The Latest: Top stories for the day
1. A 19-year-old was shot dead in Bihar after he overtook an SUV in which a Janata Dal (United) politician's son was traveling.
2. Delhi Police has now let off all 10 suspects it had detained after claiming it had busted a major terror strike in connection with the Jaish-e-Mohammad.
3. India is now looking at a complete breakdown in ties with Nepal, with the prime minister there accusing New Delhi of conspiring to topple his government.
The Big Story: Uphill Climb
The fires may have subsided on Uttarakhand's hillsides, but the state is still in crisis mode because it doesn't have a government and any one that does take charge now will be coming with a tainted record. Days ahead of a floor test for Congress leader Harish Rawat's government, a new sting video has emerged which purportedly shows a Congress leader saying he had convinced the former chief minister to pay lakhs of rupees to Congress Members of Legislative Assembly.
This is the second sting operation on Rawat by local news channel Samachar Plus, with the previous one also suggesting that he had used money to bring back rebel MLAs. The stings gain additional relevance because the Uttarakhand High Court will on Monday decide whether nine MLAs who earlier rebelled and were suspended by the speaker will get to vote in Tuesday's floor test. If the MLAs are suspended, it is likely that Rawat will have the numbers to prove a majority and once again be anointed chief minister. If they are allowed to vote, the BJP might be able to snatch the state away from the Congress.
But either way, the government that takes charge will neither be clean, nor representative. Whatever the truth to allegations of horse-trading, it is evident that a classic Indian political farce is playing out. Both parties are attempting to convince MLAs to vote one way or the other, with little thought of policies, political ideology or the needs of their constituents.
The Congress clearly neglected its MLAs in the state, or else this would not have been an issue to begin with. The BJP's greed for power saw it rush to declare President's Rule without following appropriate processes, a mistake that could see it lose the state. Meanwhile the state is still rebuilding after 2013's cloudburst disaster and now reeling from the effects of two arid years and massive forest fires. The people of Uttarakhand don't have much to look forward to, even if they do get a relatively stable government.
The Big ScrollAnita Katyal explains the BJP's game plan in imposing President's Rule in Uttarakhand, and also discusses why this may backfire on the party.
Politicking & Policying
1. Election Watch: Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a swipe at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's freebie branding saying people in the state don't know where their subsidised rice comes from.
2. Election Watch: In Kerala, meanwhile, the Congress has started taking a new tack – insisting that its chief rival is the Bharatiya Janata Party, not the Communists.
3. From January 1, India will have a new emergency servces telephone number: 112.
4. A reply to a question in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly revealed that the government had given Rs 14 crore in ads to what the Indian Express calls "dodgy websites".
5. The Central Reserve Police Force is for the first time going to deploy more than 560 women commandos in Maoist areas.
Punditry
1. Rakesh Sood writes in the Hindu of fresh turmoil in Nepal and what it means for the Indian government.
2. A leader in Mint reminds us that inequality in India is far worse than many believe.
3. Javed Anand in the Indian Express asks us to resist attempts to communalise the Shani Shingnapur and Haji Ali movements to allow women into shrines.
Don't Miss
Supriya Sharma writes of the dry ponds of Bundelkhand, which are slowly turning into the graveyards of dead animals.
"As drought intensifies in Bundelkhand, farmers in the region have been releasing their cattle in the wild. This is an old tradition called anna pratha.
Every year, said farmers, the cattle would come back. But this year, thirsty animals are dying, often just when their search for water ends.
While many ponds in the region have dried up, some have small patches of moist earth. For frail animals, the patches are quicksands, said Ravi Tomar, an activist with the non-profit Parmarth. Their legs get stuck. Unable to extricate themselves, they collapse and die."
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