The Big Story: Diplomacy now

After the bluster, the stock taking. A day after the Uri attack, the Indian political and military leadership reserved "the right to respond... at a time and place of our choosing". But behind closed doors, at high-level meetings, senior political leaders are said to have pushed back against immediate military action. They have, however, indicated that India will be launching a diplomatic offensive on Pakistan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly given the go-ahead to "diplomatically isolate Pakistan" at all international forums, beginning with the United Nations.

At first glance, there seem to be salubrious conditions for such an offensive. Representatives of the United States, Russia, China, France and United Kingdom have issued statements condemning the attack and all forms of terrorism. This means all permanent members of the UN Security Council have issued statements of solidarity with India – Russia even called off a joint military exercise with Pakistan. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also stated that the perpetrators of the attack would be brought to justice. So when External Affair Minister Sushma Swaraj makes her speech on cross-border terror at the United Nations General Assembly, she is likely to find a sympathetic audience.

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But the Indian diplomatic offensive does not stop at terror. Alok Ranjan Jha, India's political counsellor to its mission at Geneva, also dashed off a statement to the UN Human Rights Council. The statement pointed out "human rights violations in Pakistan" that "cry for the world's attention", especially in the province of Balochistan, which has seen a long-running movement for secession. It spoke of enforced disappearances in several provinces and the "high-handed" use of force by the Pakistan Army against civilian populations.

These are all allegations that sound familiar, except they have been made against Indian security forces in Kashmir, and not just by Pakistan but various international human rights bodies, for decades. The UN itself has been denied the right to send international observers to investigate such allegations. If India is to launch a credible diplomatic offensive against Pakistan, it also needs to clean up its own house. All charges of human rights violations cannot be swept under the carpet of cross-border terror.

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story

Rohan Venkataramakrishnan tells social media warriors why nuclear war is a bad idea.

Shoaib Daniyal on how the Pakistani media is outraged by India's allegations.

Political pickings

1. The Wildlife Board panel has given the nod for phase I of the Ken-Betwa river linking project, which will require the diversion of 5,238 hectares of forest land, including 4,141 hectares of the Panna Tiger Reserve.

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2. A Cauvery panel has drastically reduced the amount of water to be released to Tamil Nadu this year, but there is still no truce between the state and its neighbour, Karnataka.

3. After Uri, China may talk to Pakistan about the costs to the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Punditry

1. In the Indian Express, Praveen Swami lays out the military choices before Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

2. In the Hindu, Mary E John and Hasina Khan on why a uniform civil code is hard to argue for today.

3. In the Telegraph, Prabhat Patnaik makes a case for doubling the poverty line.

Giggles

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Vinita Govindarajan reports on the chaotic scenes outside a Chennai morgue where body of a murder accused lies:

Ramkumar was arrested in July in connection with the murder of S Swathi, who was hacked to death at Nungambakkam railway station on June 24. On Sunday evening, the police announced that the 22-year-old had committed suicide by electrocuting himself. Some reports said that he bit a live wire in prison and that was dead by the time he was brought to hospital.

However, lawyer Ramraj produced a recording of a conversation he had with prison authorities, where they attempted to convince him that Ramkumar was taken to hospital because he was feeling unwell.

On Monday morning, Ramraj moved court to take notice of Ramkumar’s unnatural death in custody and demanded a a CBI enquiry into the matter. Ramraj said that Ramkumar could not have killed himself and alleged foul play by the authorities.