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The Morning Wrap: Jat Groups Issue Ultimatum; Indian Man Begs For Help Against Cruel Saudi Employers

The Morning Wrap: BJP MLA Flogs Police Horse; Indian Man Begs For Help Against Cruel Saudi Employers
PANIPAT, INDIA - FEBRUARY 22: Army jawans deployed at village Siwah after Jat agitation turned violent on February 22, 2016 in Panipat, India. Jats are agitating for quotas in jobs and want to be counted as a part of Other Backward Classes, a section that has 27% quotas in government jobs. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
PANIPAT, INDIA - FEBRUARY 22: Army jawans deployed at village Siwah after Jat agitation turned violent on February 22, 2016 in Panipat, India. Jats are agitating for quotas in jobs and want to be counted as a part of Other Backward Classes, a section that has 27% quotas in government jobs. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

The Morning Wrap is HuffPost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers. Subscribe here to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.

Essential HuffPost

A BJP MLA on Monday flogged a police horse with a lathi, causing multiple fractures on the animal’s leg during a protest that turned violent. Reportedly, the horse will never be able to stand on it's own feet, and if its condition worsens, the horse's legs may have to be amputated.

In a country where cricket is akin to religion, HuffPost India lists out how social media platforms are planning to enhance a user's experience for this year's T20 World Cup. When India take on New Zealand today, the main stage of the sixth edition of eagerly-awaited series will finally kick off.

Jat organisations in Haryana gave an ultimatum to the government — withdraw the cases registered against members of their community for the recent agitation and approve their reservation under OBC quota — or face another round of protests. According to reports, the protesters submitted memorandums to the respective Deputy Commissioners in each district, giving them a three-day deadline to accept their demands.

With less than a month to go for State Assembly Election in West Bengal, a sting operation showcased key leaders of the Trinamool Congress Party accepting cash for favouring a fictitious company. This sting operation, X Files, includes Mukul Roy, who served as Railways Minister in 2012, Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee, Sultan Ahmed, Saugata Roy, former Urban Development Minister in the Manmohan Singh government, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakkim among others.

Noted Tamil television actor Sai Prashanth allegedly committed suicide at his apartment in Chennai on Sunday. The reason for his drastic step was reportedly depression and loneliness.

Main News

Jawaharlal Nehru University's high level inquiry committee has reportedly recommended the expulsion of five students, including JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar who is out on interim bail, and PhD scholars Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, currently in judicial custody on sedition charges. 21 students are likely to get a show-cause notice as to why action should not be initiated against them.

Chinnasamy, father-in-law of Dalit youth who was hacked to death in broad daylight in a suspected honour killing in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, surrendered before the Judicial Magistrate Court in Nilakottai, Dindigul district on Monday.

The Delhi high court on Monday granted a stay on a government ban on Pfizer's cough syrup Corex. The authorities had prohibited 344 drug combinations last week, stating that they posed potential risk to humans.

Chairman of the Upper House Hamid Ansari on Monday referred Vijay Mallya's tax evasion case to the Ethics Committee of Rajya Sabha. "We have taken cognisance and will proceed according to the rules," said Ethics Committee Chairman Dr Karan Singh. As per Rajya Sabha rules any "change" in assets of the members have to be listed. In case of Mallya, he violated this rule, since he did not inform the house, about change in his circumstances.

Off The Front Page

In a heart-breaking video, a Saudi Arabia-based truck driver is seen desperately beseeching an Indian activist to help him. In the video, Abdul Sattar Makandar says that he has been working in Saudi Arabia for AL Suroor United Group for almost two years, but his employers are not letting him go home. Now things have worsened so far, that he is not even getting his salary or food.

In an adorable gesture, Bollywood actor and mamma's boy Aamir Khan has decided to buy an ancestral palace in the old city area of Varanasi for his mother. The house is important for his family because his mother reportedly grew up there. Called the Khwaza Manzil and owned by Khan's maternal ancestors, the structure is now dilapidated and attracts gamblers and intruders.

Brandon Stanton, the man behind the popular website, Humans of New York, spoke out against Donald Trump on Monday. "Along with millions of Americans, I’ve come to realise that opposing you is no longer a political decision. It is a moral one," Stanton wrote in a powerful open letter, which was posted to the HONY Facebook page and his personal Twitter account.

10-year-old Muslim girl was made to stand outside the her the madrasa in Bharuch, Gujarat on one leg for nine hours. Her mistake? She was allegedly talking in the class. The girl, Sophia Mansuri, has ruptured muscles in her right leg.

Opinion

What would happen if a traveller using a car or a cab could see on her mobile phone when the next bus on a given route would arrive? Would it change his/her preference for the mode of travel? G Ananthakrishnan, in his column in The Hindu writes about how India’s urban mobility options has a notorious blind spot — reliable information. "Persuading commuters to move away from personal vehicles will also depend on other smart moves such as improving the quality of travel. As of 2012 there were about 3,35,000 buses in the ‘transport’ category, which serve India’s cities. Most of these are not designed for comfortable travel and are just outmoded trucks rigged up with seats. ...If Metro trains are of world standard, there is no reason India’s buses cannot match that," he writes.

"Just as India-Pakistan cricket has been a proxy for nationalism, it has also bridged distrust," writes Ronojoy Sen in a column in The Indian Express. The politics around the match began when the International Cricket Council (ICC), in December 2015, released the fixtures of the T20 World Cup tournament. But the other side of the disruptive politics revolving around India's favourite sport is that in the same series that the Sena tried their disruptive tactics, 50,000 spectators gave the winning Pakistani team a standing ovation. In 2004, when India toured Pakistan, then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee saw them off with the memorable message, 'Khel nahi, dil bhi jeetiye', writes Sen.

“The concept of marital rape as understood internationally cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context..." An editorial in The Hindu quotes Maneka Gandhi, arguing that despite the difference between the religious customs, marital rape should be treated as a crime. "Marital rape ought to be a crime and not a concept. The law against domestic violence already covers both physical and sexual abuse as grounds for the legal system to intervene. What's important is that the law must uphold the bodily autonomy of all women, irrespective of their marital status," concludes the article.

Ashok V Desai, in his column in The Telegraph claims that for someone who agrees with neither Jawaharlal Nehruvian students, nor the self-proclaimed nationalists, their views must sound parochial. Explaining that parochial means sharing a belief, not something limited to a region, Desai writes, "Now, an insufficiently educated minister of education wants to foist rituals upon universities; her party confrères want to beat up those adults who do not admire controversial acts of her government. But no prayers, no obeisances to a mythical Mother India can veil their determined, violent efforts to suppress political dissent."

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.