As body count due to Delhi riots (some call it pogrom) rise above 45, it is essential to look at the official data related to communal incidents in the country. It is from the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), one gets information about the number of communal incidents in different years, apart from the number of persons injured and killed in those incidents. There is one...

-The Hindu BJP government’s “alarming” policies draw comparisons with Chinese repression India has become one of the world’s least free democracies, according to a global survey, which warned that “the Indian government’s alarming departures from democratic norms under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could blur the values-based distinction between Beijing and New Delhi.” The Freedom in the World 2020 report ranks India at the 83rd position, along with Timor-Leste and...

-The Indian Express Policymakers need to stop thinking about India as a perennially supply-constrained economy focusing almost all policies and reforms to easing these constraints. Instead, it is time to let domestic demand play a greater role in India’s growth story. India’s fourth quarter GDP growth (calendar year 2019) printed another sub-5 per cent growth rate. It would have been lower had it not been for the large downward revisions to previous...

-The Hindu It says the query can be directed to the Election Commission Chandigarh: The Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Haryana does not have records pertaining to proof of citizenship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, his Cabinet colleagues and the Governor. A Panipat-based activist last month sought information on the proof of citizenship of the Chief Minister, all the Ministers in the State Cabinet and the Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya under the Right...

-The Telegraph Experts slam Delhi police response New Delhi: Neutrality, prevention, prompt containment, confidence-building, protection of religious places, accountability of officials and prosecution of rioters — the Amit Shah-headed Union home ministry’s guidelines on tackling communal violence cover it all. But the Delhi police, who report directly to Shah, flouted most of these “Guidelines on Communal Harmony” during last week’s rioting that killed at least 48 people, according to eyewitnesses, security experts including...