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The Morning Wrap: India Asks Its Diplomats To Move Kids From Pakistan Schools; 'Sherlock' Season 4 Trailer Released

Our selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers.
Pakistani policemen outside the Indian embassy in Islamabad.
AFP/Getty Images
Pakistani policemen outside the Indian embassy in Islamabad.

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

Ex-Rajya Sabha MP Navjot Singh Sidhu said he quit the upper house of the Parliament because the BJP had asked him to not get involved in Punjab elections, which is expected to take place next year. Even though Sidhu did not say if he had quit BJP, or was planning to join the Aam Aadmi Party, or had any plans to campaign as chief ministerial candidate in Punjab, he said no political party was greater or more important than Punjab, for him.

A new draft on the National Health Policy was introduced by the Union government as a stepping stone towards an ambitious goal: universal healthcare coverage through the institution of Right to Health as a fundamental right of every citizen of India. No doubt, there is an urgent need for such a policy, but the government must overcome a couple of obstacles before getting any closer to achieving its aims. It could, for instance, use a reality check, and also develop a sense of irony, before going ahead with its audacious plans.

Be it Bollywood actor Salman Khan's acquittal in the blackbuck hunting case or murder-accused Indirani Mukerjea's driver turning approver, such high-profile cases involving India's rich and famous seem to always revolve around the help — often the driver. "There is always a driver who is key to cracking the case. There is always a driver who can take the blame. There is always a driver who can conveniently vanish as a case winds its way laboriously through the system," writes Sandip Roy.

Main News

19 people were feared dead and 45 injured after an attack by a knife-wielding man at a facility for the disabled in Japan early on Tuesday. Police have reportedly arrested Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year old former employee at the facility.

As tension simmers between India and Pakistan over recent developments in Kashmir, India has asked its diplomats and other officials to withdraw their kids from local schools in Islamabad. Reports say that Indian officials have been advised to either send their kids back to India or return themselves.

Aimed at curbing call drops, 48,000 new telecom sites have been set up across the country by various operators as part of a 100-day plan which they committed to the government earlier.

Off The Front Page

The trailer for the season four of BBC series Sherlock was released at the San Diego Comic-Con recently. The minute-and-a-half trailer shows both cast and screenwriters on as good a form as ever, with the team returned to modern day challenges after their diversion into Victorian times in the previous special. The trailer reveals Toby Jones' first appearance as a 'very bad' villain for Holmes to deal with, plus a tantalising glimpse of Moriarty, whose death even Sherlock doesn't seem too convinced by. The team also revealed three tantalising words for fans to chew on in the months before the show airs, reportedly New Year 2017. The words this time around are 'THATCHER', 'SMITH' and 'SHERRINFORD'.

With over 1,91,069 miles already covered, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his way to become India's most-travelled PM ever, if he continues with the trend till the end of his tenure (May 2019). The PM no doubt cuts an impressive figure abroad, establishing a close rapport with foreign heads of states, especially US President Barack Obama.

Apple is ready to set up its design and development in Bengaluru, Karnataka at a site near the airport. Rivals such as Google and Microsoft already have their facilities in the area. Through the proposed centre, Apple hopes to encourage more developers to build applications for its iPhone, a strategy for it to justify the high sticker prices for its devices. Globally, such apps are considered of gold standard because of the customers' ability to pay more.

Opinion

The BJP has suffered early setbacks in its pursuit of Dalit support in Uttar Pradesh, says an editorial in Mint. "The BJP, which fancies its chances, has faced early reverses. Three Dalit issues rocked Parliament in the first week of the monsoon session and all have gone against the BJP. Two of them—the flogging of Dalits by a cow-protection vigilante group in Una and the demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan in Mumbai—did not take place in UP, but they will nonetheless be used by the BJP's rivals in the state. And to top it all, the BJP vice-president in UP, Dayashankar Singh, had to be expelled from the party for comparing Mayawati, national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the former chief minister of UP, to a prostitute," it says.

Saturday's twin blasts in Kabul, in which at least 80 people died and over 260 were injured, is a clear escalation of the Afghan conflict by the Islamic State, says an editorial in The Hindu. "Over the past two years, the IS has built some presence in eastern Afghanistan, operating largely from the chaotic Nangarhar province. But by carrying out one of the worst mass attacks in Kabul in 15 years, it has flaunted its growing footprint. It has sent a message that it is now a force to reckon with in Afghanistan. In turn, the attack once again exposes the chinks in the country's security armour," it says.

SH Raza was the last of Progressive Artists' Group titans; now only the Bindu remains, writes Yashodhara Dalmia in The Indian Express. "His work attracted attention and he was soon to become a member of the newly formed Progressive Artists' Group which had artists like FN Souza, MF Husain, KH Ara, HA Gade and SK Bakre. The group was critical of the effete revivalism of the Bengal School and the academic styles taught in art colleges and squarely took historical reality into account in their art. In course of time, they would not only be centre stage on the art mainstream in India but also act as an exemplar of an emergent non Euro-American modernism," she says.

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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.