Above the fold: Top stories of the day
1.German Chancellor Angela Merkel will land in Bangalore today.
2. Shashank Manohar, newly elected president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, vows to fight corruption in the ranks.
3. Most of the black money is in India, says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
4. Former Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat's anticipatory bail plea in the Louis Berger case is to come up for hearing today.
The Big Story: Politicising Dadri
On Sunday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called the Dadri lynching "unfortunate" but warned that it should not be "politicised". Earlier, his party colleague, Mahesh Sharma, had said the killing was an accident and should not be given a "communal twist".
Except it is political and it is communal when Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sangeet Som, also accused of making inflammatory speeches during the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, goes to Dadri and says if "innocents are framed, we will give a fitting reply". When a former BJP MLA says the victims brought it upon themselves. When eight of the 11 people arrested for the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq belong to the family of a local BJP member, Sanjay Rana. When other local party leaders announce their intention to hold a mahapanchayat to urge leniency for the accused. When every other BJP member brings up cow slaughter, beef-eating, gau mata, they are invoking the beliefs and customs of one community, pitted so tragically against those of another.
The Narendra Modi government would perhaps like to maintain the fiction that the Dadri lynching was an isolated incident, the result of a sudden moment's rage, that the identity of the attackers and the victims had nothing to do with the violence and the death of Mohammad Akhlaq is only a personal loss for his family. But the party's own actions have betrayed it. In the aftermath of the incident, the familiar battle lines have been drawn, with the BJP ranged against the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party. To those outside the Akhlaq family circle, the saddest part of the Dadri lynching is that it was not an accident.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the big story of the day
Jyoti Punwani writes that the Dadri lynching shows Muslims in India live at the mercy of Hindus.
Supriya Sharma on how the politicisation of meat drove the violence that killed Mohammad Akhlaq.
Ajaz Ashraf comments on Bharatiya Janata Party MP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Tarun Vijay's article on the lynching, saying it marks the death of the moral Indian.
Politicking and policying
1. As Catholic groups oppose the staging of the play, Agnes of God, the director says he won't back down.
2. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he would move to ban the Sanatan Sanstha if there was sufficient proof against it.
3. Don't push Nepalis to the wall, Nepal ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay warned on Sunday.
4. After reports of violence in West Bengal civic polls, the state election commission postpones vote counting.
Punditry
1. In the Hindu, Amit Prakash writes that Digital India won't help unless it is integrated with the larger matrix of structural and institutional reforms.
2. In the Economic Times, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay writes that Arvind Kejriwal lacks a strategy outside Delhi.
3. The average Delhi citizen lives in conditions unfit for humans and the Central Pollution Control Board either has its facts wrong or is lying to the public, write Siddharth Johar and Armin Rosencranz in the Hindu.
Don't Miss...
Natalie Lawrence on why societies need "monsters" such as the killer of Cecil the lion:
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1.German Chancellor Angela Merkel will land in Bangalore today.
2. Shashank Manohar, newly elected president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, vows to fight corruption in the ranks.
3. Most of the black money is in India, says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
4. Former Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat's anticipatory bail plea in the Louis Berger case is to come up for hearing today.
The Big Story: Politicising Dadri
On Sunday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh called the Dadri lynching "unfortunate" but warned that it should not be "politicised". Earlier, his party colleague, Mahesh Sharma, had said the killing was an accident and should not be given a "communal twist".
Except it is political and it is communal when Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sangeet Som, also accused of making inflammatory speeches during the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, goes to Dadri and says if "innocents are framed, we will give a fitting reply". When a former BJP MLA says the victims brought it upon themselves. When eight of the 11 people arrested for the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq belong to the family of a local BJP member, Sanjay Rana. When other local party leaders announce their intention to hold a mahapanchayat to urge leniency for the accused. When every other BJP member brings up cow slaughter, beef-eating, gau mata, they are invoking the beliefs and customs of one community, pitted so tragically against those of another.
The Narendra Modi government would perhaps like to maintain the fiction that the Dadri lynching was an isolated incident, the result of a sudden moment's rage, that the identity of the attackers and the victims had nothing to do with the violence and the death of Mohammad Akhlaq is only a personal loss for his family. But the party's own actions have betrayed it. In the aftermath of the incident, the familiar battle lines have been drawn, with the BJP ranged against the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party. To those outside the Akhlaq family circle, the saddest part of the Dadri lynching is that it was not an accident.
The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the big story of the day
Jyoti Punwani writes that the Dadri lynching shows Muslims in India live at the mercy of Hindus.
Supriya Sharma on how the politicisation of meat drove the violence that killed Mohammad Akhlaq.
Ajaz Ashraf comments on Bharatiya Janata Party MP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Tarun Vijay's article on the lynching, saying it marks the death of the moral Indian.
Politicking and policying
1. As Catholic groups oppose the staging of the play, Agnes of God, the director says he won't back down.
2. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he would move to ban the Sanatan Sanstha if there was sufficient proof against it.
3. Don't push Nepalis to the wall, Nepal ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay warned on Sunday.
4. After reports of violence in West Bengal civic polls, the state election commission postpones vote counting.
Punditry
1. In the Hindu, Amit Prakash writes that Digital India won't help unless it is integrated with the larger matrix of structural and institutional reforms.
2. In the Economic Times, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay writes that Arvind Kejriwal lacks a strategy outside Delhi.
3. The average Delhi citizen lives in conditions unfit for humans and the Central Pollution Control Board either has its facts wrong or is lying to the public, write Siddharth Johar and Armin Rosencranz in the Hindu.
Don't Miss...
Natalie Lawrence on why societies need "monsters" such as the killer of Cecil the lion:
"Dr Walter Palmer, who illegally shot Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe, has been labeled a "monster". Given the moniker "The Dentist", he has had to resign from his practice, flee his home, and hire armed guards to protect himself and his family as a result of public disgust at his actions. He has even received death threats and been described as "barely human". Trophy hunting, and anyone who takes part in or has involvement with it, has been similarly vilified in the media and by animal rights groups.
Such public "monsters" serve a similar role to gothic monsters, images that embody the cultural or psychological characteristics that we as a society find difficult to acknowledge. By excising them, through fantasies of execution or simply professional exclusion, we rid ourselves of the undesirable attributes they are perceived to carry. The "murdered" lion becomes the innocent white-robed victim of the archetypal gothic tale, while murderous "Dentist" plays the role of social scapegoat.
Until relatively recently in history, monsters close to home, such as deformed babies or two-headed calves, were construed as warnings of divine wrath. Monstrous depictions in newspapers and pamphlets expressed strong political attitudes. The monstrous races or traditional monstrous beasts such as basilisks or unicorns, that were banished to distant regions in maps, represented a frightening unknown: "here be dragons" effectively filled cartographic voids."