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Morning Wrap: Opposition 'Lying' About Land Bill, Says Modi; Mob Vandalizes 140-Year-Old Cathedral

Morning Wrap: Opposition 'Lying' About Land Bill, Says Modi; Mob Vandalizes 140-Year-Old Cathedral
A christian couple poses for a photograph outside a church in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday that he was
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A christian couple poses for a photograph outside a church in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday that he was

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.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the 'Mann Ki Baat' radio programme on Sunday to accuse the Congress of 'lying' on the clauses of the contentious land-acquisition bill.

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first prime minister and architect of the Southeast Asian city-state's rapid rise from British tropical outpost to global trade and financial centre, died on Monday, aged 91. Although Mr. Lee had receded from the public and political scene over the past few years, he was still influential in the government of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, his oldest son.

The Indian government will study 100,000 infants to evaluate a home-grown vaccine against rotavirus gastroenteritis, released this month, amid concerns raised by a senior paediatrician that it could cause a serious intestinal disorder.

A mob, allegedly led by Sangh Parivar-offshoots, vandalised a 140-year-old cathedral in Jabalpur city on Friday night alleging that religious conversions were taking place.

A study finds that though the industrial sector is generally perceived to be the apex source of pollution, it might actually be residential homes that are responsible for the highest emission of greenhouse gases.

In a moment of solidarity, Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis unitedly dismissed a proposal by the Wildlife Institute of India's recommendations to build flyovers and underpasses, to allow movement of animals across NH-7 in the Pench-Kanha tiger forest landscape, as "impractical and un-executable".

Infosys plans to allocate a quarter of its $500-million (about Rs 3,000 crore) fund to invest in startups in Silicon Valley, Israel and India along with venture capital firms.

Essential HuffPost

Former Karnataka chief minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy released an audio clipping that he alleges is a threat call made by an elected representative of Kolar to a subordinate of DK Ravi, the IAS officer found dead last Monday. Ravi was posted at deputy commissioner in Kolar before his transfer to Bangalore.

Ujjwal Nikam, the public prosecutor for 26/11 Mumbai terror attack-accused Ajmal Kasab's, said he lied about the terrorist's demand for mutton biryani in jail. He said he made that up to squelch a perceived sympathy wave.

Bollywood star Deepika Padukone gave an exclusive interview to NDTV where, for the first time, she spoke in detail about her battle with depression and earning wide acclaim across social media for aiding much-needed understanding of the ailment.

Based on the 'Auto-complete' feature that fills in suggestions based on what people type into Google search engines, a Reddit article maps the most prevalent impressions that Google users have about various Indian states.

Off The Front Page

Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) committed a major faux pas on Sunday when it passed off doctored photographs of US Army personnel as those of Indian Army soldiers in its hoardings commemorating Martyrs Day across the city.

The mystery behind how jail-inmates in Tihar, one of the most prominent jails in the country, manage to access cellphones to run extortion rackets appears solved. Relatives or acquaintances of inmates simply wrap the phones in plastic bags and lodge it over the jail walls.

Thick black smoke billowed above the red sandstone boundary wall of India's Parliament, which was fortunately not in session, on account of a carelessly-managed air conditioning subsystem.

The polarizing Nobel Laureate V S Naipaul, who's retired from writing on account of his ill-health, wrote a rare article condemning the Islamic State and declaring that "Isis (the Islamic State) could very credibly abandon the label of Caliphate and call itself the Fourth Reich."

Performance data culled by PRS Legislative Research, an organisation that tracks the performance of India's Parliament, shows that Pappu Yadav, once convicted of murder, is now among the best performing Members of Parliament.

Opinion

Hasan Suroor, in The Hindu, warns that the survival of Islam as a religion fit for the 21st century hinges on the "liberal worldview gaining ground among Muslims."

Gwynne Dwyer in The Telegraph says that Russian President Putin's sudden disappearance and the rumours it sparked shows that vestiges of the days of Cold War-era intrigue still remain.

The inability of the state apparatus to bring to trial the policemen accused in the Hashimpura massacres only underlines, according to Sameer Arshad in The Times of India, the continued inability of state administrations, whether in Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh, to provide justice to wronged minority communities.

Manu Joseph in The Hindustan Times reflects on an alternative world where early-morning risers outshine night-owls.

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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.