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Essential HuffPost
In the three weeks that they spent in jail, JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who were arrested on charges of sedition, said that they learnt many things from the policemen. While some cops lectured them on nationalism, others became their ‘friends’, with one among them gifting the two a paper boat; and another announcing his support for the students since he 'hated' the RSS.
Indian truck driver Abdul Sattar Makandar who last week had uploaded a tearful video of him stuck in Saudi Arabia and of ill-treatment by his employers, has now allegedly been arrested by the by the Saudi police under a law that prohibits 'spreading misinformation' on the internet. A social activist uploaded another video of his wife and four children beseeching the Indian government to help get Makandar back in India.
A viral video clip that showed an allegedly drunk policeman travelling in the Delhi Metro had hit the headlines last year. But despite appearances, it has now been proven that the cop was not drunk, but that he suffered a stroke, which is why he fell down in the Delhi Metro. The constable has now approached the Supreme Court seeking compensation for the media vilification that “irreparably maligned his image in the eyes of the public."
Actor Randeep Hooda, who lost over 18 kilos in a month for his upcoming film Sarabjit, talked about the gruelling process of his weight loss. From dreaming about paranthas with butter, to feeling so low that he couldn't even walk properly, Hooda also shared how a single drink on New Year's eve during his extreme diet made him dizzy.
Main News
Accusing his opponents of “spreading lies” against government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday called himself a 'bhakt' of BR Ambedkar and asserted that the reservation policy for Dalits and tribals will not be diluted even if Ambedkar himself were to come back to life and demand its revocation.
After India’s match against Pakistan was moved away from Dharamsala, Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla finds its World Cup semi-final fixture in trouble after a court refused to intervene in a matter concerning the use of an important part of the stadium. Media reports suggested that Bengaluru is being considered as an alternate venue for the semifinal match to be held on 30 March.
Nephew of AAP leader and tribal rights activist Soni Sori's has sought the President's intervention in alleged police atrocities against tribals in Chhattisgarh on pretext of anti-Maoist operations.
Apple announced the launch of its 4-inch iPhone SE which is set to be available in India in April, for ₹39,000, according to media reports.
Off The Front Page
Son of Ganderbal’s Saloora village, who had crossed over to Pakistan in the 1990s for alleged arms training. He came back to India last Thursday with his family and was booked under under Section 13 of the unlawful activities act and Section 2/3 of the ingress and internal movement control ordinance. But there's only one problem. His four-year-old son is refusing to leave him, and insisting on staying in jail, despite his family's pleas.
Kapoor & Sons actress Alia Bhatt was recently moved to tears when her grandparents surprised her with a unique birthday gift. Her grandfather played the violin and her grandmother played the mouthorgan, and they performed a lovely rendition of the 'Happy birthday' song for Bhatt.
19-year-old girl from Mumbai slums who also suffers from dyslexia, will now get a chance to play football at the 16th Homeless World Cup in Scotland, thanks to her local parish, who garnered funds together to help her travel.
Opinion
On the opening day of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s two-day national executive meeting on 19 March, president Amit Shah set the tone not just for the deliberations but also for the approaching Assembly elections, says an editorial in The Hindu. "There was a clear tension visible as the BJP sought to balance its development slogan with a return to its time-tested Hindutva line, though now clothed in the national tricolour... The gap between pronouncements by PM Modi and those around him, as well in the wider Sangh Parivar, would suggest that either he is not in control or he believes that this Janus-faced, seemingly contradictory, approach will help him polarise political discourse to the BJP’s advantage even as he retains plausible deniability by remaining above the fray, ready to battle another day," says the article.
I would give an “A” for ambition to PM Narendra Modi for his 2016 Union Budget, writes Kirit Parikh in The Indian Express. "The government’s ability to raise resources for the programmes announced in the Budget will depend on the growth of the economy. If the increased allocations for roads, railways, MGNREGA and irrigation are effectively and quickly spent, they can generate the needed stimulus for growth. To conclude, the budget proposes many good initiatives, which if successfully implemented can have a deep impact on people’s welfare," Parikh writes.
Even as the JNU campus reverberates with the slogans of 'Jai bheem' and 'Lal salaam', not many people know about the Mahad Satyagraha, writes Gauri Lankesh in Mumbai Mirror. "We are taught in schools about Mahatma Gandhi's 'Salt Satyagraha' which took place in 1930. But we are never taught about Ambedkar's 'Mahad Satyagraha', which took place three before," she writes. "Mahad was not an ordinary event. It is one of the first struggles for civil rights in modern times with the only respectable exception of the struggle of the African-Americans. Mahad is a marker of the beginning of the independent Dalit movement, permanently associated with Babasaheb Ambedkar and, hence, occupies emotional space in the Dalit universe."
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