The Election Commission of India (ECI), in its affidavit to the Supreme Court, has adopted a legally defensible posture in excluding Aadhaar and ration cards from the list of documents used to determine voter eligibility during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. While the legal scaffolding may hold, the process reflects a troubling departure from ethical electoral practice, especially from the perspective of ordinary citizens trying to assert their right to vote.

The Supreme Court rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) attempt to revive a corruption case involving Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife, B.M. Parvathi, in the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam, criticising the agency for its politically motivated action.

Britain has named India among 10 countries it will closely monitor for violations of religious freedom as part of a new foreign policy strategy. The move links the United Kingdom’s international relations more directly with the defence of freedom of religion or belief.

On July 19, opposition parties staged protests outside AIIMS Bhubaneswar after a 16-year-old girl, critically injured in a targeted attack in Puri, was admitted for treatment—barely a week after another girl set herself on fire in Bhubaneswar alleging police inaction in a sexual harassment case. While the issue of girls’ and women’s safety in Odisha is urgent and may warrant public protest, these demonstrations offered no proposals or solutions, exposing a political culture where outrage is used to attack the government rather than confront the crisis at hand.

A former sanitation worker has testified in court that for nearly two decades he was forced by men linked to the Dharmasthala temple administration to bury the bodies of women and girls killed after being sexually assaulted within the temple premises in Karnataka. His claims, allegedly backed by skeletal remains and burial site details, point to a long period of institutional silence and inaction on disappearances reported in the region over the last thirty years.

The promise made by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to provide free electricity up to 125 units per month ahead of the Assembly elections invites serious scrutiny under both constitutional law and the principles of fair electoral practice. It raises the question of where to draw the line between legitimate welfare policy and unlawful inducement or voter coercion.

Maharashtra has passed a new law that grants sweeping powers to the state to outlaw organisations and criminalise various forms of dissent. While presented as a response to Left-wing extremism, the law signals a deeper shift in how the state defines threat, power, and democratic opposition.

The Uttarakhand government has launched Operation Kalanemi, a state-wide police campaign to identify individuals posing as saints and Kanwariyas. The stated aim is to preserve the religious and cultural sanctity of the state. This raises a serious constitutional concern, because it suggests the government is stepping into the role of deciding who counts as a legitimate religious figure, a function it has no authority to perform in a secular democracy.

A journalist, Sneha Barve, was violently assaulted while reporting on suspected illegal construction along a riverbed in Pune district. The main accused, local businessman, struck her repeatedly with a wooden rod while she was filming a video report. That such an act was carried out in broad daylight, against a woman journalist, while the camera was rolling, shows how deeply the culture of impunity has taken root among individuals who operate close to political power.

Soumyashree Bisi, a college student in Balasore, Odisha, is fighting for her life after setting herself on fire. She had spent months seeking a fair inquiry into her sexual harassment complaint against a professor. Like many such cases in India, hers drew official attention only after her extreme act. Authorities – from college staff to police and politicians – acted only once pressure mounted, not when the complaint was first raised.

A national-level tennis player and coach, Radhika Yadav, was reportedly shot dead in her Gurugram residence on 10 July. Her father, Deepak Yadav, has been arrested in connection with the incident and remains in judicial custody. Media reports indicate that the case is linked to three entrenched social values that continue to deprive girls and women in India of dignity and agency: the persistence of patriarchal authority, the prioritisation of family reputation over the welfare of daughters, and the cultural construction of the female body as a source of shame.

India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has released its preliminary report on the Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad on 12 June 2025, killing 241 people on board – leaving a lone survivor – and 19 more on the ground. The most shocking revelation is that both engines shut down within seconds of liftoff because the fuel control switches had moved to the off position. But what caused the switches to move remains unexplained.

A group of Kanwariyas, religious pilgrims, beat up a man and smashed his motorcycle over a minor collision in Uttar Pradesh on July 10, while the police merely “pacified” the crowd and escorted the victim to safety. This is not an isolated incident, and there is a name for what such actions, now increasingly common, represent: para sovereignty. It refers to situations where groups outside the state act as if they have the authority to enforce rules, punish others and dominate public space – powers that belong solely to the state.

At least 11 people were killed and five seriously injured after the Gambhira Bridge in Gujarat’s Vadodara district collapsed into the Mahisagar River on the morning of July 8. The incident lays bare a longstanding culture of neglect and carelessness that defines public infrastructure governance across much of India.

On July 8, the Assam government began a demolition drive to clear land for a proposed thermal power plant in Dhubri district, targeting over 2,000 households of Bengali-origin Muslim families. The timing, method and impact of this operation raise serious questions about legal compliance, procedural fairness and ethical reasoning.

A joint forum of 10 central trade unions has called for a nationwide general strike, or “Bharat Bandh,” on July 9 in protest against what it calls the central government’s “anti-worker, anti-farmer, and anti-national pro-corporate policies.” With over 250 million (25 crore) workers expected to join from several critical sectors, the strike could be one of the most significant confrontations between the government and the country’s organised and unorganised workforce in recent years.

The European Union has decided to go ahead with its Artificial Intelligence Act on time, rejecting requests from some tech companies to delay it. This new law is meant to keep AI under control and protect people’s rights, safety and democracy. Countries in Asia, especially India, need to take this seriously. If they wait too long, AI systems might become common in daily life without any rules, and that can cause irreparable harm.

Vivek Singh, a fearless and thoughtful photojournalist whose camera often stood witness in places the rest of the country ignored, passed away on June 28 after a period of illness. The funeral is scheduled to take place on July 6.

A senior official in Odisha was assaulted inside his office by political supporters of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Jagannath Pradhan, who was arrested days later, after government officers across the state went on mass leave in protest. The incident reveals that political actors in the state believe the bureaucracy exists to obey them, and that violence is a legitimate way to enforce that obedience – which has consequences also for ordinary citizens who depend on a fair, functioning state.