict was passed by a “rigged tribunal” that had been established and presided over by an “unelected government with no democratic mandate”.

The former prime minister added that she was not given a fair chance to defend herself in court nor have her lawyers represent her in absentia.

She further contended that the “UN’s much-quoted fatality estimate of 1,400 deaths is also disputed”, adding that the Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health recorded a verified count of 834 deaths.

Committed to Bangladeshi people’s best interests: India

India, in its official reaction to the development, did not comment on the extradition demand, but said that it has taken note of the tribunal’s verdict against Hasina.

“As a close neighbour, India remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country,” the external affairs ministry said. “We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end.”

The National Investigation Agency on Monday said that it has arrested an alleged key associate of Umar Nabi, the doctor who was believed to have been driving the car that exploded near Delhi’s Red Fort metro station on November 10.

A day earlier, the agency had arrested another aide allegedly linked to Nabi, who was identified as Amir Rashid Ali. The NIA alleged that the Hyundai i20 car used in the blast was registered in Ali’s name.

On Monday, the NIA identified the second man as Jasir Bilal Wani aka Danish, a resident of Qazigund in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

He was arrested from Srinagar in connection with the case.

“NIA investigations have revealed that Jasir had allegedly provided technical support for carrying out terror attacks by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets ahead of the deadly car bomb blast…” the statement read.

Wani was an “active co-conspirator” behind the attack and had worked closely with Nabi to “plan the terror carnage”, the agency alleged.

NIA Arrests Another Key Associate of the Terrorist who Carried out Red Fort Area Car Bomb Blast pic.twitter.com/OMkhwbRddu

— NIA India (@NIA_India) November 17, 2025

The blast near the Red Fort metro station on November 10 had left 13 persons dead. Two days after the explosion, the Union government described it as a “terrorist incident”.

On Ali’s arrest, the NIA on Sunday alleged that he had visited Delhi to facilitate the purchase of the Hyundai i20 car that was “eventually used as a vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device”.

The NIA on Sunday also said it had forensically established that Nabi, an assistant professor of medicine at Al-Falah University in Haryana’s Faridabad, was driving the car that exploded. It added that it had seized another vehicle belonging to him, and was examining it for evidence.

Reports have claimed that Nabi was a key figure in a terror network spanning Kashmir, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Hours before the blast, the police said that it had cracked an “inter-state and transnational terror module” in Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. Two doctors from Kashmir – Adeel Ahmad Rather and Muzamil Shakeel – were among those arrested in the alleged case.

The police said at the time that it had recovered 2,900 kg of improvised explosive device-making material in raids in several states.

In the backdrop of the blast and the terror module case, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on November 12 conducted raids at more than 300 locations in the Kashmir valley allegedly linked to persons affiliated with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami.

The actions came after intelligence that elements linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami, banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, were trying to revive the organisation under different names, the police said.

The authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have not officially linked the terror module and blast cases with the ongoing raids.

The Election Commission on Monday ordered a “special revision” of the electoral rolls in Assam. The poll panel, in instructions issued to the state chief electoral officer, stated that January 1, 2026, would be the qualifying date for the state to carry out the exercise.

Assam is set to go to polls next year.

In its instructions, the Election Commission stated that door-to-door verification as part of the revision in Assam will take place between November 22 and December 20. During this period, booth level officers will check for multiple entries, dead voters and permanently shifted electors.

The draft roll will be published on December 27, following which claims and objections can be filed between December 27 and January 22, 2026. The final list will be published on February 10, 2026.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma welcomed the decision taken by the Election Commission to undertake the special revision with January 1, 2026, as the qualifying date.

“This will help ensure clean, updated and accurate electoral rolls for all eligible citizens,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said on social media. “Assam will extend full cooperation to the Election Commission to complete the revision in a transparent and time-bound manner.”

This comes less than a month after Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on October 27 announced a special intensive revision exercise of the electoral rolls in 12 states and Union Territories.

At the time, Kumar had said that another order would be issued later for Assam as the Citizenship Act had separate provisions for the state.

The states and Union Territories where the exercise was announced to be held included Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, where Assembly elections are expected to take place in 2026.

On November 4, the Election Commission began the enumeration phase of the exercise in these 12 states and Union Territories. The draft electoral rolls for the 12 states and Union Territories would be published on December 9. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

On November 11, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to respond within two weeks on petitions filed against the special intensive revision in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. It will hear the matter next on November 26.

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

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

The Election Commission has repeatedly defended the revision as a clean-up effort to remove names of voters who have died, duplicate entries and undocumented migrants.