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The Morning Wrap: 2 AAP Members Booked For Abetment Of Suicide; Doordarshan Still Owes Money For 'Buniyaad'

Our selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers.
A still from the series 'Buniyaad'.
Indian TV Show/YouTube
A still from the series 'Buniyaad'.

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

The appointment of Harvard economist Gita Gopinath as the financial advisor to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stirred quite a political controversy in the Left-ruled state. Because Gopinath is being seen as an advocate of "neo-liberal policies" by many Left leaders and supporters, and that's a 180-degree departure from the usual economic and political line of the CPI(M)-led government in Kerala.

Ace diplomat Arundhati Ghose, who was India's ambassador to the United Nations passed away on Monday. The news of her death was reported by her niece, journalist Sagarika Ghose on Twitter. Ghose was also the first Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Offices in Geneva. But it was in her role as the head of India's delegation to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty conference in Geneva in 1996 that she came into the limelight.

A young Muslim writer was allegedly beaten up by four men in Kerala on Sunday night for using a controversial title for his upcoming book. P Jimshar, 26, is the author of a collection of nine short stories titled Padachonte Chithrapradarshanam, which translates as A Painting Exhibition by the Creator. The word 'padachon', or creator in Malayalam, was taken to be a reference to God by the attackers.

Main News

Two knife-wielding men who killed an elderly priest during a hostage situation at a church in France on Tuesday claimed allegiance to ISIS. Armed men took several people hostage at the Church of the Gambetta in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. They both died after being shot by police.

After wrestler Narsingh Yadav failed the dope test two days ago, the Wrestling Federation of India on Tuesday announced Praveen Rana as the replacement participant for the Rio Olympics in the 74kg freestyle category. Freestyle wrestler Rana had earlier won a gold medal in the 74kg category at the Dave Schultz Memorial wrestling tournament in USA in 2014.

Aam Aadmi Party Rajesh Rishi and a woman party volunteer have been booked for abetment to suicide and extortion after a Delhi resident accused the two of harassing her. On the other hand, an AAP volunteer has accused the victim's husband of raping her and has filed a cross FIR.

Off The Front Page

Doordarshan television series Buniyaad that dealt with the aftermath of Partition was first aired in 1986, and has seen over six reruns on the channel. But according to director Ramesh Sippy, DD had not him any money for the series. Channel officials said that there was some confusion over details of the transaction and so fresh arbitration with Sippy had started a few years ago, but a solution has not yet been reached.

While the Indian government is attempting to get back the Kohinoor diamond, Britain has yet again declared that there's no legal ground for the restitution in the case. The Narendra Modi government had told Supreme Court in April 2016 that the diamond could not be described as stolen as it was gifted to the British by Duleep Singh, the son of legendary Sikh king Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

After weeks of unrest in Kashmir, nine people received pellet injuries again in fresh clashes between security forces and protestors, right after the curfew was lifted in the valley. Telephone, internet and train services remained suspended for the 18th day, while educational institutions were closed too.

Opinion

The issue of the syllabus at Indian universities is merely a red herring, but the problems lie elsewhere, writes Shobhit Mahajan in The Indian Express. "The system of assessment has a profound impact on uptake of the subject by the students. Most universities, including Delhi University, have a year (or semester) end examination without any meaningful continuous assessment. What is worse, this assessment does not test any genuine understanding of the subject. This then has a feedback effect on the attitude of the students," he writes.

The lack of quality policy thinkers is an acute problem in the state capitals, states an editorial in Mint. "India needs a new generation of policy economists to replace an older generation whose greatest achievement was the first generation of economic reforms. The government saw several lateral entries into economic policymaking since the 1970s — Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Bimal Jalan, Rakesh Mohan, Vijay Kelkar, C Rangarajan, Arvind Virmani, Shankar Acharya and many others. Then there were professional civil servants such as YV Reddy, D Subbarao and NK Singh as well. Most of them were trained abroad, but at least part of their impact was due to the fact that they stayed within the system for a couple of decades, thus helping them win the war of attrition," it says.

World Championship bronze medallist, wrestler Narsingh Yadav, has shaken the Indian sporting community by testing positive for a banned steroid, says an editorial in The Hindu. "The claims of 'sabotage' and 'conspiracy' have turned the waters murky. Narsingh's room-mate Sandeep Yadav also returning a positive for methandienone, and Narsingh's clean track record for over a decade are being cited in his defence. The merits of these claims are best left to the disciplinary panel to judge. But the incident has once again brought to the fore India's rather lackadaisical approach towards keeping sport clean. It seems the country has forever been playing catch-up in bringing transparency in anti-doping measures. India wasn't even a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code until December 2004," it 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.