Twenty persons died in a fire that broke out in a building in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar area on Wednesday, ANI quoted Delhi Police as saying.

Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Malviya Nagar Satish Upadhyay told ANI that 47 persons were rescued from the multi-story building.

The fire was brought under control quickly, the news agency quoted Fire Officer AK Malik as saying. The cause of the fire was unclear.

Foreign citizens were among the persons present in the building.

Based on preliminary inquiries the building did not appear to be a residential structure, Malik said.

“Rather, it appears that most of the occupants were individuals whose known people were being treated in the MAX Hospital located directly across the street,” he was quoted as saying. “Therefore, it is likely that these individuals were staying here for that specific purpose...”

Some persons were rescued from the basement of a restaurant in the building, PTI quoted a Delhi Fire Service official as saying.

VIDEO | Delhi: At least 18 dead, several others injured in fire at a hotel in Malviya Nagar. Visuals of the hotel building.#DelhiNews #MalviyaNagarFire

(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/azJzBbcfEP

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 3, 2026

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said that the teams of Delhi Fire Service, police the Delhi Disaster Management Authority had been mobilised and a rescue operation was undertaken. “Their swift response helped in rescuing and evacuating several persons from the affected premises,” Gupta said on social media.

The Delhi government was monitoring the situation, she said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the PM National Relief Fund for the families of those who had died. The injured would be given Rs 50,000, the prime minister’s office said.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar and Tanya Shrivastava.

This is a developing story. It will be updated as new details become available.

The Ahmedabad Police on Wednesday said that they had detained more than 290 alleged undocumented Bangladeshi migrants for interrogation, Gujarat Samachar reported.

While 131 persons were apprehended, 160 others were being interrogated by the police, ANI reported.

The police carried out searches and verifications in Chandola, Gulabnagar and Khodiyarnagar areas of Ahmedabad on Tuesday night, the news agency quoted the Joint Commissioner of Police Sharad Singhal as saying. The searches were conducted following intelligence inputs.

The police teams checked the documents of the persons, verified their identity and conducted preliminary inquiries to determine whether they had documents permitting them to be in India, Gujarat Samachar reported.

The authorities were also examining whether the documents such as Aadhaar cards and voter identity cards have been forged, the newspaper reported.

#WATCH | Gujarat | Visuals from Ahmedabad Crime Branch.

In a late-night crackdown last night, Ahmedabad Police and the Crime Branch took over 290 suspected illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators into police custody.

According to crime branch officials, a total of 131 individuals… pic.twitter.com/enID9UkG6q

— ANI (@ANI) June 3, 2026

Since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April 2025, the police in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian citizens.

Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.

Scroll has also reported on several cases of persons who were forced into Bangladesh being brought back to India, as the authorities had failed to follow the process laid down by the Union home ministry for such deportations.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Also read:

• Bangladeshi or Indian? Investigating Modi government’s crackdown on ‘illegal immigrants’
• Pregnant woman from Bengal forced into Bangladesh. Family has land records from five generations ago

The Reserve Bank of India may have sold gold worth about $12 billion in May to protect foreign exchange reserves, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The Union government denied the claims.

RBI bullion reserves may have fallen in the two weeks till May 22 even as foreign currency assets increased by about $7.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Economics’ analysis of publicly available data.

The pattern pointed to possible gold sales by the central bank, the news outlet claimed.

The decline in reported gold values came despite an increase in import duties on the metal, which would have normally raised the valuation of the central bank’s gold holdings.

On May 13, India raised import tariffs on gold and silver to 15% from 6% to reduce imports of the precious metals and ease pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

The move had come after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged citizens to avoid buying gold and adopt “nationally responsible” lifestyle choices to help the country withstand global economic uncertainty caused by the war in West Asia.

The divergence points to the possibility of gold having been sold by the central bank during the period, the Bloomberg report claimed.

Such a move, if confirmed, would reflect policymakers’ concerns about the pressure on foreign exchange reserves amid higher oil prices linked to the war, the report added.

The analysis also noted that India, as a major oil importer, has faced pressure on its currency. It suggested that the central bank may be prioritising more liquid foreign currency assets as part of its reserve management strategy amid pressure on the Indian rupee.

On Wednesday, the value of the Indian rupee was 95.7 against the United States dollar. It was valued at 91 against the dollar when the conflict began on February 28.

According to official data cited in the Bloomberg analysis, the RBI held 880.5 metric tonnes of gold by the end of March, with 77% now stored domestically, up from 66% six months ago.

On Wednesday, the government’s Press Information Bureau rejected the Bloomberg report, describing the claim as “fake”.

The agency said that the claim was false and cited central bank’s data showing that the share of gold in India’s foreign exchange reserves had risen to 16.7% on March 31 from 13.9% at the end of September. It had risen further to 16.8% as of May 22.

The government said that the physical stock of gold is disclosed by the Reserve Bank in its monthly bulletin and that the latest numbers were unchanged.

A news report published by @Bloomberg states that RBI may have sold gold amounting to approximately USD 12 billion.#PIBFactCheck

❌ This claim is FAKE

✔️ According to @RBI, the share of gold in India's foreign exchange reserves rose from 13.92% at end-September 2025 to 16.70%… pic.twitter.com/eVjxPxEv1i

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) June 3, 2026

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

The Hind Rajab Foundation on Tuesday urged the authorities in India to arrest an Israeli reservist for his alleged role in the crimes committed by the military in Gaza.

In a complaint with the police, the Union home ministry and India’s immigration bureau, the Belgium-based nonprofit organisation demanded that Eitan Gilboa be arrested immediately. He is vacationing in Himachal Pradesh, the foundation said in a statement.

The organisation pursues legal action against persons responsible for atrocities against Palestinians.

The Hind Rajab Foundation said that it has submitted a detailed investigative report proving that Gilboa “personally carried out and celebrated the systematic demolition of entire residential blocks” in the besieged Palestinian territory as alleged acts of revenge constituting war crimes under the 1960 Geneva Conventions Act.

The Geneva Conventions are a set of international treaties that form the core of global humanitarian law by establishing legal and ethical standards for the treatment of civilians and prisoners during wartime. India is a signatory to the conventions.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since then, leaving more than 75,000 persons dead.

In September, a commission of inquiry set up by the United Nations said that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel’s foreign ministry had rejected the report, describing it as “distorted and false”.

The International Criminal Court had in November 2024 issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of committing war crimes in Gaza.

On Tuesday, the Hind Rajab Foundation said that Gilboa was born in Gaza but had left the territory along with his family when Israel withdrew its settlements there. This was an apparent reference to Israel having dismantled all its settlements in Gaza in 2005.

After Israel’s attacks on Gaza began in October 2023, Gilboa and several of his siblings returned to the territory with the Israeli Army, according to the foundation.

“Gilboa documented the destruction of civilian buildings that he carried out, filming himself ordering, executing and celebrating the demolition of civilian homes in Khan Younis and Rafah,” the foundation alleged. “These videos were later published by his mother on Instagram and Facebook.”

The posts suggest that the demolitions were carried out as “acts of retribution” and dedicated to Israeli soldiers who had been killed, the foundation alleged.

The organisation said that in its complaint, it cited several “specific incidents” where Gilboa allegedly participated in the destruction of civilian structures. The acts violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, it alleged.

The foundation said that India, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, is obligated under the treaties to search for and prosecute persons alleged to have committed grave breaches, regardless of their citizenship.

The presence of Gilboa in India contradicts Article 51(c) of the Indian Constitution, which directs the state to foster respect for international law, the foundation said. “India now holds both the suspect and the obligation to act,” it added.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Also read:

• Opinion: Could India be considered complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza?
• India’s discernible shift away from Palestine
• ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ to be released in India on June 19 with ‘A’ certificate

Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab is set to be released in Indian theatres on June 19 after receiving a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification, PTI reported. The film has been granted an “A” certificate, restricting its viewing to adults aged 18 years and above.

This came months after media reports said that the film’s release had been blocked.

The film, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, depicts the real story of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was trapped inside a car attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza and was later found dead.

The incident, which took place in 2024, occurred during Israel’s unprecedented air and ground strikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave. The strikes, which began in October 2023, have left more than 75,000 persons dead.

On March 19, Variety quoted the film’s local distributor as saying that the Central Board of Film Certification had blocked the theatrical release of the film in the country owing to fears that it will “break up” ties between India and Israel.

The film was acquired for distribution in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Afghanistan and Bangladesh by Manoj Nandwana of Jai Viratra Entertainment Limited, PTI reported.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Nandwana thanked the film certification board for granting certification to the film without any cuts, the news agency reported.

Hania wrote on social media that she was grateful for the “wonderful news” and for the support from Indian journalists, filmmakers, activists and citizens who “defended its right to be seen”.

She added: “Hind was a little girl whose voice should never have been silenced. Today, that voice will travel across South Asia and be heard by millions of people.”

On March 24, several Opposition MPs had urged the Union government to direct the film certification board to examine the film “strictly in accordance with constitutional principles governing freedom of expression” and grant it certification.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Also Read: ‘Please don’t leave me,’ Hind Rajab pleaded. Why her voice needs to be heard

Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday sent a fresh letter to West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose reiterating the party’s decision to appoint Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition, PTI reported.

This amid a probe into an alleged signature forgery case and speculation about divisions within the Trinamool Congress legislative party following the expulsion of MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha on Monday. The two legislators had alleged that signatures were forged in documents submitted to the Speaker in support of Chattopadhyay’s appointment, the news agency reported.

On Tuesday, TMC MLAs Kunal Ghosh and Ashima Patra attempted to hand-deliver the letter to the Speaker. They alleged that the Speaker’s office secretary refused to accept it in Bose’s absence, saying he had been verbally instructed not to receive any letters from the party, PTI reported.

“Till yesterday, the Speaker was receiving our letters,” the news agency quoted Ghosh as saying. “For unknown reasons, the office has stopped accepting them from today. How can he not receive an official communication from two elected MLAs?”

The fresh letter, signed by Abhishek Banerjee, also endorsed Ashima Patra and Nayana Bandyopadhyay as deputy Leaders of the Opposition and Firhad Hakim as the chief whip.

requested the Speaker to recognise the posts “on the basis of the precedent or practice of Legislative Assembly, which is in vogue for decades together”, PTI reported.

The row

Ritabrata Banerjee and Saha were suspended from the Trinamool Congress on Monday, after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari claimed at a press conference that they had complained about forged signatures on the party’s letter. Adhikari said that the two MLAs have claimed that no such resolution had been passed and that the document had been fabricated.

The Crime Investigation Department is probing the allegations.

On Monday evening, officers of the Crime Investigation Department went to Abhishek Banerjee’s home in Kolkata for the second time in 48 hours and served him with a fresh notice directing him to appear at the agency’s headquarters on June 8, PTI reported.

The notice was issued after he did not appear before investigators on Monday and instead sought two weeks’ time, citing health reasons.

Investigators have so far questioned 13 TMC MLAs. Three of them – Baharul Islam, Arup Roy and Subhasis Das – have stated that the signatures attributed to them in the meeting resolution book are not theirs, the agency alleged.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

At 3.30 in the afternoon on May 21, India registered its highest-ever power demand, of more than 270 GW.

It was a day when most of north, west and central India was seeing heatwaves, during which power demand typically spikes as millions of people use cooling devices simultaneously. While coal-based thermal power met almost 63% of the demand during the peak, solar power was the next biggest contributor, and supplied 28% of all power that was consumed.

Data from that day suggests its contribution could have been higher. Across the day, India generated around 10 gigawatt-hours less solar energy than it had capacity to, according to the daily report by Grid India, which operates the country’s power system. The data traces this unused capacity specifically to facilities in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

A key problem in this regard is insufficient transmission capacity – transmission lines are needed to evacuate power from generation plants. Typically, solar power capacity goes untapped because “the solar plant might not have enough capacity to evacuate the power to the nearest node”, explained Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at Envirocatalysts, a Delhi-based think-tank that works on environment and climate.

While India has added significant solar capacity in recent years, it has not built adequate transmission infrastructure required to move power from generation plants to the demand hotspots. When there is “more supply in the grid than can be evacuated, operators are asked to limit the generation to maintain grid stability”, Dahiya said.

Tracking the power demand and supply through that day reveals another problem in the generation of power from solar energy.

As the day wore on, the demand dipped slightly, then rose again after 7 pm, reaching 250 GW by 11 pm. During this second peak, however, there was no solar power to feed the demand – in fact, by 7.30 pm, after sunset, the contribution of solar power to the electricity grid fell to zero and coal-based thermal power took over entirely.

This need not have been the case. In many countries, solar power is available round the clock since it is stored in battery energy storage systems.

But India faces the twin limitations of inadequate transmission infrastructure and a lack of battery energy storage systems – as a result, the country’s solar power capacity is not being fully used.

In the first quarter of this year, a massive 78 GWh of renewable energy, of which most, 72 GWh, was solar, was curtailed.

The trend continued as summer arrived. On April 2, for instance, around 5.09 GWh of solar power capacity was not used in Gujarat “in view of system requirement and grid security and stability”. Similarly, on May 12, 2.16 GWh went unutilised in Rajasthan for the same reason.

With millions of Indians facing power cuts during heat waves this summer, experts say it is important to speedily build the systems needed to fully utilise the country’s solar generation capacity, particularly since India has ambitious targets to add more capacity in the coming years. India’s current installed solar capacity is 150 GW. It plans to take this to 300 GW by 2030.

While a solar plant can be built within six months to a year, adding a transmission line can take up to 30 months, said Dahiya. The gap could lead to more power capacity being wasted. “This can be reduced by battery storage, not only to meet the slower pace of transmission lines, but also to meet the night-time peaks,” he said.

Delayed transmission lines

India’s transmission infrastructure is falling short of targets. In 2024-’25, 42% of the planned lines of inter-state transmission systems, or ISTS, were not built on time.

According to a report by global energy think-tank Ember, one in four inter-state transmission systems stand delayed by a year or more.

“With ISTS projects, getting right of way is a challenge, especially when such transmission lines pass through several states and need negotiations with multiple actors,” said Duttatreya Das, Energy Analyst-Asia at Ember. A key challenge is “fragmented land ownership”, according to the report.

Experts also point to a lack of adequate planning. “Since renewable projects come at a much faster pace, project developers have not done that kind of planning in advance about how this renewable energy capacity would be evacuated,” said Vibhuti Garg, South Asia director at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

The Ember report highlights that solar projects “enter a pipeline” without “general network access” – or permission to use the transmission network.

Earlier, such permission was granted by the Central Transmission Utility, after a solar project had signed contracts to sell power to specific buyers. Since 2022, this process has been made easier and projects can now seek and gain network access even before they have locked in buyers.

But as the Ember report points out, many solar projects fail to seek network access in a timely manner, and are able to evacuate power only when the network has spare capacity.

Das explained that when renewable energy plants come up without adequate infrastructure of transmission lines, the developers worry about the money they stand to lose on account of wasted capacity. “It becomes like a chicken-and-egg problem,” he said. “If the current bottlenecks continue developers will shy away from aggressively deploying solar capacity.”

Insufficient battery storage

Experts say that transmission bottlenecks are more difficult to solve than low storage capacity. Therefore, they say, India could focus primarily on creating battery energy storage systems, or BESS, which can supply power at night when no solar energy is generated.

A report by the Bengaluru think-tank Climate Risk Horizons that focused on Rajasthan noted that if an 8-hour battery storage system with a capacity of around 2 GW was installed along with solar panels that generated around 7 GW, together the system could supply up to 18 hours of renewable energy per day. Such systems could help “manage peak demand, reduce reliance on thermal power for balancing, and enhance overall grid reliability”, the report said.

Moreover, it could also make renewable energy available at a much cheaper cost. “The costs of renewable energy will definitely be at par or lesser than the lowest-costing coal,” said Ember’s Das.

However, India has been slow to create battery energy storage systems. Between 2022 and May 2025, India auctioned around 13 gigawatt-hours of BESS capacity. As of August 2025, only about 219 megawatt-hours of capacity were “reported to be operational”, a study by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found.

Garg observed that a key reason for this shortfall could be that the prices at which companies bid to set up battery capacity “were not commercially viable”. The report by her institute noted that players were bidding at lower prices which may become unviable later during implementation, and “can jeopardise the successful commissioning of projects.”

Garg added, “While competition is good, auctions might not be the best for BESS. There is a need to revisit the process.”

Further, BESS projects have also seen delays in the signing of power purchase agreements with distribution utilities. Like power generation plants, battery energy storage systems also sell power to distribution utilities, which are typically state-owned firms that sell power to consumers. But the utilities “expect further price reductions in a rapidly evolving competitive market”, an IEEFA report suggested.

Other solutions

Recognising the importance of battery storage systems, the government has been pushing for solar projects to incorporate them at the inception stage itself.

In February 2025, the ministry of power issued an advisory to states to “incorporate a minimum of 2-hour co-located energy storage systems equivalent to 10% of the installed solar project capacity in future solar tenders”.

But this will need a strong policy push, experts observed. “A majority of transmission lines are built by the government but batteries are not. It is market driven,” said Dahiya. In contrast to advisories, he added, “At this point there is no strict regulation of exactly how much capacity should be. There needs to be stricter push for battery storage in all upcoming solar.”

Garg, however, cautioned that there is a need to look beyond lithium-ion batteries, for which India is dependent on imports from China, to other battery technologies, such as sodium-ion batteries, which have longer life spans and lower exposure to supply chain risks. “The supply chains of these face risk with global disruptions,” she said.

There are other pathways to solving the problem of unused solar capacity, she pointed out. For instance, she explained, renewable energy projects that are not linked to transmission lines can be incentivised, such as solar water pumps that can generate solar energy and supply water to specific areas. “This can reduce the pressure on the grids,” Garg said.

Dahiya also suggested that policy initiatives could help shift the night-time demand for power in commercial and residential sectors to the morning, when solar power is available. “For instance, people mostly charge their EVs at night,” he said. “It is also cheaper to do so.” By introducing cheaper tariffs in the morning, people can be “nudged to charge their EVs in the morning hours when there is solar available”, he added.

The Opposition demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan after the chairman and secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education were transferred on Tuesday following allegations of widespread mismanagement in the Class 12 board examination results.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi described the government’s action as a “cover-up” and alleged that “the real culprit”, Pradhan, was “spared”.

“Our demand remains the same today: Dismiss the education minister and conduct an independent inquiry,” Gandhi said in a social media post. “If the Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] cared about the 18.5 million CBSE students–Dharmendra Pradhan ji would have been removed long ago.”

CBSE अध्यक्ष - ट्रांसफ़र।
CBSE सचिव - ट्रांसफ़र।
एक-सदस्यीय “जाँच” समिति - गठित।
और असल ज़िम्मेदार, धर्मेंद्र प्रधान - सुरक्षित।

अधिकारियों को हटा दिया। मंत्री को बचा लिया।

यह जवाबदेही नहीं - यह cover-up है।

हमारी माँग आज भी वही है: शिक्षा मंत्री को बर्ख़ास्त किया जाए और… https://t.co/LUrM8top5y

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 2, 2026

Congress president Mallikarjun said that “nothing less than [Pradhan’s resignation] would provide a sense of justice” to CBSE students.

His party colleague Jairam Ramesh alleged that the transfer of the CBSE chairman and secretary was “an attempt to deflect attention by holding bureaucrats accountable instead of the political leadership” and added that “justice requires that minister Pradhan be dismissed”.

He added that the transfer of the two CBSE officials and the formation of an inquiry committee indicated that “irregularities did occur”.

On Tuesday, a one-member inquiry committee chaired by S Radha Chauhan, the head of the Capacity Building Commission, was also set up to look into the procurement of On-Screen Marking Services by the board. The committee has been directed to submit a report within a month to the Department of Personnel and Training.

CBSE के चेयरमैन और सेक्रेटरी का तबादला कर दिया गया है। न्याय की मांग है कि मंत्री प्रधान को बर्खास्त किया जाए।

CBSE नेतृत्व की इस अचानक विदाई और CBSE के On Screen Marking (OSM) सिस्टम की procurement प्रक्रिया की जांच के लिए एक सदस्यीय आयोग के गठन से यह साबित होता है कि… pic.twitter.com/HOhzjYSjcp

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 2, 2026

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal said that the transfers had “sprinkled salt on the wounds of millions of children and their parents”. He alleged that the government was effectively sending the message that “the education minister will not be changed, do whatever you have to”.

CBSE के चेयरमैन और सचिव को ट्रांसफर करके मोदी सरकार ने लाखों बच्चों और उनके पैरेंट्स के घावों पर नमक छिड़कने का काम किया है।

मोदी जी ने चुनौती दी है - शिक्षा मंत्री नहीं बदला जाएगा, जो करना है कर लो। https://t.co/zK8OcjKiet

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) June 2, 2026

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray said that it was a “shame” that the Bharatiya Janata Party government appeared to regard the transfers as a “major action”.

“For ruining the careers of lakhs of students and their parents, the education minister Pradhan must be sacked,” he added.

So apparently transferring CBSE chairman and secretary is “big action” by bjp govt.

What a shame!

For ruining the careers of lakhs of students and their parents, the Education Minister Pradhan must be sacked!

And these chairman and secretary be suspended and investigated…

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) June 2, 2026

In the last two weeks, several discrepancies were flagged in the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking evaluation process for Class 12 answer sheets.

Many students had alleged that the scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded by the CBSE did not match their handwriting, raising concerns about possible answer sheet mismatches. Students seeking re-evaluation also alleged that they faced portal failures, delays in payment confirmation and, in some cases, were asked to pay excess fees because of technical glitches.

Separately, a cybersecurity researcher, Nisarga Adhikary, has claimed on social media that he had discovered that the OnMark portal link was publicly accessible and that an analysis of its code showed vulnerabilities that could potentially allow accounts of examiners to be taken over.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

An order of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court in G Rajesh v State of Tamil Nadu on April 30 has drawn attention for an unusual reason.

The case involved the desecration of a poster of BR Ambedkar. But instead of confining itself to the ordinary logic of criminal proceedings under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the court accepted a compromise between the parties, directed the accused to read Ambedkar’s writings, examined them orally on those writings and recommended the wider inclusion of Ambedkar’s ideas in school curricula.

The order, delivered by Justice L Victoria Gowri, states that the matter was approached “not merely adjudicatory, but also reformative”. Social harmony, the court observed, cannot be maintained “merely by criminal prosecution after damage is done” and the constitutional value of fraternity “cannot be left to chance”.

This is what makes the order both striking and difficult.

Moving beyond a purely punitive understanding of the law, the court attempted to open constitutional space for apology, repentance, pedagogy, and social transformation. However, when the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, is already underenforced, such an approach could reinforce an already entrenched culture of impunity.

Why compromise is troubling

Offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act are largely non-compoundable or settled out of court for good reason. Caste-based harms are often “resolved” outside formal legal processes through intimidation, pressure or unequal social bargaining. The law was designed precisely to ensure that caste humiliation is treated not as a private matter, but as a public wrong.

That concern becomes sharper in light of the chronic judicial retrenchment of the remedial and preventive objectives of the Act. Courts operate within a system where complainants already face serious obstacles in securing effective enforcement of the law.

FIRs are often not even registered, investigations and prosecutions are weak, and judicial discourse around the supposed “misuse” of the Act has weakened its enforcement.

The Madras High Court was itself conscious that the alleged act could not be treated as merely private in character. It acknowledged that the desecration of Ambedkar’s image carried “social resonance extending beyond the immediate party”. The court also considered whether the apology offered by the accused was genuine or merely tactical.

What followed was extraordinary. The accused were questioned in camera on Ambedkar’s life, scholarship, constitutional role and public service. The order records that they answered nearly 30 questions satisfactorily and had “really read and understood the substance” of Ambedkar’s writings.

The court concluded that the matter had moved “beyond the stage of mere compromise” and had become one of “demonstrable repentance and measurable reformation”.

Fraternity beyond symbolism

The significance of the order lies in how it deploys fraternity. Ambedkar’s well-known invocation of liberty, equality, and fraternity in the Constituent Assembly has shaped constitutional imagination; yet fraternity has remained comparatively underdeveloped in juridical reasoning.

Here, however, fraternity is not treated merely as ceremonial rhetoric. The court invokes fraternity as a constitutional idea through which repentance, pedagogy, and social reform are brought within the judicial response to caste harm.

This becomes especially visible in the court’s curricular directions. It calls upon the Tamil Nadu government to introduce lessons on Ambedkar’s constitutional role, scholarship, and social thought from Classes III to X, and directs the state to file a compliance report in 2027.

The judgment therefore attempts to connect legal response with educational reforms and constitutional pedagogy rather than punishment alone.

The danger of routinising remorse

Yet the difficulty lies precisely here.

The language of fraternity can easily travel beyond the exceptional facts of a single case. Once apology and remorse begin to occupy the centre of judicial reasoning in caste-based offences, courts may increasingly rely upon them as grounds for diluting the force of the Act itself.

A young accused person expresses regret. A compromise is reached. Some symbolic act of reconciliation is performed before the court. Criminal proceedings are then quashed in the name of fraternity.

That possibility is troubling because caste oppression has historically been normalised within society itself. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was enacted to deter and prevent caste-based violence, not to displace accountability in favour of reconciliation.

The Madras High Court order should therefore not be read either as a model solution or casually dismissed. Its importance lies elsewhere. It opens a conversation Indian courts have rarely engaged seriously: whether apology, pedagogy, and social transformation can meaningfully coexist with the deterrent structure of the law.

That is a profound question. But where legal enforcement itself remains fragile, the language of transformation could also become a pathway to impunity.

Sumit Baudh is the author of the forthcoming Routledge monograph Law at the Intersection of Caste, Class, and Sex.

The chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education, Rahul Singh, and its Secretary Himanshu Gupta have been transferred in the wake of allegations of widespread mismanagement in the Class 12 board examination results, PTI reported.

A one-member inquiry committee chaired by S Radha Chauhan, the head of the Capacity Building Commission, has also been set up to look into the procurement of On-Screen Marking Services by the board. The committee has been directed to submit a report within a month to the Department of Personnel and Training, ANI reported.

A One-Member Committee has been constituted to inquire into matters relating to the procurement of services for the On-Screen Marking System by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

(1) The Committee will be chaired by S. Radha Chauhan, Chairperson, Capacity Building… pic.twitter.com/JfN5VqYZ2f

— ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2026

In the last two weeks, several discrepancies were flagged in the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking evaluation process for Class 12 answer sheets.

Many students had alleged that the scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded by the CBSE did not match their handwriting, raising concerns about possible answer sheet mismatches. Students seeking re-evaluation also alleged that they faced portal failures, delays in payment confirmation and, in some cases, were asked to pay excess fees because of technical glitches.

Separately, a cybersecurity researcher, Nisarga Adhikary, has claimed on social media that he had discovered that the OnMark portal link was publicly accessible and that an analysis of its code showed vulnerabilities that could potentially allow accounts of examiners to be taken over.

On May 28, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioned why the contract for the marking system was given to a company named COEMPT, which he alleged was “already mired in controversy under its old name, Globarena”. The CBSE, however, said that the OSM system was “backed by a secure and robust IT [information technology] platform” and that no vulnerability was reported in the actual evaluation portal.

Re-evaluation portal faced ‘barrage of cyber attacks’: CBSE

The CBSE on Tuesday said that its newly-launched Class 12 re-evaluation portal faced a “barrage of cyberattacks”, even as students said that they faced technical problems while trying to access the website.

The board said that the most recent one was an attempted denial-of-service attack, which caused 1.5 million hits on the portal within a matter of two minutes and more than a lakh attempts of unauthorised file access.

However, it said that more than 16,000 students had submitted re-evaluation applications through the portal till 3 pm.

The portal was launched on Tuesday morning and can be accessed here.

IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR STUDENTS

The portal for applying for Verification & Re-evaluation is now LIVE

Apply here:https://t.co/6E5PrvERrI

Please note that Aadhaar Verification has been included for security reasons. For children who do not have Aadhaar, the parent's, relative's…

— CBSE HQ (@cbseindia29) June 2, 2026

However, many students said on social media that they faced technical problems while accessing the portal.

@cbseindia29 The CAPTCHA of this portal is again not working again , everytime it is saying wrong. Nothing is working to great. @EduMinOfIndia @dpradhanbjp . Atleast give as one more time to apply other subjects photocopy because of the server Issue i can't a apply for other pic.twitter.com/WBQh8Xgk4M

— Anik Saha (@AnikKumarSaha00) June 2, 2026

This Portal is not working No log in option showing window in not going down even though in Laptop it is not working @cbseindia29 @TheAnuragTyagi @EduMinOfIndia @dpradhanbjp #cbse @nsui #GraceMarksForCBSE #GraceMarksForCBSE pic.twitter.com/RVaDooBEz0

— Yash (@yashxgub) June 2, 2026

Later in the day, the CBSE said that based on student feedback, it had “further refined the platform, including extending session time limits to make the process more convenient and seamless”.

PM should stop shielding education minister: Congress

The Congress on Tuesday alleged that the transfer of the CBSE chairman and secretary was a mere eyewash, and asserted that the responsibility for the mismanagement of the exam lay with Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The party said that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not “escape accountability through such small actions”.

“Dharmendra Pradhan has no right to remain in his position,” said the Congress in a social media post. “Narendra Modi should stop shielding him and dismiss him immediately.”

CBSE के अध्यक्ष राहुल सिंह और सचिव हिमांशु गुप्ता को हटाने की खबर आ रही है।

मोदी सरकार पूरी तरह से आंखों में धूल झोंकने का काम कर रही है।

CBSE में हुई गड़बड़ी की पूरी जिम्मेदारी शिक्षा मंत्रालय की है और शिक्षा मंत्री धर्मेंद्र प्रधान इसके लिए जिम्मेदार हैं।

COEMPT जैसी…

— Congress (@INCIndia) June 2, 2026

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal questioned whether transferring the two officials was the government’s only response to “such a huge scandal”. He asked: “Is that a punishment or protection?”

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray also said that Pradhan must be removed “for ruining the careers of lakhs of students and their parents”. He added that Singh and Gupta should be suspended and investigated for their actions, and that only transferring them was injustice.

Edited by Sneha.

The chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education, Rahul Singh, and its Secretary Himanshu Gupta have been transferred. This came in the wake of allegations of widespread mismanagement in the Class 12 board examination results.

A one-member inquiry committee chaired by S Radha Chauhan, the head of the Capacity Building Commission, has been set up to look into the procurement of On-Screen Marking Services by the board. In the last two weeks, several discrepancies have been flagged in the On-Screen Marking evaluation process.

Separately, the CBSE said that its newly-launched Class 12 re-evaluation portal faced a “barrage of cyberattacks”, even as students said that they faced technical problems while trying to access the website. Read on.

There is no role for any third party in bilateral matters between India and Nepal, said the Ministry of External Affairs. The statement came in response to a question about Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s statement that Kathmandu had held discussions with China and the United Kingdom regarding the Kalapani-Limpiadhura-Lipulekh region.

Randhir Jaiswal, the external affairs ministry spokesperson, said that while close to 98% of the India-Nepali boundary has been demarcated, there are some “unresolved segments” along the border.

He added that “there are cases of cross-border occupation and encroachment of no man's land in demarcated segments of the boundary, which are currently being mapped jointly”. Read on.

The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at premises linked to the Vedanta Group as part of an investigation into alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. The details of the case were not immediately clear.

A spokesperson for the Anil Agarwal-led conglomerate said that the Vedanta Group was “extending full cooperation” to the authorities and providing all information that has been sought. Read on.

The southwest monsoon is expected to set in over Kerala around June 4, said the India Meteorological Department. The weather agency had earlier forecast that the monsoon would arrive in the state by May 26, but later acknowledged that its prediction was not likely to be accurate.

The IMD has also revised its prediction downwards to 90% of the long-period average. The expected shortfall this year is primarily due to the likely development of El Niño conditions in the equatorial Pacific Ocean after June. Read on.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti wrote a series of letters to political leaders from the Union Territory, calling for a “united outreach” to the Union government. She said that the recent “breakthroughs” achieved by the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance in their negotiations with the Union government offered a lesson that “only dialogue can deliver meaningful outcomes”.

In her letter to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Mufti said that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir “necessitates a broad consensus above and across party, and partisan lines to pull J&K out of the current debilitating stalemate”. Read on.

‘We have been made fools’: Why J&K’s hopes for Omar Abdullah government have soured in a year, reported Safwat Zargar

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“Khatron ke khiladi” – a player who flirts with danger. That’s among the terms that vendors in Pune who brave heat stress on the streets through the oppressive summer months use to describe themselves. Others deploy the rather-more self-deprecatory “roadvarche”’ – Marathi for “those on the road”.

These epithets were not expressions of pride or choice, but acknowledgements of their profound vulnerability in the era of global warming, said a report titled Rising Temperatures Silent Suffering: Lived Experiences of Heat Stress and Its Impact on Health among Street Vendors released by Pune’s Prayas (Health Group) in April.

The informal workers were recognising the fact that they fall outside official protective frameworks, that their lives are defined by exposure to the heat and a lack of institutional safety nets.

In addition to facing the constant threat of fines and eviction, global warming has added to their risks. As the study found, Pune’s street vendors – like their counterparts across the country – have limited access to drinking water, toilets, shade and public healthcare.

The Prayas (Health Group) study, conducted on 385 vendors in the summer of 2025, said that while official heat action plans do mention street vendors and other vulnerable groups, they fail to provide provisions that mitigate the challenges they face in daily life.

Vendors understood that they did not have a job with protections and rights, but instead were part of a constant, high-stakes game where their bodies were the currency being gambled, the study indicated.

Until recently, Pune was known for its mild weather. But an analysis over the past five decades shows that the district has experienced a sharp rise in daytime and nighttime heat stress during the last decade, Prayas noted. This year, temperatures breached 40 degree Celsius on several days.

However, they did not typically categorise heat effects as “illness”, the study said. Rather, they framed heat impacts as “unhaali tras” (discomfort) or “normal heat effects” expected to street vending work.

The normalisation of heat stress reflects the helplessness of venors in dealing with the situation, said Vjaya Jori and Ritu Parchure, who were part of the research team that conducted the Indian Council of Medical Research and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies-supported study.

While most vendors reported that they had “no trouble with heat”, the majority had experienced mild dehydration. Many reported a range of health symptoms which reflected moderate to severe heat stress.

Limited options

Some vendors developed high blood pressure and dizziness and felt weak and a persistent lethargy. Others experienced severe impacts and could not work for a month due to heat exposure.

By comparison, reporting of complaints (symptoms generally considered as moderate), such as headaches, cramps, and dizziness, was higher among those who perceived heat as “somewhat troublesome”. The group that perceived heat as “very troublesome”, reported complaints including cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal issues.

Vendors, especially women, often drank less water, as toilet facilities were hard to come by and available toilets were filthy and unusable.

But even if it gets too hot, the vendors cannot even take the day or else they will lose a day’s earnings. They had no insurance and since public health facilities were poor, they relied on private doctors. Most of them were the sole earners in their families. There was anxiety about the future and many feared going hungry if they stopped working.

One of the main structural gaps the study identified was the way heat health advisories were being communicated, Jori said. For instance, some advised them not to go out in the afternoon, which was not an option.

Heat advisories have to be tailored to specific contexts and it cannot come only when there is a heat wave, she said.

The survey results also found heat-stress experiences at night. At home, nights offered little relief from the heat. About 14% of vendors lived in houses entirely made of metal sheets, while another 24% had homes with metal sheet roofing. Almost all households owned ceiling fans. About 18% had invested in air coolers as nighttime heat had become unbearable in recent years.

Systematic failure

Vendors’ narratives repeatedly attributed heat stress not only to environmental conditions but also to a systematic failure by public governance authorities to recognise them as worthy of protection or even acknowledgement, the study found.

The study noted that street vendors’ heat and health vulnerabilities were fundamentally structural problems arising from the absence of workplace protections, occupational health coverage, and infrastructure in the built environment. This requires policy responses that extend social protection to informal workers, grounding heat action planning in vendors’ lived experiences, and adapting to urban spaces to climate change.

Of course, it isn’t only street vendors who are facing the brunt of climate change. A United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and World Meteorological Organization report published in April states that rising temperatures, prolonged heatwaves, and shifting climate patterns are already disrupting crop yields, livestock health, water availability, and rural livelihoods – with impacts falling disproportionately on the most vulnerable.

The heat in the subcontinent is here to stay, says a new study by World Weather Attribution.

Scientists from the organisation who analysed data from the recent heatwave in April and May in both India and Pakistan concluded that such heat was no longer extreme and it could be expected every years.

In late April and early May, the World Weather Attribution said that India and Pakistan experienced a period of extremely high temperatures, with daily maximums exceeding 46°C in several cities, causing at least 37 heat-related deaths in India and ten in Karachi, Pakistan.

Human-caused climate change approximately tripled the probability of events like this occurring: in the last decade, similar events have become about 35% more likely. Heat on this scale is now likely to occur once every five years.

“What used to be rare heat in South Asia is now a regular reality,” said Mariam Zachariah, one of the study authors and Research Associate in Extreme Weather and Climate Change, Imperial College London, in a statement.

Social inequalities

She said what was most concerning is that the research shows that the hot pre-monsoon period is becoming both hotter and longer, meaning people are now facing extreme heat for a much greater portion of the year.

Importantly, the report points to the fact that heatwaves expose deep social inequalities, with outdoor workers and those in uncooled housing most vulnerable as the Pune study corroborates.

“Expanding social protection and including heatwaves as a notified disaster could facilitate essential disaster relief funding to enhance a comprehensive response,” said Roop Singh, Head of Urban and Attribution, Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, another author of the study.

The more frequent spells of intense heat make it clear that policy interventions are needed to upgrade public services and basic amenities for vendors and others in the unorganised sector. They also underscore the imperative to phase out of fossil fuels.

Meena Menon, PhD, University of Leeds, is an independent journalist, researcher and author.

Responses to Ramachandra Guha’s column “How the Gandhi family has helped Modi consolidate power.”

Why liberal critiques of Rahul Gandhi ignore institutional capture

By Pius Fozan

Soon after the 2024 general elections, I chanced upon a political scientist at Vienna’s iconic Café Central. Over coffee, he remarked that the true tragedy of modern Indian liberalism is its penchant for perfectionism in an age of existential crisis.

He was referring to the comfortable habit of Delhi’s intelligentsia of judging the Congress leadership by the standards of a peacetime democracy, rather than the asymmetric warfare of a computational autocracy.

We are told, with varying degrees of sociological certainty, that the Congress remains a “family firm” and that Rahul Gandhi lacks the “gravitas” and “curriculum vitae” required to unseat a formidable electoral machine.

This assessment, while satisfying to the purist, is not merely harsh: it is analytically flawed. It reduces the existential struggle for the soul of the Republic to a critique of the personal failings of a single individual, unwittingly validating the very playbook designed by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

The critique relies on an intellectual silo that deliberately ignores the terrifying asymmetry. To judge the opposition without addressing the ruling party’s unprecedented concentration of capital – manifest in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rs 10,000-crore war chest – is an analytical farce. The modern BJP is a corporate-bureaucratic behemoth boasting state-of-the-art infrastructure in every taluka, sustained by the deep, century-old societal penetration of the Sangh Parivar.

Finally, the critics over-index on individual personality traits while under-indexing on the profound socio-political mutation that has occurred within the Indian electorate. The rise of the BJP is not the result of Rahul Gandhi’s alleged lack of discipline; it is the consequence of a decades-long, meticulously crafted cultural and ideological project that has successfully shifted the centrist gravity of Indian politics towards a muscular majoritarianism.

Today, the entire state architecture – from the judiciary to a capitulated media – has synchronised its vocabulary with the government’s rhetoric. To mock Gandhi’s direct public outreach as “gimmickry” under such total institutional capture is laziness. Labelling the chief targets of this ruthless state apparatus as its accomplices shifts the moral burden away from the institutions and corporations that actually broke our democracy.

The air of indestructibility that envelops the current regime may well unravel in the years ahead, driven by economic distress, joblessness and institutional decay. When that moment comes, the alternative will not emerge from the immaculate conception of a textbook liberal leader. It will have to be forged from the messy, flawed, and resilient people we actually have.

The question of political incompetence

By Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee

From the views that have appeared on X about Ramachandra Guha’s column, it appears that the core issue is not whether Rahul Gandhi is incompetent as a political leader, but what defines incompetence itself.

A friend teaching political science said in private that Guha’s article is badly timed as the paper leaks and the CBSE marking debacle is currently the most serious national issue. Guha’s article is a distraction from the political narrative of the moment.

Narratives of criticism can’t be dictated by the logic of singularity. Guha has the right to make his point. I nevertheless granted my friend’s point. Public intellectuals must prioritise issues that have an urgent material ground and have impacted people’s lives. Politics is about time, who can have control over time, and who can shake off that control and reclaim it.

Guha writes that the Congress has “belatedly realised Rahul is not the new Nehru”. Whether that is true or not, Rahul Gandhi’s qualities are more reminiscent of Nehru than Indira’s anti-democratic strains and Rajiv Gandhi’s buckling under communal politics on more than one occasion.

During Partition, many Congressmen became openly communal. Nehru stood his secular ground and took enormous risks to address volatile crowds in Bihar in 1946 for the sake of Hindu-Muslim fraternity.

Rahul Gandhi has shown a similar commitment to a secular society by his politics of love (“mohabbat ki dukaan”). His emphasis on the politics of listening has been a clear departure from top-down, elitist, muscular forms of Indian politics. Rahul Gandhi appears humane and accessible. We do not know the true measure of what he achieved during Bharat Jodo Yatra because the mainstream media bent its knees and ignored the historic event under political diktat.

Politics is a matter of conviction and a refusal to lose one’s ground. Guha is a pragmatist. Pragmatism has a retrospective limit in politics. It is justified by past assessment. Pragmatism does not offer hope. It has no tools to offer for the future. Political futures are run by the ability to take risks.

Rahul Gandhi has been taking risks like Nehru did in 1946-’47. Failure is a matter of time in politics. Those who dismiss Rahul must qualify if their idea of incompetence is pragmatic, or political.

The pyramidal structure and political history of the Congress Party favours the Nehru-Gandhi family. Guha needs to ask questions of the party and not the family. He is focussing on the wrong issue in his desperation to see the Congress (a party Gandhi wanted disbanded in 1948) back in power.

Why single out the Congress when criticising dynasty?

By Kay Benedict

Ramachandra Guha is mistaken if he thinks all the ills in the Congress will end if the Gandhi family relinquishes the leadership.

Other than finding fault with Rahul Gandhi, Guha does not offer an alternative road map. Pray, other than the Gandhis, which Congress leader is acceptable pan-India? Last, over 12 years, the Bharatiya Janata Party has spent crores to project Rahul Gandhi as “Pappu” and to make India Congress-mukt.

Aren't the leaders of regional parties also responsible for the BJP's growth? Many of these once-secular parties, such as the Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), Lok Janshakti Party, Telugu Desam Party and the Nationalist Congress Party factions are now with the BJP.

In the past, strong regional parties such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Trinamool Congress also helped prop up BJP governments at the Centre. Even parties like the Aam Aadmi Party, Biju Janata Dal, YSR Congress and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen indirectly helped the BJP to contain the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal being the sole exception. Even the Congress has many leaders peddling soft Hindutva, whom Rahul Gandhi has, of late, managed to isolate.

That leaves only the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left parties as the principal challengers of the BJP on uncompromising ideological terms.

Why single out the Congress when criticising dynasty? Dynasty, per se, is not harmful. The BJP and most regional parties also have dynastic families. Not just Rahul Gandhi, no Opposition leader can electorally challenge the BJP, plush with money and muscle power, supported by the fawning mainstream media, the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and a section of the judiciary.

Intensity of BJP attack on Rahul Gandhi shows that he is not irrelevant

By Hasnain Naqvi

Ramachandra Guha’s article reduces Rahul Gandhi’s political journey to a caricature that no longer corresponds with political reality.

To argue that Rahul Gandhi displayed “focused hard work” only during the Bharat Jodo Yatra ignores the broader transformation of opposition politics in India over the last four years. The yatras themselves were not symbolic spectacles but sustained political exercises that reconnected the Congress leader with ordinary Indians across regions, classes and communities. Their political impact became visible in the Congress revival in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the emergence of a more coherent opposition bloc.

More importantly, Gandhi’s politics today extends far beyond social media interventions. His persistent advocacy for a caste census, electoral transparency, institutional accountability, unemployment, guarantees of a minimum support price for crops, Manipur and crony capitalism reflects a structured political narrative centred on constitutional democracy and social justice.

Whether one agrees with all his positions is secondary. What deserves acknowledgment is that he has emerged as one of the few national leaders consistently foregrounding concerns about democratic erosion, inequality and institutional opacity.

Guha’s critique also underestimates why the ruling establishment devotes extraordinary political energy to attacking Rahul Gandhi. The intensity of that response itself suggests that he is no longer viewed as politically irrelevant.

Guha is looking at the wrong end of the pyramid

By Nikhil Sanjay-Rekha Adsule

Blaming Rahul Gandhi and the Gandhi family for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s political dominance has become a reflex for India’s liberal intelligentsia. Ramachandra Guha recently leaned into this narrative, framing the Indian National Congress as a stubborn "family firm" that hands Narendra Modi his best electoral weapon on a silver platter.

By treating a massive political shift like a corporate human resources problem, it pushes the idea that a vibrant opposition will magically appear the moment the Gandhi family steps aside.

Guha misreads how India’s political system works. We are not dealing with a uniform European nation but a sprawling, hyper-complex puzzle of regional prides, linguistic identities, caste hierarchies, and intense local rivalries. A pan-Indian opposition cannot be run on managerial efficiency alone.

The Gandhis today serve as vital central gravity. Rahul Gandhi’s authority is rooted in history rather than backroom political deals. It acts as a neutral internal referee. An ambitious leader from the South is never going to accept a rival from the Hindi heartland as their national boss. Take away that central anchor and the Congress will not undergo metamorphosis into a meritocracy – it will simply shatter into a dozen squabbling regional factions.

Besides, the obsession with political lineages being uniquely toxic is an elite myth. Look at established global democracies. They routinely rely on legacy names to anchor public trust during highly polarised eras, whether it is the Kennedys in the US or the Khama family in Botswana.

Mass movements such as the Bharat Jodo Yatra also show that leadership isn't just sitting in an ivory tower – walking thousands of kilometers through heat and rain is a gruelling, physical commitment that bypasses a hostile media to connect directly with citizens.

Guha fixates entirely on the top of the pyramid while ignoring the absolute bottom. The BJP does not win elections because of who leads the Congress; it wins because of an unmatched, year-round grassroots machinery driven by disciplined booth-level agents and panna pramukhs.

Demanding a change at the high command is just a distraction from the real battlefield. The Congress must stop debating its leadership and start building a tech-savvy, ideologically trained local cadre that can actually protect polling booths and convert public sympathy into actual votes. Changing the face at the top without fixing the foundation is a fundamental misunderstanding of modern political warfare.

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted searches at premises linked to the Vedanta Group as part of an investigation into alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, PTI reported.

The details of the case were not immediately clear.

A spokesperson of the Anil Agarwal-led conglomerate told CNBC-TV18 that the Vedanta Group was “extending full cooperation” to the authorities and providing all information that has been sought.

The company is committed to complying with the laws and regulations, the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

The conglomerate said that it cannot comment on the matter further as it is “under a regulatory process”.

The central law enforcement agency has not yet commented on the matter.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.

There is no role for any third party in bilateral matters between India and Nepal, said the Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday.

Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was responding to a question about Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s statement that Kathmandu had held discussions with China and the United Kingdom regarding the Kalapani-Limpiadhura-Lipulekh region.

India maintains that the area is part of Uttarakhand and has rejected Kathmandu’s territorial claims to the region.

The external affairs ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that while close to 98% of the India-Nepali boundary has been demarcated, there are some “unresolved segments” along the border.

“The shifting of the Gandak river has resulted in this,” Jaiswal told reporters. “In addition, there are cases of cross-border occupation and encroachment of no man's land in demarcated segments of the boundary, which are currently being mapped jointly.”

India and Nepal have established bilateral mechanisms to deal with all aspects of boundary matters, said the ministry spokesperson. “It should be clear to all concerned that there is no role for any third parties in a bilateral matter between India and Nepal,” he added.

#WATCH | Delhi | MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, "We have seen the remarks of the Prime Minister of Nepal concerning India India-Nepal boundary as well as the subsequent statement made by the Nepali foreign office on this matter. While close to 98% of the India-Nepali… pic.twitter.com/9JmA7cUk3f

— ANI (@ANI) June 2, 2026

Shah claimed in Nepal’s parliament on Sunday that Kathmandu and New Delhi had encroached upon each other’s territories. He said that the two countries had agreed to resolve the dispute “sitting together with the help of historians, surveyors and concerned experts through diplomatic means”.

The Nepali prime minister said his country also held discussions about the dispute with China, as the region sits near the trijunction of India, Tibet and Nepal, as well as the United Kingdom.

“Our view is that the UK should also take an interest, as the issue dates back to the period when British India left the region,” the prime minister was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post.

Border problems

The border problem between India and Nepal began in 2019 after Kathmandu objected to a new map released by India, which showed the Kalapani area as part of Indian territory.

In response, New Delhi said that it had not made any change to its border with Nepal and that the new map depicts Indian territory accurately.

The tensions escalated in May 2020 when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a new route for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through the Lipulekh Pass.

Nepal has repeatedly claimed that India’s decision to build the road was a breach of an agreement between the two countries. It claims the Lipulekh Pass on the basis of a treaty signed with British colonisers in 1816.

Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Sneha.

The southwest monsoon is expected to set in over Kerala around June 4, said the India Meteorological Department on Tuesday.

The weather agency had earlier predicted that the monsoon would arrive in Kerala by May 26. However, it acknowledged on May 29 that the monsoon was unlikely to set in over the state within the four-day window around that date, The Hindu reported.

“Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of southwest and southeast Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep Islands, some parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, some more parts of southwest, westcentral, eastcentral and northeast Bay of Bengal, and remaining parts of southeast Bay of Bengal around 4th June,” the IMD said on Tuesday.

The agency added that isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall between 7 and 20 centimetres was very likely over Kerala in the next six to seven days. Isolated parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are also expected to receive heavy rains during this period.

In 2025, the southwest monsoon set in over Kerala on May 24, which was its earliest arrival since 2009.

In April, the IMD predicted below-normal rainfall of 92% during this year’s southwest monsoon season. This was the first time in 11 years that a shortfall in rainfall was forecast.

On May 29, the agency revised its prediction downwards to 90% of the long-period average. The long- period average is the measure of the mean rainfall during the four-month monsoon season over the last 50 years.

If a monsoon season records rainfall below 90% of the long-period average, the IMD classifies it as “deficient”.

The expected shortfall this year is primarily due to the likely development of El Niño conditions in the equatorial Pacific Ocean after June, the weather agency said.

The El Niño weather phenomenon involves the warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific. It typically occurs every few years and has been linked to reduced monsoon rainfall over India.

The IMD said that the impact of El Niño is expected to become more pronounced in the latter half of the monsoon season, particularly in August and September, due to a lag between its development and its influence on Indian weather patterns.

Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Sneha.

Thirty Indians who were allegedly working illegally in the United States as commercial truck drivers were arrested in a federal enforcement operation and are expected to be deported, the US authorities said on Monday.

According to a statement issued by the US Customs and Border Protection, patrol agents from the Yuma Sector in Arizona arrested 52 persons during “Operation Checkmate” between May 11 and May 15 for being in the country illegally.

Of those arrested, 36 were found driving semi-trucks. Thirty were Indian nationals, while the remaining six were from Mexico, El Salvador and Russia.

Most held commercial driving licences issued by states including California, New York, Washington and Virginia, though some did not possess any driving licence, the agency said.

“Most subjects possessed Employment Authorization Documents, which were obtained during the Biden administration and are no longer valid,” the statement added.

The operation was aimed at enhancing public safety by detecting persons “who pose significant risks to public safety”, Acting Chief Patrol Agent Dustin W Caudle said.

The agency also said that under President Donald Trump, the Department of Transportation had introduced a rule intended to prevent unqualified foreign drivers from obtaining licences to operate commercial trucks and buses.

In recent months, several incidents have been reported in which Indian-origin truck drivers in the US were arrested and charged in connection with fatal crashes involving commercial vehicles.

The arrests also came amid a broader immigration crackdown under Trump’s second term which began in January 2025.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been implementing the Trump administration’s large-scale deportation programme, which was a major poll promise of his campaign ahead of the elections.

The agency was set up under the 2002 Homeland Security Act following the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York. The legislation created the Department of Homeland Security, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as one of its subsidiary agencies.

In his second term, Trump has expanded the agency’s mandate and increased its budget and operation scope. It enforces deferral immigration laws, investigates violations related to undocumented immigration and conducts removal proceedings.

More than 3,800 Indian nationals were deported from the United States in 2025, Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh informed the Rajya Sabha in a written response to a query.

In 2025, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 1,993 Indian nationals, more than double the 820 arrested the previous year, according to data provided by the agency in response to a Freedom of Information Act request processed by the Deportation Data Project and analysed by Scroll.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Also read: Why an Indian trucker who left three dead in US crash has sparked controversies in two countries

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notice to the Punjab government on a petition challenging the ban on the sale of meat in the walled city area of Amritsar, The Times of India on Monday.

A division bench issued notice on May 29 on a plea filed by a meat wholesaler. The firm challenged a December notification issued by the administration banning the sale of meat, tobacco and alcohol in Amritsar’s walled city, Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda district and Anandpur Sahib in Rupnagar district.

The petitioner has argued that the ban had no statutory backing and that the state had used its executive power to enforce religious morality, The Times of India reported. The notification had been issued despite the Constitution not recognising religion-based territorial classification, the newspaper quoted the petitioner as having argued.

The state had also not defined the “walled city” or “holy city” and what areas it comprises, Bar and Bench quoted the petitioner as having argued. The plea added that the administration had not prepared a policy to rehabilitate persons who depend on the trade of the banned products.

The walled city is where the Golden Temple is located.

The bench will hear the matter next on June 22.

The Punjab government had notified a ban on December 15, three weeks after the Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to grant the three places the status of “holy cities”.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had said at the time that the cities “are not only religious centres, but also important symbols of our cultural heritage”.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

A Congress leader has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Election Commission to disclose constituency-wise data on additions and deletions made during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal, Bar and Bench reported on Monday.

Prasenjit Bose, chairperson of the West Bengal Congress’ SIR committee, has also sought directions to make public the standard operating procedure governing appeals before appellate tribunals. Bose argued that there are no publicly available guidelines on appeals, documentation requirements, notices, hearings or timelines for disposal of cases, Bar and Bench reported.

In the petition, the Congress leader also sought constituency-wise data on Form 6 applications to add voters and Form 7 applications to remove voters, including how many were submitted, accepted and rejected during the claims and objections phase of the voter roll revision exercise.

More than 58 lakh electors were excluded during the enumeration phase of the exercise, but constituency-wise data on additions and deletions has not been released, according to the petition.

It stated that by January, more than 9.6 lakh applications seeking inclusion and 99,118 applications seeking deletion had been received. However, only 1.8 lakh additions were reflected in the final electoral rolls published on February 28.

The petition argued that the lack of detailed data, along with the non-publication of forms and formats prescribed under the Election Commission’s 2024 Electoral Rolls Manual, has raised concerns about the transparency and accountability of the revision process.

It also questioned the examination of more than 60 lakh cases flagged for “logical discrepancies”, such as age gaps between parents and children, and name mismatches.

Bose also referred to a West Bengal government notification linked to the Annapurna Yojana welfare scheme, under which people removed from electoral rolls would no longer be eligible for benefits unless they had filed appeals before the SIR tribunals.

The petition noted that wrongful deletion from electoral rolls could affect access to welfare benefits as well as voting rights.

On May 27, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said that about 30 lakh beneficiaries of Lakshmi Bhandar, a cash transfer scheme for women implemented by the previous Trinamool Congress government, were ineligible for it because they had either been deleted from the voter rolls after the special intensive revision, or they had not applied for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The remarks came weeks after Women and Child Development Minister Agnimitra Paul said on May 12 that women whose names were deleted during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls will not receive benefits of the Annapurna Bhandar scheme, which is set to replace the Lakshmi Bhandar programme from June 1.

Bose’s petition also cited an analysis of the West Bengal Assembly election results, claiming that in 82 constituencies won by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the number of additions and deletions made during the electoral roll revision exceeded the eventual margin of victory, The Tribune reported.

Scroll’s analysis of the Assembly election results in West Bengal also found that in half the seats that the BJP won, the total deletions that took place during the voter list revision exercise outnumbered the victory margin.

While the BJP won 208 seats in the 294-member Assembly, the Trinamool Congress won 80.

Ahead of the elections, the final electoral rolls for the state published in February initially excluded more than 61 lakh voters, with the process continuing through supplementary lists and adjudication of about 60 lakh “doubtful and pending” cases.

By April 6, about 91 lakh voters, nearly 11.9% of the electorate before the process began, had been removed.

Nearly 25 lakh cases challenging their removal from the voter list are pending before appellate tribunals, according to The Indian Express. Till mid-May, 12 out of the 19 tribunals had only disposed of 6,581 of these appeals, or 0.26% of the cases, the newspaper reported.

Bose’s petition came days after the Supreme Court on May 27 upheld the constitutional validity of the SIR process undertaken by the Election Commission, saying that it “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Also read: Three reasons why West Bengal’s SIR exercise was unconstitutional

The Delhi Police on Monday arrested the owner of the multi-storey commercial building near Delhi’s Saket metro station that collapsed on Saturday evening, killing six people and injuring eight others, PTI reported.

The building, located in the Saidulajab area, reportedly housed a coaching centre, cafes and office. Construction work was under way on its top floors when the structure collapsed.

Most of those killed or injured were medical or engineering students who were eating at a makeshift canteen on a neighbouring plot when debris from the collapsing building fell onto them. Five students and the canteen owner died in the incident, The Indian Express reported.

On Monday, the police traced the 71-year-old owner, Karambir Sejwal, to his farmhouse in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area after he had allegedly been absconding since Saturday, the newspaper reported.

The police said Sejwal owns multiple rental properties in Saidulajab.

Two additional floors had been under construction for the past three months despite local regulations permitting only ground-plus-three-storey structures in the area, they added.

The construction work had reportedly been contracted out and the police are also searching for the builder and contractor involved, The Times of India reported.

Raids are being carried out across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the National Capital Region as part of the investigation, the police said.

Investigators are also examining whether the building was originally designed to support the additional floors and whether structural modifications compromised its stability, the newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has suspended two officials from its South Zone Building Department for alleged lapses in supervision and said surveys of high-rise buildings will be carried out, The Indian Express reported.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

About 80 lakh women have been found to be ineligible for Maharashtra’s Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme after a state-wide verification exercise, PTI reported on Monday.

This has led to Opposition leaders alleging that the state government was reducing the number of beneficiaries owing to a financial crisis.

The scheme, launched in June 2024, provides a monthly transfer of Rs 1,500 to women aged 21 to 65 whose families earn less than Rs 2.5 lakh per year.

The number of beneficiaries of the scheme dropped from 2.4 crore to nearly 1.7 crore at the end of the April 30 deadline for them to complete an e-KYC, or Know Your Customer, process, PTI quoted an unidentified official as saying.

The government had provided an eight-month window for the beneficiaries to complete the process, added the official.

“Around 50 to 55 lakh women failed to complete the process entirely, while two to three lakh rectified errors during this period,” the official said, according to PTI. “Additionally, nearly 12 lakh women were found to be income-tax payers exceeding the annual income cap of Rs 2.5 lakh, and over 4.5 lakh had crossed the upper age limit of 65 years.”

Another five lakh women were said to have been receiving benefits under the Namo Shetkari scheme, rendering them ineligible.

The official denied that 80 lakh women were removed from the scheme only because they did not complete the e-KYC process, PTI reported.

However, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Jayant Patil alleged that the reduction in the number of beneficiaries was an indication of a “severe financial crisis” before the Union and state governments.

“Today, 80 lakh women have been declared ineligible,” Patil remarked in a social media post on Monday. “It would not come as much of a surprise, if subsequently, some more women are declared ineligible for some or the other reason and the scheme is slowly shut down.”

The party’s Working President Supriya Sule noted that while official statements had suggested the number of beneficiaries had peaked at around 2.46 crore to 2.48 crore, the figure gradually went down after e-KYC was made mandatory.

Sule demanded that a high-level inquiry committee be set up to look into the matter, and that an independent economic and administrative audit be conducted into how beneficiaries were identified and whether public funds were utilised properly.

लाडकी बहीण योजनेअंतर्गत सुरुवातीला २.३८ कोटी महिलांना लाभ दिल्याचा दावा राज्य सरकारकडून करण्यात आला होता. डिसेंबर २०२४ पर्यंत या महिलांना तब्बल ₹१७ हजार ५०५ कोटींपेक्षा अधिक रक्कम वितरित झाल्याची माहिती देखील देण्यात आली. पुढे या योजनेअंतर्गत लाभार्थी संख्या २.४६ ते २.४८… pic.twitter.com/iYMvVbzPme

— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) June 1, 2026

Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar alleged that the government had abandoned women once the objective of attaining power was met. “The government will not be able to survive for long in the face of the resentment of these 80 lakh women,” he said.

Edited by Sneha.

Coral reefs, often called the rainforests of the sea, are among the most productive and vibrant ecosystems on earth. Despite occupying less than 1% of the sea floor, they harbour over 25% of all marine species, including fish, lobsters, clams, seahorses, sponges and sea turtles.

Reefs form over thousands of years as coral polyps, the tiny marine animals that make up hard or stony corals that attach to hard surfaces such as submerged rocks and secrete calcium carbonate (limestone), creating rigid, protective skeletons.

Since the 1950s, the world’s living corals and their capacity to provide ecosystem services have declined by half. Climate change, which has led to rising ocean temperatures and acidification is one of the major threats to corals.

Local, human-driven causes impacting coral reefs include pollution from land, unsustainable and destructive fishing practices, coastal development and sedimentation, unsustainable tourism and boating, as well as environmental threats such as disease and predator outbreaks.

Coral restoration, introduced in the 1970s, is an active, human-led process aimed at rebuilding and accelerating the recovery of damaged or degraded reefs. This is achieved by growing corals underwater or in land-based nurseries, then transplanting them back into the seabed using adhesives such as cement.

The goals of coral restoration are to enhance reef resilience to future stresses, restore biodiversity, protect coral genetic diversity, and sustain ecosystem services such as coastal protection and tourism.

Where are coral reefs found in India?

Along India’s coast, coral reefs cover an average area of 2,375 square kilometres and are primarily found in Gulf of Mannar (including Palk Bay), the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gulf of Kachchh, and the Lakshadweep Islands. The first three locations consist mainly of fringing reefs, that grow directly on the coastline or close to the shore. Lakshadweep Islands consist of atolls, ring-shaped reefs surrounding a lagoon.

With approximately 1,021 sq km of coral, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has the highest coral cover in India, followed by the Lakshadweep Islands (934 sq km), Gulf of Kachchh (352 sq km), and Gulf of Mannar/Palk Bay (76 sq km).

Patchy reefs are also found along the central west coasts of Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka — often located in the intertidal zones such as in Ratnagiri, Malvan and Redi.

Submerged patchy reefs on the west coast include: Angria Bank off Sindhudurg in Maharashtra; Grande Island in Goa; Netrani Island on the Karnataka coast; Gaveshana Bank off the Malpe coast; and near Quilon and Vizhinjam along the Kerala coast.

Are corals in India protected?

Coral reef ecosystems support millions of coastal livelihoods. India grants corals the highest level of legal protection under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, prohibiting the collection, trade, and possession of both live and dead corals. Violations can result in imprisonment for three to seven years. The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2019, bans development and waste disposal in the fragile reef ecosystems.

The 21 islands and surrounding shallow waters of Gulf of Mannar, covering an area of 560 sq km, constitute a marine protected area, known as the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park. This area is a “no-go” and “no take” zone for fishermen.

Where and how are corals being restored in India?

Across all reefs of India, coral restoration programmes of varying scales have been underway.

The earliest and largest restoration programme began in 2002 in the fringing reefs of Gulf of Mannar, led by the Suganthi Devadason Marine Research Institute, with initial experiments using different types of artificial substrates.

In 2024, the programme was expanded into the adjacent Palk Bay. Smaller-scale coral restoration activities have been conducted in the Lakshadweep Islands, Gulf of Kachchh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Currently, the restoration project in Gulf of Mannar involves transplanting coral fragments onto specially designed concrete frames and cement slabs. These efforts have been implemented in degraded reef areas of nine of the 21 islands in Gulf of Mannar, isolated patch reefs in Tuticorin Port, and a distinct patch reef called Harbour Reef. The team deployed 5,550 artificial substrates and transplanted over 51,000 coral fragments representing 20 native species to restore 40,000 sq m of degraded reefs in Gulf of Mannar over 20 years.

In 2020, a team from the National Centre for Coastal Research in Chennai initiated experimental coral restoration at two sites in Palk Bay: Thonithurai and Munaikadu. They used cement slabs to transplant 800 coral fragments of four species covering an area of 45 sq m.

In 2016, in the Lakshadweep Archipelago, a coral nursery was established using 180 coral fragments of fast-growing coral species collected from different sites in the lagoon of Kavaratti atoll. The coral fragments were transplanted onto concrete blocks fixed within iron mesh frames that covered an area of 40 sq m near reefs inside a shallow lagoon of Kavaratti atoll.

In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a non-profit organisation called ReefWatch Marine Conservation has been transplanting corals since 2018, covering an area of 20 sq m. Coral fragments were collected from naturally broken colonies from adjacent reefs and transplanted onto semi-spherical structures, secured with 300 kg anchors.

At the Mithapur Reef, located 12 km south of Gulf of Kachchh in Gujarat, a coral recovery project was launched in 2008 as a joint venture between the Wildlife Trust of India and the Gujarat Forest Department, with support from Tata Chemicals Limited.

Since 2012, artificial reefs have been created by stacking limestone and/or basalt boulders into a conical shape, approximately one metre in basal diameter and one metre in height. This particular shape was selected because it provides extended stability to the modules, while also increasing surface area, offering more space for the colonisation of benthic marine species – those that live on, in, or near the seafloor.

The Gujarat team also installed five “biorocks” off the coast of Mithapur from 2020 to 2024. Biorock is a technology that uses low-voltage electricity to amplify mineralisation on a given structure, which boosts coral growth rates.

BM Praveen Kumar, the manager and head of the Mithapur Coral Reef Recovery Project, said that till date, 2,310 artificial reefs have been installed, covering over 5,800 sq m. The team also established 57 coral garden nurseries from 2016-’17, using rescued coral boulders from the intertidal region and attaching them to metal tables. These coral boulders had been damaged by fishing activities such as the use of bamboo poles to steer boats, anchoring boats and trampling. After one to two years of growth, the corals were transferred to the artificial reefs.

Has restoration worked?

In a global review of coral restoration, researchers found that most projects reported coral survival between 60 to 70%.

In Gulf of Mannar, the overall survival of transplanted fragments from 2002 to 2024 ranged from over 55% to around 80%. The genus Acropora had the highest average growth rate across all sites, while the genus Porites had the lowest.

Transplanted corals in Gulf of Mannar showed a higher growth rate than natural corals for four species. The average growth rate of Acropora corals was around 10 cm per year at the restored reef, while it was only around 8 cm per year at the natural reef.

Live coral cover increased sevenfold over 14 years (2006-2020), despite coral mortalities during two major bleaching events in 2010 and 2016. As a result, fish density in the restored area soared 21-fold over the same period, benefitting coastal communities.

“Restored corals become sexually mature within four years and thus help in expediting the recovery rate. Coral spawning and proper development of gametes have been recorded among the restored corals,” explains Edward Patterson, Director of SDMRI, Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu. “Coral cover enhanced through restoration supplies more sand than a degraded area, which is important for stabilising island coasts,” he adds.

In Palk Bay, transplanted branching coral species demonstrated significant growth over 18 months. Acropora muricata (staghorn coral) exhibited the highest average monthly growth rate (up to 0.67 cm per month in Munaikadu), followed by Acropora hyacinthus (table coral) and Montipora digitata (finger coral).

“Growth differences were significant among species but not between sites, indicating that the transplantation method was broadly effective across varying substrate types,” says Koushik Sadhukhan, a scientist at the National Centre for Coastal Research, Chennai.

Survival rates ranged from 50% to 80% for three branching coral species: Acropora muricata (staghorn coral), Acropora hyacinthus (table coral), and Montipora digitata (finger coral). This demonstrates moderate to strong restoration success, says Sadhukhan.

Nine months after the transplantation, researchers recorded a high abundance of fish (1,060 individuals) from seven different families. The most common types of fish were grunter, damselfish, and rabbitfish. According to Sadhukhan, “This suggests that coral restoration not only enhances benthic structure but also supports reef-associated fisheries and biodiversity recovery.”

Rescued coral boulders (around 1,040) in Mithapur’s coral nurseries showed an overall survival rate of more than 95% after seven years, which is among the highest in the world, Praveen Kumar, points out. Since 2016-17, the team recorded an additional seven fish species and higher fish densities on the natural reefs. The amount of fish caught by fishermen, known as catch per unit effort, surged tenfold from 2015-2016 to the end of 2025.

These positive effects are attributed to the artificial reefs, which served as refugia for herbivorous fishes, allowing their populations to increase, says Kumar.

The heavy nutrient load in these waters, coupled with a lack of herbivorous fish, led to algal overgrowth on corals, Kumar explains, noting that the increase in herbivorous fish led to grazing on the algal patches. This boosted live coral cover on the natural reefs from 11% in 2008 to around 19% at the end of 2025. “Slowly, the reef is transforming from an algal-dominated reef to a more resilient reef system.”

Researchers are currently monitoring 200 coral fragments in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. As of March 2026, transplanted corals in the artificial reefs showed a growth rate of 9.4 cm per year and a survival rate of 55%. In 2025, they recorded 111 species of fish and cryptofauna and 2,344 individuals. In 2026, the number of species fell to 50 but the number of individuals surged to 3,139.

In the lagoon of Kavaratti Atoll in the Lakshadweep Archipelago, researchers found that transplanted corals showed promising growth along with a diverse fish assemblage after two years. Acroporid corals (also known as staghorn corals) grew faster than the non-acroporid corals, with the rate varying widely between species.

Among faster-growing acroporid corals, A. muricata showed the highest growth (31.1 cm) while Isopora palifera (catch bowl coral) had the lowest growth (15.9 cm). Pocillopora damicornis (cauliflower coral) had the highest growth (481.9 cubic centimetres) by volume among the non-acroporid corals, while Hydnophora microconos (spine coral) had the lowest growth rate (33.4 cubic centimetres).

Survival rates across all nursery coral fragments ranged from 64% to 99%. Another positive sign: the team recorded 21 fish species across 10 families at the transplantation site, with two damselfish species as the dominant species.

This article was first published on Mongabay.

Oil marketing companies have reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel for international flights by 27%. With this, the rates of jet fuel for international operations have come down to levels similar to those for domestic flights.

Jet fuel for domestic flights currently costs Rs 104,927 per kilolitre in New Delhi. This has been kept unchanged in June for the second consecutive month after airlines urged the oil marketing companies not to hike rates further till the end of the war in West Asia.

The war has pushed up global oil prices and led to airspace restrictions that have increased operating costs. Aviation turbine fuel accounts for about 40% of an airline’s operating expenses. Read on.

The price of a 19 kg commercial liquefied petroleum gas cylinder was increased by Rs 42, bringing its cost in Delhi to Rs 3,113.5. Prices of domestic cooking gas cylinders are unchanged.

Additionally, prices of 5 kg Free Trade LPG cylinders were raised by Rs 11, taking the retail price in Delhi to Rs 821.5. Free Trade 5 kg LPG cylinders are designed for easy purchase without mandatory address proof and are primarily used by migrants in urban and semi-urban areas. Read on.

How Modi has recast a decade of policy failures as an opportunity for citizens to make sacrifices, writes Vishal R Choradiya

Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of satirical political campaign Cockroach Janta Party, said that he will return to India on June 6 and launch a peaceful protest seeking the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. A 30-year-old political communications strategist who was part of the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team, Dipke lives in the United States.

He has called for Pradhan’s resignation in the wake of the cancellation of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college admissions following allegations of a paper leak. Students and job seekers have also alleged irregularities in the Class 12 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Staff Selection Commission test for government posts. Read on.

Why INDIA bloc is welcoming the Cockroach Janta Party – but Congress is not, reports Anant Gupta

The Trinamool Congress expelled MLAs Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay and Sandipan Saha on charges of “anti-party activities”. This came minutes after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari claimed that they had complained about the signatures of TMC MLAs being forged on a party letter endorsing Sovondeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of opposition in the Assembly.

After the action against him, Saha claimed that the TMC “supports those who do unethical things” and expels those who act ethically. “We did not even know that a signature in an attendance register would be passed off as a signature on a proposal,” he claimed. Read on.

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The Trinamool Congress on Monday expelled party MLAs Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay and Sandipan Saha on charges of “anti-party activities”, The Indian Express reported.

The two legislators were removed minutes after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari claimed at a press conference that they had complained about the signatures of Trinamool Congress MLAs being forged on a party letter endorsing Sovondeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of opposition in the Assembly.

Adhikari said that Bandopadhyay and Saha claimed that no such resolution was passed, and the document was fabricated, India Today reported.

“Notably, 14 of the signatures are written in block letters,” the chief minister was quoted by the channel as saying. “Three MLAs have already explicitly stated that they never signed any resolution. Following these discrepancies, the secretary of the speaker lodged an FIR at the Hare Street police station, and the case has now been handed over to the CID [Criminal Investigation Department].”

After the Trinamool Congress expelled him, Saha claimed that the party “supports those who do unethical things” and expels those who act ethically, The Indian Express reported. “We did not even know that a signature in an attendance register would be passed off as a signature on a proposal,” he claimed.

The Trinamool Congress, however, accused the two MLAs of harming the party’s interests in several ways. “It has been observed that you have engaged in activities and made statements that are prejudicial to the interests of AITC,” said their expulsion letters, signed by party vice president Chandrima Bhattacharya, according to India Today.

The letter also alleged that Bandopadhyay and Saha remained absent from meetings convened by the party leadership.

Last week, Bandopadhyay and Saha met West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose in Adhikari’s presence amid speculation that they may defect from the Trinamool Congress.

While Bandopadhyay is the MLA from Uluberia-Purba, Saha represents the constituency of Entally. Last month, both of them urged the Trinamool Congress leadership to expel party leader Jahangir Khan after he withdrew his nomination from the repoll that took place in the Falta constituency, The Indian Express reported.

Edited by Sneha.

Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of satirical political campaign Cockroach Janta Party, said on Monday that he will return to India on June 6 and launch a peaceful protest seeking the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Dipke, a 30-year-old political communications strategist who was part of the Aam Aadmi Party’s social media team, lives in the United States.

The founder of the satirical campaign called for Pradhan’s resignation in the wake of the cancellation of the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college admissions following allegations of a paper leak.

Students and job seekers have also alleged irregularities in the Class 12 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Staff Selection Commission test for government posts.

“The system has reduced the lives of over a crore students to a joke,” said the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party on Monday. “This has left students anxious and worried about their future…If the education minister does not resign even after such a big blunder, it means that there is simply no accountability left in the country.”

Important announcement:

CJP Founder @abhijeet_dipke will return to India on June 6 for a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, demanding the resignation of the Education Minister. pic.twitter.com/x9M1v38Pwu

— Cockroach is Back (@Cockroachisback) June 1, 2026

“The time has come for all of us to come together, follow the path of the Constitution, and peacefully raise our voices to demand Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation,” Dipke said in a social media post. “If we raise our voices together, they will definitely have to listen to us.”

The Cockroach Janta Party founder added that he will arrive in Delhi on the morning of June 6. “Please join me at the airport. Together, we will go to the Parliament Street police station to ask for permission to hold a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar,” he said in a video.

About the campaign

The satirical campaign Cockroach Janta Party, which began on May 16, describes itself as a “political front of the youth, by the youth, for the youth”.

Since it was launched in response to reports of remarks by Chief Justice Surya Kant on May 15 comparing some unemployed youngsters to “cockroaches”, the campaign has garnered 22.5 million followers on Instagram.

“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in profession,” PTI had quoted Kant as having said. “Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists and they start attacking everyone.”

The chief justice claimed on May 16 that he had been misquoted by sections of the media and that it was baseless to say that he criticised young people in general. Kant claimed he had specifically criticised “those who have entered professions like the Bar [legal profession] with the aid of fake and bogus degrees”.

The account of the campaign had been blocked on May 21 “in response to a legal demand”. The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to immediately restore the account.

Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Sneha.

Also read: Cockroach Janta Party is doomed to fade fast – unless it goes beyond meme politics

Oil marketing companies have reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel for international flights by 27%, The Indian Express reported on Monday. With this, the rates of jet fuel for international operations have come down to levels similar to those for domestic flights.

The price of jet fuel for domestic flights was kept unchanged for the second consecutive month after airlines urged the oil marketing companies not to hike rates further, according to Bloomberg. Jet fuel for domestic flights will cost Rs 1,04,927 per kilolitre in New Delhi for June.

Last month, airlines had asked oil marketing companies Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum to halt price hikes for domestic flights till the end of the war in West Asia, reported Bloomberg. This came after they reduced flights in March and April due to lower demand in the wake of high ticket prices.

In April, the government announced that oil marketing companies would hike jet fuel prices for domestic flights only partially by 25%. This meant that jet fuel prices in Delhi were increased by Rs 15,000 to reach Rs 1,04,927 per kilolitre, The Indian Express reported. However, the prices of jet fuel for international flights were increased significantly, translating to a rise of around Rs 73,000 per kilolitre.

In May, aviation turbine fuel prices for domestic flights were kept unchanged. However, the rates for international flights were increased by $76.55 to $1,511.86 per kilolitre. The price of jet fuel for international flights for June has now been brought to $1,100 per kilolitre, or around Rs 1,05,000, The Indian Express reported.

The war in West Asia has pushed up global oil prices and led to airspace restrictions that have increased operating costs. Aviation turbine fuel accounts for about 40% of an airline’s operating expenses.

On April 26, Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet told the Union government that the country’s aviation sector was on the verge of “stopping operations” and had sought its intervention “for immediate and meaningful financial support to tide over the current situation”.

Air India said on May 13 that it would temporarily suspend its services on certain international routes from June to August due to airspace restrictions over some regions and record-high prices of jet fuel.

Impact of West Asia conflict

Since the conflict in West Asia broke out, the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterbody connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, has been blocked for most international commercial vessels. About 20% of the global petroleum supply passes through the maritime chokepoint.

The airspace restrictions in West Asia have disrupted operations in the Gulf region and also forced airlines to take longer routes to Europe and North America.

Since April 24, 2025, Pakistan has also closed its airspace for Indian flights in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, which has forced airlines to take longer routes to West Asia.

Edited by Sneha.

Nikhil Gupta, who pleaded guilty in a failed assassination plot targeting American Sikh activist and Khalistan movement leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was due to be sentenced on May 29.

But court records show that, two months after the date was set by a US district court in New York, Gupta’s request to adjourn his sentencing was granted in April. He will now be sentenced on September 25.

Gupta is expected to receive a prison sentence of at least 19 years.

Earlier this year, on February 13, the US Attorney’s Office announced that Gupta had pleaded guilty in what prosecutors claimed was a “murder-for-hire plot” orchestrated by an Indian government employee who worked for India’s cabinet secretariat. India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, is a wing of the cabinet secretariat.

Gupta, a 54-year-old Indian national whom US prosecutors described as an international narcotics and weapons trafficker, was allegedly tasked with arranging Pannun’s killing in New York in 2023.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, Gupta was charged with three counts: murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

India has repeatedly denied directing the plot, maintaining that such actions are contrary to government policy.

What was the case?

US federal prosecutors claim that the plot began in May 2023 when Vikash Yadav, an employee of India’s cabinet secretariat, allegedly recruited Gupta to arrange for Pannun to be assassinated in New York. US authorities later claim to have identified Yadav as a former Indian intelligence officer.

Prosecutors allege Gupta contacted a man he believed to be a criminal associate to find a hitman. The man was, in fact, a confidential source working with the US Drug Enforcement Administration. This source subsequently introduced Gupta to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent posing as a contract killer.

US authorities allege that Yadav, acting through Gupta, agreed to pay $100,000 for Pannun’s murder. As part of the arrangement, an associate allegedly delivered $15,000 in cash as an advance payment in June 2023.

Prosecutors say Gupta and Yadav also provided detailed information about Pannun, including his New York address, phone numbers, daily routine and surveillance photographs, while urging that the killing be carried out as quickly as possible.

Court filings further allege that Gupta instructed the undercover agent not to carry out the assassination during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States in June 2023, apparently to avoid drawing attention to the operation.

However, after Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Canada’s British Columbia on June 18, 2023, Gupta allegedly told the undercover agent in the US that there was “now no need to wait” before killing Pannun.

On June 30, though, before Gupta could act, he was arrested in the Czech Republic by the US federal authorities, extradited to the US a year later by the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, and has been in federal custody as the case proceeded.

On February 13, Gupta pleaded guilty to all three charges against him. Prosecutors have described the case as an attempt by a foreign government actor to silence a critic on American soil. Yadav has also been charged by US authorities but has not been arrested.

FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C Barnacle Jr in a press release in February said that Gupta “at the direction and coordination of an Indian government employee” had “...plotted to assassinate a United States citizen on American soil”.

Gupta was “facilitating a foreign adversary’s unlawful effort to silence a vocal critic of the Indian government”, the press release said.

After the allegations became public in 2023, New Delhi established a high-level inquiry committee to examine evidence shared by American authorities. In January 2025, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs said the panel had recommended legal action against an unidentified individual whose criminal links emerged during the investigation.

But it did not identify the individual nor did it acknowledge any government role in the matter.

However, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has explicitly identified the government official

at the centre of the allegations as Vikash Yadav. He has have added to the FBI’s “most wanted” list.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has said that Yadav was no longer a government employee.

This was not the only illegal action Yadav was alleged to have been involved in. A businessman in Delhi alleged that Yadav is linked to the Indian gangster, Lawrence Bishnoi.

On the basis of this complaint, Yadav was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell in December 2023, soon after Gupta was arrested by the American authorities. Yadav was accused of kidnapping, extortion and attempted murder.

As for Gupta, following his guilty plea earlier this year, the Indian government maintained that he was a “private individual” with no connection to any Indian official or intelligence agency.

It remains unclear why Gupta’s defence team sought an adjournment of his sentencing. Neither US federal authorities nor the Indian government have publicly commented on the postponement.

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday carried out the first expansion of his Cabinet, with 35 BJP MLAs taking oath as ministers three weeks after the party formed its first government in the state, The Telegraph reported.

Governor RN Ravi administered the oath at Lok Bhavan in Kolkata.

The expansion takes the strength of the Council of Ministers from six to 41, three short of the maximum permitted in the 294-member Assembly.

Of the 35 inductees, 13 were sworn in as Cabinet ministers, three as ministers of state with independent charge and 19 as ministers of state.

Among those inducted as Cabinet ministers are former Trinamool Congress leaders Arjun Singh and Tapas Roy, and journalist-turned-politicians Swapan Dasgupta and Jagannath Chattopadhyay.

The other Cabinet ministers are Shankar Ghosh, Saradwat Mukherjee, Deepak Burman, Manoj Oraon, Gouri Shankar Ghosh, Kalyan Chakraborty, Arup Kumar Das, Ajay Poddar and Dudh Kumar Mondal, The Indian Express reported.

Rajesh Mahata, Indranil Khan and Malati Rava Roy took oath as ministers of state with independent charge.

The ministers of state include Joyel Murmu, Ashok Dinda, Anandamoy Burman, Kaushik Chowdhury, Gargi Das Ghosh, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Dibakar Gharami, Sumana Sarkar, Santanu Pramanik, Purnima Chakraborty and Umesh Rai, among others, The Telegraph reported.

The expansion came 27 days after Adhikari and five ministers were sworn in following the BJP's victory in the Assembly elections. On May 9, Adhikari took oath as chief minister alongside Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Nisith Pramanik, Ashok Kirtania and Kshudiram Tudu.

Portfolios for the newly inducted ministers are expected to be announced after a Cabinet meeting later in the day, The Telegraph reported.

The BJP formed the government in West Bengal after winning 208 seats in the 294-member Assembly, ending the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led government.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Union government on Monday appointed five new judges to the Supreme Court, taking the apex court’s working strength to 37 after President Droupadi Murmu approved their elevation following consultation with Chief Justice Surya Kant.

The appointees are Justice Sheel Nagu, chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, chief justice of the Bombay High Court, Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Justice Arun Palli, chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and senior advocate Venkita Subramani Mohana.

Mohana is only the second woman to be directly elevated from the Bar to the Supreme Court, after Justice Indu Malhotra, Bar and Bench reported. She will also be one of only two serving women judges in the court, alongside Justice BV Nagarathna.

On May 5, the Union Cabinet approved a bill to increase the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court to 38 from 34, including the chief justice. After Monday’s appointments, the court is now one judge short of its sanctioned strength.

At the time, the government had said that the increase would allow the Supreme Court “to function more efficiently and effectively, ensuring speedy justice”.

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that the proposal was necessary in view of the pendency of nearly 92,000 cases in the Supreme Court.

When the Supreme Court was created in 1950, it had only eight judges, including the chief justice.

The court’s strength was subsequently increased to 11 in 1956, 14 in 1960, 18 in 1977, 26 in 1986 and 31 in 2009 before being raised to 34 in 2019.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Also read: Why increasing the strength of the Supreme Court will not help clear the growing case backlog

Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah claimed in his country’s Parliament on Sunday that Kathmandu and New Delhi had encroached upon each other’s territories, reported The Kathmandu Post.

“After becoming prime minister, I came to know that not only has India encroached on Nepal’s land, but Nepal has also encroached on India’s land in multiple place,” Shah was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

He was answering a question about the Kalapani-Limpiadhura-Lipulekh area. India maintains that the area is part of Uttarakhand and has rejected Kathmandu’s territorial claims to the region.

On Sunday, Shah said that New Delhi and Kathmandu had agreed to resolve the dispute “sitting together with the help of historians, surveyors and concerned experts through diplomatic means”, reported PTI.

“The Nepal government has officially sent a diplomatic note to India, mentioning the issue of encroachment of territories by India, including Lipulekh, and we have already received their response,” he was quoted as saying.

Shah said that Nepal had also held discussions about the dispute with China, as the region sits near the trijunction of India, Tibet and Nepal, as well as the United Kingdom.

“Our view is that the UK should also take an interest, as the issue dates back to the period when British India left the region,” the prime minister was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post.

The border problem between India and Nepal began in 2019 after Kathmandu objected to a new map released by India, which showed the Kalapani area as part of Indian territory.

In response, New Delhi said that it had not made any change to its border with Nepal and that the new map depicts Indian territory accurately.

The tensions escalated in May 2020 when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a new route for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through the Lipulekh Pass.

Nepal has repeatedly claimed that India’s decision to build the road was a breach of an agreement between the two countries. It claims the Lipulekh Pass on the basis of a treaty signed with British colonisers in 1816.

In June 2020, the Nepali Parliament amended its Constitution to include a new political map of the country featuring the Kalapani-Limpiadhura-Lipulekh area as its territory.

New Delhi had said at the time that Nepal’s “artificial enlargement” of claims is “not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable”.

Earlier this month, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had raised concerns about the Mansarovar Yatra being conducted through what it claimed is “Nepali territory”.

It said that it had conveyed its position to India and China through diplomatic channels and had consistently urged New Delhi “not to carry out any activities such as road construction or expansion, border trade and pilgrimage in the area”.

New Delhi responded by saying its position on the matter has been “consistent and clear”.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that Kathmandu’s territorial claims are “neither justified nor based on historical facts and evidence”.

Edited by Sneha.

“Prepare for an AI jobs apocalypse,” the Economist warned on May 14. It went on to explain: “Never before in modern history has technological progress hurt the overall demand for labour.”

This is a warning that is of special relevance to India.

Until the advent of Artificial Intelligence, all technological advances displaced humans only from some forms of work, not all. In the early part of the 20th century, mechanisation reduced demand for manual labour in agriculture and manufacturing to produce material goods. Humans moved up the value chain to more skilled work in manufacturing and into the service sector. “Blue collar” work was reduced, “white collar” work increased.

In the next wave of technological progress towards the end of the 20th century, computerisation advanced into services, and improved the productivity of white-collar workers also. Then the “knowledge economy” grew. Humans moved further up the value chain into work requiring human intelligence.

The “productivity” of a country adopting technology, defined as its total economic output divided by the number of its citizens, went up with every major technological advance. With each wave, wages increased and lifestyles improved. After each technological disruption, employment stabilised and at higher levels of wages.

AI has changed the relationship between a country’s rate of adoption of new technologies and its employment potential. AI is displacing human intelligence from production and delivery processes in all sectors: manufacturing, services and even knowledge sectors like education.

With AI, the overall “productivity” of an economy (its output divided by the number of its citizens) may increase. But employment of humans will reduce and wage levels will fall too.

This will aggravate economic problems. While investments may pour into the AI sector and towards firms that develop, sell, and deploy AI faster than others, overall purchasing power within the economy will reduce, and investments in productive sectors will also reduce.

This will create a vicious downward spiral in real growth, while the financial valuations of AI companies will soar into trillions of dollars.

AI is destabilising economies. Nevertheless, all countries are rushing like lemmings towards an economic apocalypse. India is nearer the cliff edge than others because of its demographics.

A comparison of India and China is revealing. AI is advancing rapidly in China. Barclay’s Bank estimates that humanoid robots could replace almost two-thirds of China’s labour force by 2035. They could do much of the work in the country’s giant manufacturing sector, according to Barclays.

This does not worry China because its population of youth needing employment is shrinking. It needs more robots to replace them to keep up its economic growth. India (and other countries) see this as an opportunity to take manufacturing jobs from China to serve global markets.

However, India’s demographic picture is not the same as China’s. India needs to create more work for its youth whereas China will soon need robots to do the work. So do Japan and Korea, which already have shortages of workers with their ageing populations.

What is worrying the Chinese government about a technology-empowered economy is the poor quality of work and the low levels of wages and social security that are a consequence.

Economic growth is not producing good jobs. Incomes and savings to invest are not growing in the gig economy. The government must step in and invest in economic growth and improve social security. For now, the Chinese government has enough financial headroom for this. India’s government does not.

The Indian government and Indian companies are trying to stay abreast of the AI tsunami. India is inviting US tech companies to develop their AI models further in India, using Indian talent and the data of Indian citizens.

Workers in Indian factories are assisting AI developers to train robots that will replace them. The workers know what impact it will have on their future. A worker in a factory, wearing sensors to track how he does his work to train an AI robot to replace him, says: “To me it feels like working in your own grave, while you make your own casket.”

Human dignity does not figure in an economic formulation of productivity. Blunt talk by some business leaders about AI’s impact is drawing backlash. The CEO of London-based Standard Chartered Bank sought to reassure employees after the Bank announced plans to eliminate 8,000 support jobs over the next four years as it relies more on A.I.

“It’s not cost cutting,” he said. “It’s replacing in some cases lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we’re putting in.”

India’s population of youth aged 15 to 29 is the largest in the world. They are unable to find dignified employment which will provide them with adequate economic security. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, noting their frustration, unwittingly described them as “cockroaches”.

He promptly clarified that he was not wishing to demean the youth. He implied that he was pointing to the systemic problem of the Indian economy. The employment elasticity of India’s economy (the number of jobs each unit of GDP produces) is the lowest in the world. This is leading to enormous social and economic problems, signs of which are clearly visible.

India is neither China nor the US. India’s economic growth model must be different. The Indian economy is abundant with human capital; financial capital is relatively scarce. Every firm that uses more AI to improve its own “productivity” (as economists define it) by reducing the numbers of humans it employs, replacing them with robots and AI systems, will need more financial capital.

Rather than chasing investors for more AI ventures, India’s policymakers, and Indian companies, should tap into the abundance of human capital in the country. They should adopt a different formulation of productivity. Productivity must be measured by the number of decent jobs each unit of financial capital produces, rather than the financial output produced by employing fewer humans.

This is the fundamental economic reform required in India. It is a new way of thinking. From it will follow the right labour reforms, as well as the right investment and trade reforms.

Arun Maira is the author of Reimagining India’s Economy: The Road to a More Equitable Society.

At least 20 aspirants appearing for the Uttar Pradesh Bachelor of Education Joint Entrance Examination fell into a sewage drain near an examination centre in Kanpur on Sunday after a dilapidated slab covering it caved in, leaving several injured, the police said.

The incident took place near HN Mishra PG College in MacRobertganj on Sunday morning, PTI reported.

Police Commissioner Raghubir Lal told the news agency that the candidates had gathered at a shop in the Nagar Nigam market area to make photocopies of documents required for the examination when the slab gave way.

A candidate from Hanspuram in Naubasta told PTI that examinees were informed at the last minute that photocopies of their Aadhaar cards were required, leading to a rush at nearby shops.

प्रकरण में दिनांक 31.05.2026 को थाना ग्वालटोली क्षेत्रान्तर्गत बी.एड. प्रवेश परीक्षा के अभ्यर्थियों द्वारा फोटोकॉपी कराने के दौरान नगर निगम मार्केट में नाले पर रखी जर्जर पटान टूट जाने से कुछ व्यक्तियों को मामूली चोटें आईं। घटना में कोई जनहानि नहीं हुई है। एक घायल अभिभावक उपचार…

— POLICE COMMISSIONERATE KANPUR NAGAR (@kanpurnagarpol) May 31, 2026

Four persons sustained minor injuries, while many others were left with soiled clothes and damaged books, admit cards and other documents, PTI quoted eyewitness reports as saying. A parent accompanying one of the students was injured and taken to hospital for treatment, the police said.

Lal said that those affected were provided assistance and were later able to reach their examination centres.

In a statement posted on social media, the Kanpur Police Commissionerate said that despite the disruption, the entrance examination was conducted as scheduled in 19 centres of the city under security arrangements.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s largest state-run refiner and fuel retailer, on Monday raised the price of a 19 kg commercial liquefied petroleum gas cylinder by Rs 42, bringing its cost in Delhi to Rs 3,113.5, Reuters reported.

The increase applies to commercial cylinders used by businesses and industrial consumers. Prices of domestic cooking gas cylinders are unchanged.

Prices of 5 kg Free Trade LPG cylinders were raised by Rs 11, taking the retail price in Delhi to Rs 821.5, ANI reported.

Free Trade 5 kg LPG cylinders are designed for easy purchase without mandatory address proof and are primarily used by migrant populations in urban and semi-urban areas.

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum revise LPG and aviation turbine fuel prices on the first day of every month based on international benchmark rates and currency exchange movements. Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum generally align their pricing with Indian Oil.

The revision came amid a rise in global crude oil prices. Brent crude futures gained more than 2% in early trading on Monday after Israel ordered its military to expand operations in Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group despite a ceasefire announced in April, Reuters reported.

The price of Brent crude was up by $2.23 to $93.35 a barrel at 7.45 am on Monday. It was $78 a barrel on February 27, a day before the conflict started. The price had reached as high as $114 per barrel on May 4.

India imports 88% of its crude oil needs and about half of its natural gas requirement. This mostly comes through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively blocked due to the conflict.

The war

The US and Israel launched an attack on Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran’s action posed an existential threat to Israel. Washington acts as a guarantor of Israel’s security. Iran retaliated by striking Israel and US military bases in the region, targeting major cities in Gulf countries and ships.

Tehran also effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea, for most international commercial vessels, triggering a global energy crisis.

After Washington and Tel Aviv attacked Iran on February 28 and killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Hezbollah launched an attack on Israel in retaliation on March 2.

The peace talks between Iran and the US held in Islamabad, Pakistan, collapsed on April 12, but the ceasefire that began on April 8 has largely held so far. A separate US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon began on April 17.

During the ceasefire, Iran has maintained controls on Gulf shipping while the US Navy has sought to blockade Iranian ports.

Israel has been claiming that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, which could alter the regional security balance. Tehran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

In June 2025, Andrea M had an important decision to make.

She had finished three years of an undergraduate programme at a college affiliated to Delhi University. Now, she had to decide whether to exit the programme with a three-year degree, or to continue for a fourth year – students in her batch would be the first who could choose to register for the extra year under the newly introduced four-year undergraduate programme.

The university introduced the programme in 2022, following through on the New Education Policy, 2020. The policy recommended that universities give undergraduate students the option of both a three-year and a four-year-degree programme.

But it pushed for the latter to become the norm. The four-year programme “shall be the preferred option since it allows the opportunity to experience the full range of holistic and multidisciplinary education in addition to a focus on the chosen major and minors as per the choices of the student”, the policy stated.

At the time, Andrea was considering changing her field of study, and felt that another year at the college would help her gain more clarity about her decision. (Andrea and the other students Scroll spoke to asked to be identified by pseudonyms.)

She was wrong – the year was marked by confusion and chaos.

“While we were in one semester, we didn’t even know the syllabus of the next semester,” she said. When she or her peers asked their professors questions about courses and the programme’s structure, they usually did not have any answers.

Among the most serious points of confusion pertained to the next steps that were open to students like her. The policy envisioned that those who enrolled in the four-year programme would gain significant research experience in the final year, and thus, on paper, it sought to allow them to advance more rapidly through higher programmes.

It stated that “for students completing a four-year Bachelor’s programme with research, there could be a one-year master’s programme”, in contrast to the two-year master’s programme that had been the only option under the university until then.

“The idea that largely students and teachers had at that point, is that the first year of masters will broadly be covered in the fourth year of undergraduation,” said Taha Yasin, an assistant professor at the English department of Ram Lal Anand College.

This was not the only benefit indicated under the policy – it also appeared to recommend that these students be allowed to directly enroll for doctoral programmes. It stated, “Undertaking a PhD shall require either a Master’s degree or a 4-year Bachelor’s degree with Research.”

But as her fourth year progressed, Andrea realised to her dismay that authorities had not moved to effectively put the new one-year master’s programme in place, effectively curtailing the options available to students like her.

One news report in February noted that the new programme was not yet available in Jawaharlal Nehru University. Delhi University, meanwhile, had introduced it, but restricted it to students from the university – and at the time the report was published, many of the new programme’s courses had not received final approvals.

Meanwhile, many of Andrea’s peers who exited their undergraduate programme in 2025, after three years, enrolled in two-year master’s programmes through the route of the CUET-PG exam. Now, as Andrea grapples with the confusion surrounding the one-year master’s programme, they are preparing to enter their final year of post-graduate study.

She noted that she had also written the UGC-NET exam for entrance to PhD programmes. “But I’m not sure if I can join PhD directly, there is no clear instruction,” Andrea said.

This was just one kind of criticism that Scroll heard after speaking to several students and faculty from six colleges in Delhi about the changes that the university had introduced beginning in 2022, centred on the four-year programme.

Many excoriated authorities for eroding academic rigour by introducing new courses and requirements that were poorly thought through. At the same time, they pointed out, those who chose the four-year pathway were also expected in the final year to produce unrealistically advanced levels of work pertaining to research.

Overall, the accounts of those in the university painted a picture of a poorly planned overhaul with far-reaching consequences on thousands of students’ lives. If that was not sufficiently worrying, they said, the university also did not have the resources or infrastructure to carry through these changes. The result appears to be a rapid decline in one of India’s most prestigious universities, which is more than 100 years old.

Mithuraaj Dhusiya, an associate professor from the English department at Hansraj College, who is an elected member of the executive council of Delhi University, said he had received considerable feedback from students and teachers on the four-year degree programme. He summed up the problem: “The general consensus is that this four-year degree programme is a royal mess, in all perspectives.”

This story is part of Common Ground, our in-depth and investigative reporting project. Sign up here to get the stories in your inbox soon after they are published.

This is not the first time Delhi University sought to introduce a four-year undergraduate degree programme.

It was first introduced in 2013-’14, when the United Progressive Alliance was in power at the Centre. The move was met with widespread protests that sought to highlight major structural flaws in the programme, and the chaos it was causing in students’ lives.

In 2014, the National Democratic Alliance government withdrew the programme. But, in 2022, the programme was reintroduced under the same dispensation.

Given that the National Democratic Alliance had once seemed to see problems with the programme, some hoped it would have been better designed the second time around. But major problems prevailed – Dhusiya noted, for instance, that though the new programme increased the workload on the university system, the government did not increase the manpower and infrastructure available to colleges.

When it came to faculty strength for instance, teaching staff at most colleges were only sufficient for the three-year degree programme. “They extended it to the fourth year, but did not give us any resources to fulfil the demands of the new extra year,” Dhusiya said.

In fact, Aathira M, another student, enrolled in the English department of a college affiliated to Delhi University, said her college had already been facing a shortage of teachers when she was in her third year. “Adding an extra batch should obviously mean extra staff as well,” she said.

Andrea pointed out that the university had also failed to take into account the fact that some campuses would need more hostel rooms to accommodate students who stayed back for the fourth year. “Most students are from other states, and cannot afford to live outside campus,” she said. “Where will they go?”

Another key criticism about the new system centred on the introduction of a new range of courses that, teachers said, had been poorly conceived. These courses, called “skill enhancement courses” and “value addition courses”, are mandatory for all students and are spread out across the first three years.

Among the titles of the value-addition courses are “Envisaging Viksit Bharat: Perspectives and Challenges”, “Emotional Intelligence”, “Panchkosha: Holistic Development of Personality”, “the Art of Being Happy”, “the Gita for Holistic Life” and “the Gita for Sustainable Universe”.

PK Vijayan, an associate professor, from Hindu College, noted that many of these courses departed from globally accepted academic norms of rationalism and intellectual rigour. “Whatever superstitious ideas we have been struggling in the education system to get rid of have come back with a vengeance,” he said. “Now fully ratified and sanctified by this new policy.”

He added, “These subjects do not meet any of the standards of contemporary scientific observation and testing and empirical proof.”

The skill enhancement courses, meanwhile, include some focused on communication skills in various settings, as well as others on subjects like data analytics, computing with Python and basic information technology tools.

The university also offers a skill-development course on practices in horoscopes. “By all means, if you want to study it, go ahead and study it,” Vijayan said.. “But we must be clear that it is not to be treated as a contemporary science. It is a belief system at best.”

Jenny Rowena, an assistant professor with a college affiliated to the university, said that students seemed to enjoy some of the skill-development courses “where they can actually learn a skill but these courses are rare”. She added, “Even when they are present – like chocolate making – they are not relevant to the honours programmes that they have chosen.”

One student explained that his core subject was physics, but that in the second year, as a skill-enhancement course, he had very few choices, and enrolled for one titled “ayurveda and nutrition”.

“There is no connection between the two,” he said. “I would have preferred something else, but I didn’t have any other options.”

Yasin explained that there were no systematic consultations held with faculty before these courses were announced. “The courses were not introduced department-wise, like it is done with honours courses,” Yasin said.

As a result, Rowena explained, many college departments were forced to introduce courses they were not equipped to run. She described it as a “a structural issue” that the courses could be “taught by anyone”.

“This has resulted in all these papers becoming non-serious papers. The overall concrete structure is losing,” Yasin said. “This is not doing justice to the larger academic strength of the university.”

The additional batch of students, and the new courses, also proved to be a burden on the physical infrastructure of colleges, and introduced confusion into timetables, some noted.

The student of physics said that he and his classmates found that some of their days were packed, with classes starting at 8.30 am and running until 6.30 pm, whereas on other days, they would have three free hours between classes. “We don’t even have any space to sit on campus during those hours,” the student said. “The library gets too full so they send us out.”

The problem of low quality was not restricted to the new courses – faculty noted that the standards of existing courses had also been diluted since 2022. A key manner in which this was done was by reducing the number of credits assigned to papers of core subjects from five to three – and, thereby, the amount of time dedicated in the academic calendar to them.

He explained that earlier each course would typically be allocated five hours of lecture time a week. With the reduced credits, this had been reduced to three hours of lecture time for most core courses he noted.

This represented a serious erosion of academic standards, he argued. “So what is happening is that Delhi University, which was known for its honours courses, which basically stood on the pillars of detailed teaching for ten long hours in the form of lectures and tutorials, has gone for a toss,” he said.

Rowena echoed these concerns. “Students are getting a taste of everything but no in-depth knowledge of anything.”

Faculty noted that, ironically, even as academic standards were being diluted across the undergraduate programme, those who opted to study for four years found themselves presented with unrealistic targets for research and publication work in the final year.

A January 2026 notification from the university listed the requirements students would have to fulfill by the end of their fourth year. When it came to “research outcomes”, it mentioned several options, such as publishing research in a reputed “indexed journal” that was listed on a database such as Scopus or Web of Science. Other options included publishing a book or book chapter with a reputed publisher, and developing “a prototype or product, or filing of a patent based on the research work”.

Faculty argued that these requirements were far too advanced for students at the undergraduate level. Rowena said, “Even for PhD students it is difficult to get published in such journals. Students are extremely pressurised and anxious.”

Vijayan explained that the notification repeatedly stressed the importance of originality in the students’ work. “This idea is that all work has to be original, or it has to be pathbreaking, or that it has to fill a gap in the existing body of knowledge,” he said. “This is something that is going to put a lot of pressure on both faculty and on students.”

This pressure, and the likelihood of failure, would in effect discourage even promising students, some argued. “I also have some brilliant students and it causes me a lot of anxiety that their papers will get rejected and they won’t be able to get published,” Abha Dev Habib, an associate professor with the physics department of Miranda House, and also the secretary of the Democratic Teachers’ Front.

In early April, members of the university’s executive council and the Delhi University Teachers Association wrote to the vice chancellor demanding that the university revisit its decisions with regard to the research component of the fourth year. Teachers said that there was an “unwillingness to recognise what it takes to conduct academic research” and that there was an “utter disregard for students’ effort”.

The requirements also put unreasonable pressure on teachers, faculty noted. According to a university notification, teachers can supervise up to ten students’ research in the fourth year. But, Habib argued, this was far too high a number for one teacher – particularly given that the new calendars did not reduce their weekly teaching hours of between 14 and 16 hours, to allow them time for other work.

Faculty noted without such a reduction, teachers were struggling to even supervise lower numbers of students. “Many of my colleagues have four to seven students,’ Habib said. Rowena noted that in her college, teachers supervised four or five students each, and found even these numbers logistically challenging.

Students echoed these concerns. Aathira said that she enrolled in the fourth year solely because she was interested in research. But she has not been able to find a professor who is an expert in the field in which she is interested in doing research. The professor she is working with “is trying to help me but I know she is unable to fully support me”, she said. “But it’s understandable, each teacher is having to supervise four-five students.”

The pressure to produce research could have grave consequences, some argued. For instance, Vijayan said, it could also push some students to try and publish work in “fly-by-night” journals. Habib voiced the same concern. “There are so many predatory journals,” she said.

Vijayan observed that this problem already existed among PhD scholars, but was limited because a relatively small number of students enroll for doctoral programmes. Pushing students at the undergraduate level also to produce original research and work would “amplify the scale at which this kind of corruption will occur”, he argued.

Faculty and students also argued that the university had not taken into consideration that conducting and supervising research work required significantly greater infrastructure in colleges.

For instance, Yasin noted that in order to allow teachers to supervise students with their dissertations, it was necessary that colleges had designated spaces for them to interact comfortably. “Where do you meet the students? There are many colleges which do not have faculty rooms for all departments,” Yasin said.

He noted that in most institutions, “Science departments have faculty rooms alongside their laboratories. But the social sciences and humanities department are in the staff rooms, basically.” In these spaces, “there are a number of people sitting at one point of time”, he said. “We don't have places to sit for 10 minutes and have some serious discussion.”

Santhosh P, a student, is worried that his entire year might have been wasted.

“I had higher expectations and was let down by how the programme is structured,” he said. “We are expected to produce high quality research, but do not have the resources or access to be able to do it.”

Faculty and students also noted the university seemed from time to time to issue arbitrary and poorly thought-out notices. “Coming of notices, taking back notices, it’s happening every other week, every 15 days. It’s all chaos,” Yasin said.

Vijayan echoed this observation. “Almost every month we’re getting new directives as to what should be done and what are the kinds of assessments that we have to undertake, what are the ways in which we have to undertake these assessments and so on,” he said.

For instance, in November, media reported a university announcement that students would have to prepare 30-minute videos showing the progress of their research work, in both their seventh and eighth semesters. This could include videos documenting students’ field visits and challenges they were facing, the reports noted.

Faculty pushed back against the notification – many argued that even doctoral students were not required to submit such presentations. “Then they decided it became quite ridiculous to upload that many videos and it also served no purpose,” Vijayan said. “So they scrapped that and they said, there’s no need to make a video.”

But by this time, some students had already worked on the videos. “So half the students who have done the assignment had videos and half didn’t, causing even more confusion,” he said.

Faculty noted that the university also issued conflicting notices pertaining to the question of supervisors for students. “They first said that only professors can be supervisors,” Vijayan said. “Then when there was a hullabaloo about that, because there weren’t enough professors to supervise so many students, they included associate professors as well.”

Even then, the numbers of available faculty were found to be insufficient, he noted. “Then they changed to, literally anyone, except guest faculty, can be supervisors,” he said.

Faculty noted that they had raised concerns about all these matters before the changes were introduced in 2022. “We raised objections but nobody listened,” Vijayan said.

Rowena echoed this frustration. “We are not taken into confidence, not consulted before such a massive shift took place,” she said.

The chaos surrounding the four-year programme is a central aspect of an overall decline that Delhi University is seeing, faculty and students said.

This is reflected in the fact that the university has been seeing large numbers of seats go vacant in recent years. In 2025, for instance, reports suggested that the university was struggling to fill around 9,000 seats across colleges, of a total of a little over 71,000 available seats. Eventually, after the final round of admissions, 4,000 seats remained vacant.

Teachers said they felt that many students were likely hearing about the chaos and confusion at the university, and that as a result, it was dropping on their lists of preferred centres of study. “The quality of education at Delhi University has deteriorated in the last few years and students are aware of that,” Vijayan said.

Some observed that a part of the reason many seats are going unfilled is that university, in 2022, decided to conduct admissions through the Common University Entrance Test, whereas earlier, students were admitted on the basis of their school board exam scores. This led to a delay in the process, since students had to wait for a long period for the results of this test.

“By the time the CUET results and lists come out, admissions have wrapped up in other private institutions,” Habib said. Since students were unsure for a longer time about whether they would be admitted to the university, “they obviously become very stressed and end up taking a seat at a private college”, Habib added.

The declining student numbers, and the current confusion in the university pointed to a failure, not just of the four-year undergraduate programme, Dhusiya argued, but also of the part of the National Education Policy that recommended these changes. He did not agree with the contention made by some within the university system that the challenges the programme is facing are merely teething problems. “It is debilitating,” he said. “There are core structural problems.”

He suggested that the university’s problems were a warning to other institutions across the country. “The failure of the NEP at the country’s biggest, premier university shows that it doesn’t stand much of a chance in other universities of the country either,” Dhusiya said.

Six persons were killed and eight injured after a four-storey building collapsed near Delhi’s Saket metro station on Saturday evening, PTI reported.

Most of those injured are believed to be medical students. They were eating food at a canteen on a neighbouring plot of land when debris from the building fell on them.

The structure was located in the Saidulajab area, and its top floor was under construction, The Hindu quoted the Delhi Fire Services as saying. The building reportedly housed a coaching centre, cafes and offices.

The exact cause of the collapse was yet to be ascertained.

VIDEO | Delhi: JCB machines remove rubble as rescue teams continue operations at the site of a three-storey commercial building collapse near Saket Metro Station. Latest visuals from the site.

(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/9cfudnuIpS

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 31, 2026

Those who died were identified as Ravi, Kapil, Nalin Ray, Alok, Parvati and Ekta, reported PTI.

The injured persons were Tarun Kumar, Saika Khan, Neelam Yadav, Aditya Sharma, Ksitij Pratap, Anuj Dikshi, Aastha and Vishal.

All the injured persons have been admitted to the trauma centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

A first information report has been filed in connection with the collapse, The Indian Express reported. The police have called the owner of the building for questioning.

Additionally, the deputy commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s South Zone ordered Assistant Engineer (Building) Sudesh Singh Chouhan and Junior Engineer (Building) Aman Jain to be suspended for alleged lapses in supervision, according to PTI.

Search and rescue operations were carried out by the Delhi Fire Service, the National Disaster Response Force, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, the police and some residents. The operations concluded after all trapped persons were accounted for.

Emergency personnel used heavy machinery, hydraulic cutters, victim-location cameras and sniffer dogs to look for more people who may be trapped under the debris.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande, Sara Varghese and Sneha.

The Central Board of Secondary Education on Sunday acknowledged cybersecurity vulnerabilities in its service provider’s OnMark portal, the on-screen marking system that was used to evaluate Class 12 board examination answer sheets this year.

“The identified vulnerabilities have been contained, and other exploitable weaknesses are being ruled out,” the board stated.

The clarification came as several discrepancies were flagged in the last two weeks in the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking evaluation process for Class 12 answer sheets.

Many students had alleged that the scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded by the CBSE did not match their handwriting, raising concerns about possible answer sheet mismatches.

Students seeking re-evaluation also alleged that they faced portal failures, delays in payment confirmation and, in some cases, were asked to pay excess fees because of technical glitches.

Separately, a cybersecurity researcher, Nisarga Adhikary, has claimed on social media that he had discovered that the OnMark portal link was publicly accessible and that an analysis of its code showed vulnerabilities that could potentially allow accounts of examiners to be taken over.

On May 22, he said he reported the issues to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team and also published a detailed account of his findings.

The CBSE said on Sunday that it has been “closely monitoring the vulnerabilities” that are being flagged in the public domain.

“An expert team of cybersecurity professionals has been deployed over the last few days from across various arms of the government as well as the IITs [Indian Institute of Technology] to fortify these systems, including taking them over to a more secure set-up,” stated the board.

It added that it was “grateful to all alert citizens and ethical hackers pointing out such weaknesses, and have gotten in touch with some of them directly”.

We have been closely monitoring the vulnerabilities in the OnMark portal of our service provider that are being flagged in the public domain. An expert team of cybersecurity professionals has been deployed over the last few days from across various arms of the government as well…

— CBSE HQ (@cbseindia29) May 31, 2026

The statement came two days after the CBSE claimed in a social media post that the OSM system is “backed by a secure and robust IT [information technology] platform” and that “no compromise or vulnerability has been reported in the actual evaluation portal”.

The board had said that multiple quality checks and safeguards ensure that answer books are securely scanned and processed.

It also claimed that students’ answer books “are safe and have been processed through multiple quality-control mechanisms”.

However, soon after, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the Union government acknowledged discrepancies in the OSM system and accepted responsibility for them. The minister added that strict action would be taken against anyone found to be “intentionally responsible” for irregularities in the evaluation process.

‘Mantri Pradhan’s Ministry of Scandals’: Congress

Meanwhile, the Congress on Sunday claimed that the answer sheets of around 20 lakh Class 12 students had become available in the public domain, describing it as a “data breach of monumental proportions”.

In a social media post, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh questioned the quality of the scans used in the evaluation process, pointing out that the leaked answer booklets “show signs of paper folding and shadows”.

Separately, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared a video of his interaction with a group of students who had raised concerns about the marking system.

Gandhi criticised the response the students had received, saying they had been labelled “Pakistanis” and “deep state agents” for raising legitimate concerns.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Sneha.

A man accused of stabbing a 17-year-old student in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad on Thursday died after an alleged gunfight with the police in the Khoda area, said officials.

Asad, a resident of Khoda, was wanted for allegedly stabbing Surya Chauhan, a Class 11 student who died during treatment on Friday.

A reward of Rs 50,000 had been announced for information leading to Asad’s arrest.

On Sunday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Dhawal Jaiswal said that information had been received about Asad meeting his associates to collect money before fleeing. The police launched a search operation and set up checkpoints in Indirapuram and Khoda based on this.

Jaiswal claimed that Asad was found riding a motorcycle with an accomplice when the police tried to stop him. He opened fire and police retaliated, injuring him in the exchange, alleged the deputy commissioner.

Asad was taken to hospital, where he later died, according to Jaiswal. He added that a police constable was also injured in the gunfight, while Asad’s accomplice managed to escape.

Police said a pistol and the motorcycle used by Asad were recovered.

Chauhan, a resident of Navneet Vihar Colony in Khoda, was stabbed during an altercation on Thursday.

A case had been registered against five persons based on a complaint by Chauhan’s family. Three of the persons accused in the case were arrested shortly after the stabbing, while Asad remained absconding, Jaiswal said.

The police had earlier said that preliminary investigations suggested the teen and the accused persons knew each other. A dispute involving a motorcycle had escalated into violence, leading to Chauhan being stabbed, PTI reported.

However, Chauhan’s family disputed this, alleging that he was lured to a location after receiving a phone call and was attacked by several persons armed with knives.

After Chauhan’s death, police added a murder charge to the case, The Indian Express reported.

Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Sneha.

Five people have been arrested and two others detained in connection with the assault on Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee in West Bengal’s Sonarpur, The Indian Express quoted the police as saying on Sunday.

A suo motu case was registered after the attack and three specialised teams carried out overnight raids across the area.

The seven persons were identified “based on security camera and news footage”, the Hindustan Times quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.

Five were formally arrested after questioning, while two were detained for further investigation, another police officer told The Indian Express.

The arrested suspects are expected to be produced before a court in Baruipur later on Sunday.

On Saturday, Banerjee was attacked during a visit to Sonarpur, where he had gone to meet the family of a party worker allegedly killed in post-poll violence.

A mob reportedly threw eggs and stones at the leader and shouted slogans of “chor, chor” or “thief, thief”. Videos shared on social media showed the TMC leader – wearing a helmet – being assaulted.

The TMC alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party workers were behind the attack. However, the BJP denied involvement and said the protest reflected public anger, The Indian Express reported.

Banerjee sustained minor injuries and was taken to two private hospitals for examination before being discharged later that night. Doctors said he suffered bruising to his chest but did not require admission.

Speaking after the incident, Banerjee alleged there had been inadequate security arrangements and said he would approach the Calcutta High Court over the matter.

“They want to kill me,” he also said. “Let them kill me. Let my dead body be recovered from here.”

‘Utterly reprehensible’, says Opposition

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condemned the assault, calling it “utterly reprehensible”.

In a statement on social media, he said an attack on a member of Parliament was an attack on the people who elected him and on democracy itself.

“This is the ugly face of the BJP’s politics of revenge,” he said. “Political differences can never justify violence.”

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray claimed the attack was “a signal to the world of how democracy has virtually been ended in our country”.

“If the safety of MPs cannot be assured, what is the world going to look at this as,” he asked.

West Bengal minister Dilip Ghosh said the attack on Banerjee should not have happened and that nobody had the right to take the law into their own hands, ANI reported.

However, he added that “the public has been enduring what they've been putting up with for the past 15 years” and said that “the anger inside the public has to show up somewhere”.

Another TMC leader attacked

In a separate incident on Sunday, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee alleged that he was attacked near Chanditala Police Station in Hooghly district while on his way to submit a deputation regarding post-poll violence, ANI reported.

Kalyan Banerjee claimed BJP workers assaulted him and hit him on the head with a ball, causing a bleeding injury.

Following the incident, the TMC MP staged a protest with party workers outside the police station, PTI reported.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil ended his indefinite hunger strike on Sunday after holding talks with representatives of the Maharashtra government, who offered assurances on several long-pending demands of the Maratha community, ANI reported.

Jarange-Patil launched the hunger strike at 10 am on Saturday in Jalna district, and called it off about 15 hours later after receiving assurances from the Maharashtra government, PTI reported.

The protest ended in the presence of Maharashtra minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who heads the Maratha Reservation Cabinet Sub-Committee, and Bharatiya Janata Party MLC Prasad Lad.

Addressing supporters, Jarange-Patil said the government had agreed to speed up the process of issuing Kunbi caste certificates based on 58 lakh records that had already been identified, ANI reported.

He said these records would be displayed at gram panchayat offices, while the task of issuing caste certificates will be overseen by the divisional commissioner’s office, PTI reported.

Jarange-Patil also gave an ultimatum of one month to the government to withdraw police cases registered against Maratha protesters..

After the activist ended his fast, he was taken to a hospital in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for further medical examination and treatment.

Quota demand

The Maratha community’s long-standing demand for reservations in education and government jobs resurfaced in 2023 with protests led by Jarange-Patil. The movement witnessed violence, suicides and the resignations of legislators.

His latest protest was his ninth hunger strike in the past three years.

In February 2024, the Maharashtra legislature passed a bill allowing for the creation of a 10% quota in education and government jobs for the Marathas. This would be in addition to the state’s 52% reservation quota, which includes a 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Section.

The introduction of the 10% quota is similar to the 16% reservation for Marathas under the Other Backward Classes category that was introduced in 2018 by the state government at the time comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party and the undivided Shiv Sena.

That decision was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2021, citing the 50% cap on a state’s total reservations that the court had ordered in 1992. The court said that there were no “exceptional circumstances” or “extraordinary situation” in Maharashtra for the state government to breach the limit on reservations.

Jarange-Patil has insisted that reservations for Marathas be given under the Other Backward Classes category, on the grounds that the separate quota exceeds the constitutional ceiling of 50% and would likely be struck down by the judiciary.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh has filed civil and criminal defamation proceedings against Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj in connection with his social media posts allegedly insinuating that Singh misused his influence in favour of officials at a school where a three-year-old girl was sexually assaulted, Bar and Bench reported.

Bharadwaj had allegedly made the claims in posts on X on May 16 and May 16.

The BJP leader asserted that the former AAP MLA’s allegations were “malicious, false and full of lies made with the intent to harm the reputation of the Plaintiff”, Bar and Bench reported.

The deputy chief minister filed the civil defamation suit, in which he has sought damages of Rs 5 crore, before the Delhi High Court. The case was listed on May 25 before Joint Registrar (Judicial) Gagandeep Jindal, who issued summons to Bharadwaj and listed the matter for further hearing on September 7.

Jindal directed Bharadwaj to file a written statement on the allegations within 30 days of receiving summons.

The criminal defamation case was heard by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Paras Dalal on May 22. The court listed the matter for the examination of Singh on June 9, and for the depositions of witnesses on June 11, according to Bar and Bench.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

India’s recent debate over dowry deaths echoes the same concerns that were supposed to have been addressed by stricter laws and criminal provisions passed in the early 1980s.

After 33-year-old Twisha Sharma was found dead in her home in Bhopal on May 12, six months into her marriage, a series of “dowry deaths” involving newly-wed brides have been reported from across India.

Sharma’s husband and in-laws claim she died by suicide. But her parents have alleged that she was murdered and that her in-laws and husband subjected her to domestic abuse and kept demanding dowry. Sharma’s husband, lawyer Samarth Singh, and mother-in-law Giribala Singh, a retired judge, were arrested soon after.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, cases of “bride burning” in North India consequent upon alleged dowry demands galvanised into the early women’s movement in India, highlighting violence in the marital home. In some of these incidents, newly-wed brides and young women were doused with kerosene and set on fire.

But now, like before, these concerns are overshadowed by a subject that remains undiscussed: the dominance of marriage in Indian society. Feminist scholar Mary E John describes this as “compulsory marriage”, a force that is almost universal.

It is the idea that only marriage can guarantee social meaning, stability, safety for women and it is the sole acceptable space for reproducing children. The latest available National Family Health Survey, 2019-’21, affirms this: “Marriage is nearly universal in India.” By the age of 45-49, only 1% of women and 3% of men in the country have never married.

The current discussion about dowry fails to examine this outsize role of marriage in social life. There is also surprise that Sharma, an ambitious career woman, could not navigate her way out of the marriage.

Rinku Ghosh notes in The Indian Express that Sharma’s anguished messages to her family about being trapped resonated with Indian women: “For all the spiel and advertisement of the modern marriage as one of companionship, equality and independence, the institution itself remains deeply conservative in its expectations of women.”

In Western and East Asian countries, economic development has afforded women better opportunities beyond family life and weakened the centrality of marriage. But this has not happened in India. Population and social scientists K Srinivasan and KS James describe marriage in the country as a “golden cage”.

Based on their data analysis, James and Srinivasan say that the institution of marriage is becoming irrelevant in Western countries, with people preferring to live together and have children outside marriage.

In the more conservative East Asian countries, women are choosing to remain single. In South Korea, for instance, some women are boycotting marriage and even men.

In India, the average age of marriage has risen but marriage is the norm, even among developed states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where women marry late. “Women in India, as of now and in the near future, seem to be safely trapped in a golden cage of marriage propped up by religion, caste and economic forces,” write James and Srinivasan.

Some answers to this puzzle can be found in the nature of India’s economic growth, which economists say has been “jobless”. In fact, unemployment increases with education levels. This means that India’s incredible gains of gender equality in higher education have not translated into an increase in women working in the formal economy.

Economist Ashwini Deshpande points out that part of the problem is the devaluation of women’s labour and how it is measured. “Women are getting educated at a faster rate,” she had said in an earlier interview. “But jobs that would be suitable, commensurate with their qualifications either don’t exist or they’re not able to access them.”

Compared to the stability and safety that marriage is seen to offer, the pathways of education, work and independence are a less secure investment for women. Parents and families seek out the safety net of marriage for their children, no matter the cost – even going into debt to pay for extravagant weddings.

But the unwillingness to question marriage has meant that when cases of marital discord or domestic violence and dowry deaths make the news, the old themes of women’s rights, legal overreach and despair over regressive and patriarchal practices circulate all over again.

Feminist scholars have long contended that dowry, and related concerns of domestic violence and cruelty in the marital home, is entangled with marriage and women’s inheritance rights in India. As anthropologist Srimati Basu writes, “Marriage is at the core of gender trouble.”

Part of this has to do with how Indian families and marriage unequally distribute social and economic resources. Property remains the entitlement of male relatives. Though women’s labour in raising children and caring for family members is essential, it is devalued, granting them precious little economic security.

Basu, who has extensively researched India’s marriage and inheritance laws, makes a striking observation while reflecting on her fieldwork and watching friends and colleagues get married. Wedding gifts, writes Basu, represented the only substantial expenditure for female children, the only culturally acceptable female entitlement to the fund of family wealth.

With marriage at the centre, Indian society is also suspicious or downright hostile to single people, especially unmarried women, refusing them houses to rent or questioning their sexual choices. Even if women, defying the compulsions of family, caste and religion, are able to secure jobs and some degree of independence, they are likely to struggle in leading a safe and dignified life on their own terms.

The Indian state is just as invested in marriage. State governments have been passing laws making it mandatory to register live-in relationships. Is marriage really a choice when it is positioned as the only viable way to build a life?

Here is a summary of last week’s top stories.

Proving citizenship. The Supreme Court upheld the legality of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission, saying that the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative” of free and fair polls. The Election Commission has constitutional powers to conduct the exercise, the bench said.

However, the court noted that the Election Commission’s inquiries for the purpose of including a person in the voter list do not mean that it can decide on whether the person is an Indian citizen.

It directed the poll panel to forward to the Union government within a week the names of the persons who had been deleted from Bihar’s electoral rolls on account of doubtful citizenship, so that their citizenship could be adjudicated upon.

Gaurav Mukherjee lists three reasons why West Bengal’s SIR exercise was unconstitutional.

Alleged unnatural demographic changes. The Union government set up a high-level committee on demographic change to study changes in population patterns allegedly “arising from illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons”. Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that “unnatural demographic change” caused by alleged “infiltration” and other reasons constitutes a big challenge for the country.

The committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar. The other members will be the Census commissioner, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, former Bureau of Police Research and Development chief Balaji Srivastava and economist Shamika Ravi.

The panel will analyse the “patterns of abnormal population changes at the level of religious and social communities” and will present solutions to address the problem, Shah said.

A change of guard. Congress leader Siddaramaiah resigned as the chief minister of Karnataka, saying that he was following the party leadership’s decision. “I am making way for a new chief minister,” he added.

Siddaramaiah said that he had submitted his resignation letter to the governor’s office and that it would be accepted in due course. He said that the Congress leadership had offered him a Rajya Sabha seat but that he declined it as he wants to remain in state politics.

Shivakumar is reportedly expected to become the next chief minister.

UCC in Assam. The Assam Assembly passed the Uniform Civil Code bill seeking to ban polygamy and make the registration of live-in relationships compulsory. The draft legislation was passed even as the Opposition demanded that it should be sent to a select committee for scrutiny.

It paves the way for Assam to become the third state, after Uttarakhand and Gujarat, to introduce such a code after independence.

Chief Minister Himanta Sarma said that the state’s tribal population would be kept outside the purview of the code.

Also on Scroll last week

• Why parents from Bihar’s poorest district send children to madrasas hundreds of miles away
• How false trafficking charges led to detention of hundreds of Bihar children going to madrasas
• Why INDIA bloc is welcoming the Cockroach Janta Party – but Congress is not
• Why workers in rural Jharkhand are wary of the new VB-G RAM G programme
• ‘Let me die at home’: Back from Bangladesh, an Assam woman struggles to recover from ‘pushback’
• Cockroach Janta Party is doomed to fade fast – unless it goes beyond meme politics
• Mango mania: Why India is promoting kesar to US consumers rather than Alphonsos
• Anand Teltumbde: Modi is asking Indians to make sacrifices for an economic crisis he oversaw
• ‘The Great Grand Superhero’ review: Aliens meet hilarious kids and a sporting granddad
• ‘Kattalan’ review: An unrelenting parade of slaughter

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Soon after the general elections of 2024, I met a young Congress legislator. He asked me for five pieces of advice for his leader, Rahul Gandhi. I said I had only one; that Priyanka Gandhi should not run for the Lok Sabha from Wayanad. I added that I was certain the advice would be disregarded.

There is little doubt that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra helped in enhancing his credibility, in portraying him as being a man of the people. Yet the Yatra’s gains were frittered away by the reassertion, after the elections, of the Congress as a family firm.

Priyanka Gandhi won the Wayanad seat (as safe for her as Gandhinagar is for Amit Shah), and spoke grandiosely about how she and her brother were uniting the country, her representing the South and he the North. Then, for a parliamentary debate on the Constitution’s 75th anniversary, the Congress chose Priyanka as the lead speaker, even though it was her own grandmother who sabotaged the Constitution by imposing the Emergency.

Meanwhile, the Congress winning 99 seats in the general elections encouraged the coterie of sycophants around Rahul Gandhi to proclaim that he was now a prime minister-in-waiting. These claims were amplified by intellectuals and journalists in Delhi, whose sterling anti-Hindutva credentials were clouded by their lack of judgment, and perhaps by the seductions of being rajgurus.

Premature elation

Two years later, we can see that this sense of elation was premature. The odd state unit of the Congress (such as Kerala) remains well-organised, and capable of winning the odd assembly election. In most other parts of India, the party has steadily lost ground. The Bharatiya Janata Party is now the natural party of governance in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and several other states where the Congress was once dominant. Rahul Gandhi has been incapable of arresting this slide. According to a recent report in The Print, since Rahul assumed a formal leadership role in the Congress around 2008, the number of Congress MLAs nationwide has dropped by almost half, from 1,204 to 676.

I have met and corresponded with Rahul Gandhi, and know him to be a decent human being. Even without this slight acquaintance, I would have much sympathy for him because of the personal tragedies he has suffered, and because at the age of 55 he remains an instrument of his mother’s will. One can have little doubt that he entered politics at Sonia Gandhi’s command, and that he leads the Congress at her behest too.

However, when the future of the Republic is at stake, one is forced to state one’s case directly and even brutally. Rahul Gandhi may be a good fellow; nonetheless, those who wish for a successful pushback against the hate-filled regime of the BJP should perhaps stop looking to him as their principal source of hope.

As a prospective prime ministerial challenger to Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi lacks discipline, gravitas and a curriculum vitae. Even when he takes up an important issue, such as the partisan conduct of the Election Commission of India, he rarely does so in a sustained manner. We see him giving the odd press conference on “vote chori”, followed by a trip to Europe or Latin America.

Indeed, in his 22 years in politics, it was only during the few months of the Bharat Jodo Yatra that Rahul Gandhi showed himself capable of the focused hard work that the leaders of the BJP put in all the time. Nowadays, his political interventions are mostly on X, attracting an array of immediate likes, yet destined to be forgotten within 24 hours.

Gestural gimmickry

Rahul’s lack of gravitas is also manifest in his gestural gimmickry, his naïve belief that jumping into a pond with fisherfolk or entering a kitchen with a chef will win his party votes. And his lack of a curriculum vitae is manifest in his never having held a real job. No one really knows what employment Rahul Gandhi had before he became an MP in 2004. In the ten years that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power, he refused to take a ministerial position. Why then should Indian voters trust him to be an effective prime minister of this large and diverse country, and in an ever more threatening geopolitical environment?

Finally, Rahul Gandhi has a marked inability to learn from past mistakes. The “chowkidar chor hai” campaign spectacularly backfired in 2019, yet he continues to personally attack the prime minister (calling him cowardly, compromised and so on), instead of focusing on governance failures or indeed on renewing his own party at the grassroots.

Many in the Congress acknowledge these criticisms, but, out of a lifetime of devotion to the Gandhis, think that his sister should be presented as the prime minister-in-waiting instead. Having belatedly realised that Rahul is not the new Nehru, they now hope that Priyanka will be the new Indira.

Admittedly, Priyanka is a far better orator than her brother in Hindi, a language understood by a plurality of Indians. However, she too carries the burden of being an entitled dynast. And she may be even less successful in getting voters out. On the one occasion Priyanka led an election campaign, for the 2022 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress’s vote share was 2.27%.

Dynastic entitlement

Incidentally, one (apparently unnoticed) lesson from the recent assembly elections is that all represented a negative comment on dynastic entitlement. The BJP was helped in Assam by Tarun Gogoi’s son leading the Congress campaign, and in West Bengal by Mamata Banerjee’s promotion of her nephew, Abhishek. In Tamil Nadu, Vijay was aided by Stalin’s elevation of his son, Udhayanidhi, in Kerala the Congress by Vijayan’s promotion of his son-in-law. Of course, there were many other factors at work, but this was certainly one of them.

These criticisms of the Congress’s First Family are far from being an endorsement of the current regime. In numerous articles written since the Modi government came to power in 2014, I have documented how it has eviscerated public institutions, cowed the press and the judiciary, undermined democratic processes, brutalised religious minorities, pursued an error-strewn foreign policy, damaged Indian science, promoted crony capitalism, and ravaged our forests, soils, water, and air.

There is no question that the principal architects of this undoing of the Republic since May 2014 are Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and their party, the BJP. Yet it is also now starkly evident that in their pursuit and consolidation of power, Modi and Shah have had, as their (witting or unwitting) accomplices, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and the sycophants who surround them.

I must not end on a despairing note. At the moment, the BJP under Modi looks impregnable. But so did Viktor Orbán and Fidesz in Hungary, and yet they were spectacularly unseated by the hitherto unknown Péter Magyar and his new Tisza Party. For two years prior to the election, Magyar travelled the country tirelessly, going to small towns and even villages to make his case against the authoritarian who had run and ruined Hungary. Magyar worked assiduously to build an Opposition alliance of all parties, Left, liberal, and Centre-Right. That he was a fresh face, untainted by corruption or dynastic privilege, and worked so hard were all inestimable assets.

As a Hungarian editor quoted in the Financial Times said about Magyar: “He is incredibly driven. Others have the tools, but he went in and did all the legwork.” This, alas, is not what anyone can say about Rahul or Priyanka Gandhi.

It is quite possible that the air of indestructibility that currently envelops Modi’s BJP will unravel in the years ahead. The public educational sector is in a mess; the NEET scandal is symptomatic here. The costs of the Union government’s economic mismanagement are now starkly apparent, manifest in the precipitous fall of the rupee, the flight of capital, and the failure to generate jobs. In the run-up to the 2029 general election, more Hindus may come to recognise that hatred of Muslims cannot really compensate for a higher cost of living, the lack of dignified employment, or the prospect of an uncertain future for their children.

Indeed, the growing popularity of political satire, as in the success of the memes of the Cockroach Janta Party, suggests that many young Indians have begun to see through the lies and propaganda of the ruling party. (The BJP knows this, hence the desperate attempt to shut down the CJP’s avenues for expression.) As and when this disenchantment deepens, who will shape it into an effective political challenge? Which leader, or leaders, can inspire voters nationwide by taking apart the failures of the current government and presenting a constructive programme for economic and social renewal? Based on their past record it seems altogether unlikely that this can be either or both of the Gandhi siblings.

This article was first published in The Telegraph.

Ramachandra Guha’s latest book, Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism, is now in stores. His email address is ramachandraguha@yahoo.in.

Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee was attacked during a visit to Sonarpur in West Bengal on Saturday, where he had gone to meet the family of a party worker allegedly killed in post-poll violence.

A mob threw eggs and stones at Abhishek Banerjee and shouted slogans of “chor, chor” or “thief, thief”, the Hindustan Times reported. Videos shared on social media showed the TMC leader – wearing a helmet – being assaulted.

The TMC alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party workers were behind the attack.

In a social media post, former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “Rulers became killers – shame on you BJP”.

RULERS BECAME KILLERS- shame on you BJP https://t.co/DHNsnDAc9a

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 30, 2026

Abhishek Banerjee, who had gone to Sonarpur to meet the family of Sanju Karmakar, a TMC worker allegedly killed in post-poll clashes, also alleged that the attackers wanted to kill him.

“Let them kill me,” the Hindustan Times quoted Abhishek Banerjee as saying. “Let my dead body be recovered from here. But I won’t quit and abandon Karmakar’s parents.”

After spending more than 90 minutes at Karmakar’s residence, Abhishek Banerjee was escorted out by personnel from the central forces and officers from the Sonarpur police station, the Telegraph reported.

Abhishek Banerjee also alleged that there were not enough police personnel at the site. “I would draw Calcutta High Court and the governor’s attention on the absence of police personnel,” the Hindustan Times quoted him as saying. “I would move the High Court.”

State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said that the local police should take action in the matter.

“The BJP does not engage in such kind of politics,” The Telegraph quoted Bhattacharya as saying. “Police should take action…People of Bengal have voted for a change against this politics of violence.”

The BJP won the West Bengal elections on May 4, ending the TMC’s 15-year tenure in the state.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the “deliberate lack of adequate police protection for a prominent Opposition leader speaks volumes about the BJP’s politics of vendetta and persecution”, the newspaper reported.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav claimed that the absence of police arrangements pointed to a “major conspiracy” under the “anarchic BJP government in Bengal”, The Telegraph reported.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority has directed Aaj Tak to edit or suitably modify portions of a programme hosted by journalist Sudhir Chaudhary that discussed claims that the Taj Mahal was once a Hindu temple, Bar and Bench reported on Saturday.

The authority noted that the broadcast did not meet standards of neutrality and impartiality under its code of conduct.

In an order issued on Thursday, the authority’s Chairperson Justice AK Sikri observed that “while the broadcaster had relied on the Archaeological Survey of India’s report when covering claims about the Qutub Minar, it omitted similar official records when reporting on the Taj Mahal”, Bar and Bench reported.

The order was passed on an application that had challenged a decision of the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority from December that had found no breach of its code of conduct in the programme.

The petition alleged that the episode of “Black and White” aired on November 29, 2024 promoted a one-sided narrative about the destruction of Hindu temples by Muslim rulers.

It also argued that the broadcast amplified the widely discredited claim that the Taj Mahal was originally a Hindu temple despite the Archaeological Survey of India having rejected such assertions, Bar and Bench reported.

TV Today Network Limited, which owns Aaj Tak, defended the broadcast, describing it as a documentary-style presentation that compiled claims from books, reports and third party sources.

In its order from December 23, the authority had noted that the broadcast was framed as a historical account and that the anchor had relied on published material, including Archaeological Survey of India reports to support the narrative presented.

However, upon review, the authority drew a distinction between presenting historical claims and doing so in a manner consistent with standards of neutrality and accuracy.

It noted that the broadcaster had cited official records in some segments but omitted similar records while discussing the Taj Mahal.

The authority limited its intervention to the Taj Mahal segment and did not revisit other allegations raised in the complaint, including claims relating to the programme’s communal tone, the omission of legal context such as 1991 Places of Worship Special Provisions Act, among others.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar was elected leader of the legislature party on Saturday and will be the state’s next chief minister.

Outgoing chief minister Siddaramaiah proposed Shivakumar’s name as the new leader of the legislature party at a meeting held at the Vidhan Soudha, ANI quoted Congress leader KC Venugopal as saying.

Shivakumar is expected to be sworn in as chief minister on June 3 at the Glass House of Lok Bhavan in Bengaluru, PTI reported.

#WATCH | Bengaluru, Karnataka: Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal says, "Congress high command suggested the name of DK Shivakumar as the leader of Congress Legislative Party. Siddaramaiah ji proposed the name of DK Shivakumar as the new leader of the… pic.twitter.com/MPJtk4JZxo

— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2026

Shivakumar served as deputy chief minister in the Siddaramaiah government.

Siddaramaiah resigned as chief minister on Thursday. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot accepted his resignation the following day and dissolved the Council of Ministers.

Siddaramaiah is the longest-serving chief minister of Karnataka with a tenure of more than eight years across two terms. The 78-year-old served as the chief minister between 2013 and 2018. His most recent term had begun in May 2023.

Speculation about a leadership change in Karnataka had resurfaced after the Congress government completed half of its five-year term in November.

After the Congress defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Assembly elections in May 2023, reports claimed there had been a competition between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar for the chief minister’s post.

At the time, some reports claimed that a compromise had been reached based on a “rotational chief minister formula”, under which Shivakumar would take over the post after two and a half years.

The Congress never confirmed that there had been such an agreement. In July, Siddaramaiah said that he would remain in office for the full five-year term.

In April, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said there would be no change in Karnataka “for now”.

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were in Delhi on Tuesday for meetings with the Congress’ central leadership.

On Thursday, Siddaramaiah said that he was following the Congress leadership’s decision asking him to step down. “I am making way for a new chief minister,” he said.

Siddaramaiah also said that the Congress leadership had offered him a Rajya Sabha seat but he “politely told them no, saying I want to remain in state politics”.

“I am not interested in national politics,” he had told reporters. “I have two more years as an MLA, I will serve my people. I will continue in active politics.”

The next Assembly elections in Karnataka are expected to be held in May 2028.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

After technical disruptions delayed the conduct of the Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate on Saturday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “completely ruining the entire education system”.

Earlier in the day, the National Testing Agency, which conducts the exam for admissions into undergraduate programmes in central universities, said that a technical glitch had been reported at some centres during the CUET-UG 2026.

In a post on social media, the agency attributed the disruption to a technical issue at Tata Consultancy Services, which manages the exam infrastructure. “The issue has since been resolved, and the exam is being conducted with full compensatory time so that no candidate is disadvantaged,” it said.

The National Testing Agency added that candidates who completed their biometric registration and were present at the examination centres on Saturday but could not finish their examination due to the technical glitch will get an opportunity to retake the examination. The agency said it would provide the details of the re-examination later.

The incident came amid allegations of irregularities in the 2026 undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical college seats, the Class 12 exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Staff Selection Commission test for government posts.

Gandhi alleged that no exam had been conducted with honesty.

“NEET. CBSE. SSC. And today CUET. Four exams. One crore children,” the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said. “The generation whose future you [Modi] are destroying – that same generation will hold you accountable.”

NEET। CBSE। SSC। और आज CUET।

चार परीक्षाएँ। एक करोड़ बच्चे। एक भी ईमानदारी से नहीं हो पाई।

दावे "विश्वगुरु" के, मगर देश में एक परीक्षा नहीं करवा सकते - मोदी जी ने पूरी शिक्षा व्यवस्था तबाह कर दी है।

जिस पीढ़ी का भविष्य आप बर्बाद कर रहे हैं - वही पीढ़ी आपका हिसाब करेगी।

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 30, 2026

The Aam Aadmi Party also shared a video of students purportedly standing outside the gate of an exam centre for the CUET-UG 2026.

“Today, millions of students were forced to stand for hours in the scorching sun during the CUET exam because the server itself went down,” it said in a post. “This is the state of affairs under Modi rule – they can’t even conduct a single paper properly…”

The AAP added: “The Modi government can’t manage the education system, and after every failure, it starts a new drama.”

आज CUET परीक्षा में लाखों छात्र घंटों धूप में खड़े रहने को मजबूर रहे क्योंकि सर्वर ही डाउन हो गया।

ये तो व्यवस्था है मोदी राज में, एक पेपर तक ठीक से नहीं करवा सकते, कभी सर्वर डाउन, कभी पेपर लीक और फिर नौटंकी करते हैं NEET का पेपर एयरफोर्स के जहाज में लाएंगे।

मोदी सरकार शिक्षा… pic.twitter.com/ngBflYjcKn

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) May 30, 2026

Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi also criticised Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and shared a notice put up outside one of the exam centres on the delay.

“First NEET, then CBSE, now CUET…,” the former Delhi Chief Minister said. “Today CUET has been delayed due to a ‘technical issue’. Lakhs of students were to take the exam in all parts of India today and after waiting for hours, such notices have been put up outside all centres. Remarkable incompetence Dharmendra Pradhan.”

First NEET, then CBSE, now CUET…

Today CUET has been delayed due to a ‘technical issue’. Lakhs of students were to take the exam in all parts of India today and after waiting for hours, such notices have been put up outside all centres.

Remarkable incompetence @dpradhanbjp! pic.twitter.com/zVTtdmR6zb

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) May 30, 2026

Irregularities in NEET, CBSE and SSC

On May 12, the National Testing Agency, which conducts NEET-UG for admission to undergraduate medical courses in India, cancelled the test for this year following allegations of a paper leak.

More than 22 lakh candidates had appeared for the test that was conducted on May 3.

The test had to be cancelled after the Rajasthan Special Operations Group began investigating allegations that a “guess paper” circulated before the examination contained questions closely matching the actual paper.

The “guess paper” contained around 410 questions, of which about 120 matched the questions asked in the chemistry section, according to the Rajasthan Police. The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a first information report in the matter based on a complaint by the Union education ministry.

On May 15, the National Testing Agency said that the re-exam for the 2026 NEET-UG would be held on June 21. On the same day, the Union education minister said that the exam would be computer-based from next year.

A day later, the Union education ministry said that the CBI had arrested a Pune-based botany teacher in connection with the alleged paper leak. Nine persons have been arrested in the case so far.

A batch of petitions is also being heard in the Supreme Court on the alleged paper leak.

Separately, the CBSE’s On-Screen Marking evaluation process for evaluating Class 12 answer sheets had come under criticism in the past two weeks following complaints about alleged glitches and irregularities during the evaluation process.

Many students had alleged that the scanned copies of answer sheets uploaded by the CBSE did not match their handwriting, raising concerns about possible answer sheet mismatches, the Hindustan Times reported.

Students seeking re-evaluation also alleged that they faced portal failures, delays in payment confirmation and, in some cases, were asked to pay excess fees because of technical glitches.

On Thursday, Pradhan said that the Union government acknowledged discrepancies in the OSM system and accepted responsibility for them. The minister added that strict action would be taken against anyone found to be “intentionally responsible” for irregularities in the evaluation process.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Staff Selection Commission (Central Region) on May 26 cancelled the 2026 Constable (General Duty) Examination at several centres in the state amid protests by candidates over alleged “technical disruptions”, The Indian Express reported.

The Staff Selection Commission on social media said that the technical disruptions were reported at one centre each in Kanpur, Prayagraj, Lucknow and Muzaffarpur during the afternoon shift on May 25.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

Twenty-two police officers and Maharashtra Excise Department personnel have been suspended for failing to curb the alleged illegal supply of spurious liquor that killed 14 persons, PTI reported on Saturday.

So far, eight persons have been arrested in connection with the deaths that took place across Pimpri-Chinchwad and Pune over the past two days. One of the persons arrested was identified as Yogesh Wankhede, a resident who allegedly brewed and supplied the alcohol.

Of the 14 persons killed, 10 died in the Phugewadi area of Pimpri Chinchwad, while four others in Pandhare Mala in Pune’s Hadapsar. Five men are also undergoing treatment at a hospital in Pimpri Chinchwad, PTI reported.

Following the incident, an order issued by the Pune Police Commissionerate said that Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Mogale at the Hadapsar police station, Assistant Police Inspector Hasina Sikalgar and Sub-Inspector Hasan Mulani have been suspended in the case.

Six personnel from the Pimpri Chinchwad Police, including a senior inspector, a sub-inspector and four constables, have also been suspended, PTI quoted an unidentified officer as saying.

Superintendent Atul Kanade told the news agency that the state excise department also placed 13 personnel under suspension.

On Friday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the police and the state excise department were investigating the “entire ecosystem” behind the incident.

He said that the substance involved in the case appeared to be “something like methanol” but added that the police would provide more details after the investigation is completed.

Methanol is a toxic industrial alcohol that can cause illness, blindness or death if consumed.

Several victims had reported similar symptoms before their deaths, including dizziness, uneasiness, frothing at the mouth, breathing difficulties and a sudden drop in heart rate.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Rajasthan government to pay Rs 11 lakh in compensation to a convict who remained in prison for 24 days despite an order issued by the High Court directing his release on parole, Bar and Bench reported.

The state cannot continue depriving a person of liberty merely because officials are considering whether they should challenge a judicial order granting parole or not, a bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and AG Masih said.

“The liberty of an individual is not a trivial matter,” the legal news portal quoted the judges as saying.

It also noted that a judicial order directing the release of a person should be complied with unless it is stayed by a superior court, adding that their rights do not diminish merely because they are serving a sentence.

While awarding the convict Rs 11 lakh as compensation for the violation of his personal liberty, the Supreme Court also said that his continued incarceration amounted to illegal detention and entitled him to compensation.

The case

The case pertained to a man named Daudayal who had been convicted by a trial court in 1988 and sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment in connection with a crime in 1967 in Rajasthan, Bar and Bench reported.

He had been accused of unlawful assembly, house trespass and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. In 2021, the Rajasthan High Court upheld his conviction and sentence, after which he was taken into custody to serve the sentence.

However, Daudayal applied for permanent parole in December 2023 while serving his sentence, Live Law reported. This request was rejected by the prison authorities in January 2024.

He subsequently moved the High Court, which on November 5, 2024, directed his release on parole after furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties of Rs 50,000 each.

But Daudayal was not released despite fulfilling the conditions. He then approached a division bench of the High Court, which ordered his immediate release on December 6, 2024, the legal news portal reported.

Soon after, Daudayal moved the Supreme Court seeking compensation for the time he was forced to remain in jail despite a parole order in his favour, Bar and Bench reported.

He submitted that there was no legal basis for keeping him in prison for 24 days after his sureties were verified, contending that the continued detention violated his right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution and entitled him to compensation.

On the other hand, the state government contended that the High Court order was contrary to the 1958 Rajasthan Prisoners Release on Parole Rules. The delay in releasing Daudayal occurred because the authorities were considering whether to challenge the order, it added.

Edited by Leah Thomas.