The Big Story: Hindi Chini Bhai bhai?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get a little bit of time with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as India joins as a full-time member of the Chinese-dominated Central Asian grouping. Modi is expected to use this time to convince Jinping to support India's application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an international forum that would make it easier for India to access nuclear fuel and technology.
India has made membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group the main focus of its diplomacy over the last few weeks, ahead of a plenary meeting of the grouping in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday. Between Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, New Delhi has reached out and got the support of a huge number of countries, with the United States and the United Kingdom firmly backing India's membership bid.
Standing in the way is China, which has fallen back on the claim that all Nuclear Suppliers Group members need to also have ratified the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, which India has not. While that may be a consideration, Beijing's position also comes from its desire to support its ally, Pakistan, which has also applied to join, is not a member of the NPT and – with its poor proliferation record – is unlikely to get much support from other members.
India has tried not to step on China's toes of late and even insisted it will not obstruct the bid of any other application (read: Pakistan), only that it wants to be considered on merit. New Delhi sent Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to China last week for secret meetings, prompting Beijing to say the door is open for India's membership bid. Now Modi will get a chance to seal the deal in Tashkent.
The Big Scroll
Is America using Narendra Modi and India against China? Will China eventually block India's quest to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group? And the view from Islamabad: Pakistan is right to be wary of the US helping India get into Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Political picks
1. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy thinks he got Raghuram Rajan out of the Reserve Bank of India. And now he's going after Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian.
2. A member of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's ruling party stood up in the Assembly on Tuesday and insisted that her promise of prohibition in the state was not feasible.
3. The new liberalised Foreign Direct Investment norms could help ensure that Lockheed Martin builds F16 fighters on an assembly line in India.
4. The Central Bureau of Investigation believes that the same bike and weapon were used for killing both Maharashtra rationalists, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar.
5. Mistrust between Hindus and Muslims has grown with the visit of every team looking into allegations of an "exodus" from Uttar Pradesh's Kairana.
For the rest of the day's biggest headlines, go check out The Latest.
Punditry
1. The thinning out of differences between the two houses of Parliament, writes Valerian Rodrigues in the Hindu, doesn't mean the Rajya Sabha is superfluous.
2. Dear intelligent Salman Khan fan, it's finally time for us to talk, writes Rega Jha in Buzzfeed.
3. Atul Dev in the Caravan looks at whether the Aam Aadmi Party is courting the media by appointing journalists to positions on Delhi University's governing bodies.
Don't Miss
Ipsita Chakravarty and Rayan Naqash spend a few days on the trail of Mehbooba Mufti's campaign for the Anantnag bypoll.
"At a rally in Krangsoo, Abdullah taunted Mehbooba Mufti for abandoning the separatists she had once championed. “Where is the Mehbooba Mufti who used to shout for the repeal of AFSPA [the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act], who used to say ‘goli nahin boli’?” he demanded. “Yasin Malik [leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front] is now in jail in a 28-year-old case. There is no one who can get him out.” Incidentally, two days after Abdullah’s speech, Malik was out of jail and on his way to a rally in Anantnag town, only to be detained again."
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