Daily briefing: 11 killed as Maoists blow up security van in Chattisgarh; Bommai on Karnataka reservation policy and more

This is the biggest attack carried out by Maoists on the security forces in the state in the last two years. So what led to the attack and why does Chhattisgarh repeatedly face Maoist violence? We explain.

It appears the recent attack did not come without warning. Late last month, Maoists in Chhattisgarh issued a letter threatening to attack security forces as retaliation for anti-Naxal operations, The Indian Express has learnt.

⚡ Only in the Express

Decision 2023: In an interview with The Indian Express ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai says that the BJP is fighting the polls under a collective leadership, claiming that it would be able to secure a “comfortable majority”. Read the full interview here.

On the 50th year of the “basic structure” doctrine that restricts the power of Parliament to alter the fundamental features of the Constitution, senior advocate Raju Ramachandran told The Indian Express the doctrine is the only safeguard against a majoritarian government. Take a look at what he said.

📰 From the Front Page

Amid the sexual harassment row that has taken the Wrestling Federation of India by storm, a physiotherapist who was present at the national camp in Lucknow in 2014 has said that at least three junior women wrestlers at the camp told him how they faced “pressure” and were asked to meet” WFI chief Brij Bhushan “at night”.

At least 17 police personnel were injured and a police station was set on fire in West Bengal’s North Dinajpur district during the violence that erupted days after a 17-year-old girl was found dead last week. Residents recall police officials showing up at their doorstep in search of shelter, “crying for mercy” and “bleeding profusely.”

👩🏽‍💻 Must Read

“…We have been asked to lock ourselves up in the house before sunset and come out only during the daytime”.

Two deaths due to tiger attacks in less than a week has set off fear and panic in villages across Garhwal bordering the Jim Corbett National Park. Read about a day in the life of a village living in fear as teams of the state forest department try to trap the big cats.

Since October 2021, there have been five big incidents of terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri-Poonch area and none of the perpetrators have been caught. In the latest attack where five soldiers were killed, the manhunt for the perpetrators is still underway– highlighting the importance of securing the border districts to the overall terrorist challenge in Union Territory. We explain the challenge that lies before Poonch.

In our opinion section today, Ramesh Inder Singh writes about late SAD patron and five-time Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s secular and moderate views, which helped restore harmony in the state after the Sikh riots in the 1980s.

⏰ And Finally

Two years after the Department of Archaeology visited a 15th-century monument on one of the premises of the Delhi Jal Board seeking its possession for conservation, the monument had been razed to make way for an official bungalow of the then DJB CEO. The monument that disappeared is in South East Delhi’s Jal Vihar near Lajpat Nagar and finds mention in the ASI’s List of Muhammadan and Hindu monuments.

🤫Delhi Confidential: Union Minister for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh is in London to attend the India-UK Science and Innovation Council meeting. Representatives of Rolls-Royce, led by its director Patrick Horgan, turned up to meet Singh to apprise him of the clean energy technologies that they are employing and collaborations that Rolls-Royce has proposed with India.

🎧 In today’s episode of 3 Things, we talk about the arguments petitioners made in the same-sex marriage plea in the Supreme Court, a look back at five-time Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal’s indelible legacy, and why Bihar tweaking its jail rules has raised concerns.

Until tomorrow, 

Rahel Philipose and Varsha Sriram