Table of contents for 2 June 2025 in India Today

A SECURITY SWEEP SOUNDS like a good idea after a terror outrage. One came four days after Pahalgam. Targets? Over 6,500 people alleged to be illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in faraway Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat. Two days after Gujarat Police swooped down for this mass detention, it joined the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to also demolish 12,500 shanties around Chandola Lake, one of the city’s Muslim ghettos. Some 25,000 inhabitants were displaced as a total of 400,000 sq. metres was cleared. The demolition, done without notice, wasn’t stayed by the Gujarat High Court on the grounds that this was government land. A SHORT HISTORY OF SLUMS After the 2002 post-Godhra riots, Muslims across rural Gujarat left their homes and farmland to seek safety in numbers in the city. Becoming invisible in…

NO BATTLE PLAN EVER SURVIVES THE FIRST BULLET FIRED IN A WAR. That old military adage held true for the sixth war between India and Pakistan, which ended abruptly in a ceasefire on May 10, four days after it had begun. India planned to deliver a strong punitive deterrent to Pakistan’s aiding and abetting terror strikes on our soil, including the attack in Pahalgam this April. It achieved that goal in its very first strike, in the early hours of May 7, when its armed forces launched precision attacks across the international border and the Line of Control, targeting the headquarters and training camps of key Pakistanbacked terror groups. Having deliberately avoided hitting military installations, India informed Pakistan that it had no interest in escalating hostilities further and only if Islamabad…

1 A nuclear bomb of the size of 15 kilotons detonates 600 metres over Mumbai. For 1.6-3.2 km around the epicentre, everything combustible would catch fire; severe radiation would also take place 2 After the explosion, a shock or blast wave, with winds reaching a velocity of 110 kmph, would devastate areas up to 3 km 3 The blast wave would destroy all houses within a radius of 1.7 km from ground zero 4 A few minutes later would come the firestorm: a region up to 2 km would be engulfed in flames. Temperature in this fiery zone would reach several thousand degrees 5 Winds of 50-80 kmph would fan conflagration. With water tanks destroyed and roads blocked with debris, the fire would not be brought under control. There would be…

Photographer Vicky Roy has known precarity up close. As a runaway from Bengal who ended up as a ragpicker at the New Delhi Railway Station, to being rehabilitated by a local NGO that restored some semblance of normalcy in his life, Roy has looked poverty in the eye, and is now paying homage to life on the streets through ‘Bachpan’ at Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery. The exhibition features 45 black-and-white photographs from two ongoing series, Bachpan, and the previously unseen Janwaar Castle, marking the gallery’s second major showcase of Roy’s work. The show is born of Roy’s preoccupation with the resilience, courage and joy children often show in the face of adversity. “Simplicity and observation define my attitude to photography. I would rather photograph my subjects in their natural surroundings…

Mumbai Star will mark the first time in its seven seasons that Aadyam—the Aditya Birla Group’s decade-old initiative to promote theatre—presents a “dance musical”. Director Nadir Khan says the play, which will be staged at Mumbai’s St Andrew’s Auditorium on May 24-25 and Delhi’s Kamani Auditorium on June 14-15, is unlike “anything I’ve ever done before”. He says this even though, on paper, the production sounds similar to his last collaboration with Aadyam, 2018’s #SingIndiaSing. They both feature and are named after fictional reality TV competition series. However, in Mumbai Star, the contest forms just “10 per cent of the story”, which centres on aspiring dancer Dev who shifts from a coastal village to the titular city to follow his dreams. In Mumbai, he grapples with “the exhilarating highs and…

ON MAY 22, THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS CALLED OUT TURKEY, saying it expects Ankara to “strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism”. For good measure, it added that “relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other’s concerns”. Those relations had been on a downhill track for some time but Turkey’s overt support to Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack made matters worse. Post-Operation Sindoor, on May 15, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security had revoked the security clearance of Istanbul-headquartered Celebi Aviation Holding’s Indian subsidiary which provided ground-handling services at nine key airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, citing “national security concerns”. The past year had seen a slow build-up of tensions. In April 2024, the defence ministry had scrapped a multibillion dollar deal between…

LIKE A KEEN-EYED kingfisher perched near the water in one of the bird sanctuaries of lakerich Banswara, it was almost as if they were waiting to pounce on a straying fish. Jai Krishn Patel obliged, or so it looks like. The MLA from Bagidora, a young tribal leader of the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), was allegedly caught accepting Rs 20 lakh, as part of a putative bribe of Rs 2 crore. Reportedly in exchange for withdrawing, from the assembly, questions on a mining contract and related illegalities, and promising to keep mum on the matter. Patel got the rap, landed in prison. The cash was allegedly recovered, buried in the soil by kinfolk. Soon, the BJP was unleashing a full-spectrum fusillade of protests against the tribal leader all across the…

NUCLEAR DOCTRINES INDIA: ‘NO FIRST USE’ (NFU) India’s conditions for using its nuclear weapons are: ↘ It will use nuclear weapons only in response to a nuclear attack or a chemical/biological weapons (CBW) attack on Indian territory or on its armed forces ↘ Any nuclear/CBW first strike could trigger a massive punitive hit-back to ‘inflict unacceptable damage’ on the aggressor ↘ India will not use its weapons on non-nuclear power states or those that do not have protective nuclear umbrellas provided by other countries PAKISTAN: ‘FULL-SPECTRUM DETERRENCE’ Pakistan can use its nuke weapons if it faces the following threats: ↘ Spatial (any large loss of territory) ↘ Military (destruction/targeting of its armed forces) ↘ Economic (aggressive acts that could choke the economy) ↘ Political (acts that lead to political destabilisation) ↘ In…

WHAT’S DONE ↘ The revised IT Rules (April 2023) mandate grievance redressal, KYC and age verification for RMG platforms. Noncompliance may lead to loss of intermediary liability protection ↘ Till February 2025, the nodal Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had blocked 1,410 non-compliant websites/apps. Fresh measures introduced in March 2025 focus on preventing fraud, data theft and addiction ↘ A 28% GST was introduced on full bet value in October 2023 followed by 30% TDS on net winnings from 2024-25— aimed at curbing excessive play and maintaining transparency ↘ The Advertising Standards Council of India’s efforts led to the signing of a Code of Ethics by key industry bodies in March. Besides responsible advertising, self-regulation extends to spending limits etc. WHAT’S PLANNED ↘ The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)…

A modernist whose work intricately weaves traditional tribal art forms with contemporary aesthetics, Jharkhand-based Haren Thakur’s art reflects a deep engagement with nature, life and spirituality. “The relationship between man and nature forms an integral part of Haren’s visual language,” says show curator Dr Alka Pande. Educated at Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan, Thakur studied under some of the most influential figures in modern Indian art. He draws significant inspiration from rural life, his visual language is deeply influenced by Munda and Birhor rock art, and he also incorporates elements of Warli art and Cubism in his works. “I believe that when some pain, any kind of churning or intense feelings, is mixed with paint, it takes the form of a painting. It need not only be a physical pain, it could be…

MAY 24 | Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi Musical Movie Night Delhi’s renowned choir, The Capital City Minstrels, presents An Evening at the Movies—a lively summer concert featuring music from iconic films and television. Conducted by Nise Meruno, with over 60 singers and a full band, expect an eclectic mix of Indian cinema tunes, Disney hits, gospel, musicals, pop and western classical gems in one unforgettable performance. MAY 30 | Royal Opera House, Mumbai ALL LIT UP Step into the enchanting ambience of Candlelight: Best Movie Soundtracks, a live concert reimagining iconic Bollywood melodies, set aglow by hundreds of flickering candles. With Vanraj Shastri (sarangi), Harsh Gadkari (keyboard) and Om Pandey (tabla), the evening blends nostalgia with intimacy. JUNE 1 | Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Bengaluru UNDAUNTED Tarangini is a moving tribute to…

Operation Sindoor’s global pitch comes with an elite twist. Seven members of India’s diplomatic outreach squads are alumni of Delhi’s St Stephen’s College, including Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Salman Khurshid, diplomats Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Taranjit Sandhu, Jawed Ashraf and Manjeev Puri, and MEA supremo S. Jaishankar. But those aren’t the only absolutes. All seven outreach delegations also have at least one Muslim leader, a symbolic counter to the communal criticisms swirling back home. Three teams are led by Opposition MPs—Tharoor (Congress), Kanimozhi (DMK) and Supriya Sule (NCP-SP)—making this perhaps the most bipartisan foreign mission since Narasimha Rao’s gambit to send A.B. Vajpayee to Geneva in 1994. WORDLE SCORE THE CASTE ALPHABET The Samajwadi Party’s PDA formula is fast turning into a linguistic Rubik’s cube. Initially coined as a smart…

Operation Sindoor, India’s calibrated response to the Pakistan-sponsored terror attack in Pahalgam, was characterised by precise and devastating strikes on Pakistani terror hubs and later on military infrastructure. One of the reasons for its successful execution was the very high level of jointness and integration within the three services, which was the result of a concerted effort led by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the HQ Integrated Defence Staff over the past few years. About 200 tasks and initiatives were identified for fostering jointness. These were distributed over eight clear domains—intelligence, logistics, training, capability development, communications, human resource, maintenance and administration—to be implemented in a time-bound road map. Two parallel tracks have been at work. In one track, measures towards jointness have primarily been conceptual in nature, affecting…

AFTER TRADING plenty of hot lead and verbal artillery, India and Pakistan’s sudden retreat from a near full-blown war has put the spotlight back on a casus belli for the future: its six shared rivers. In its ceasefire acceptance, India said the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), put “in abeyance” on April 23, wouldn’t be restored. It invokes rebus sic stantibus, the principle in international law that allows abrogation of treaties due to a “fundamental change in circumstances”. Jammu and Kashmir, meanwhile, is roiled by a major political divide on how IWT related projects should move on the ground. J&K is a part of the theatre that bore the brunt of the recent IndoPak hostilities, with 22 deaths and damage to over 10,000 buildings. It also hosts the three contentious ‘western…

THE FRONTS HAVE FALLEN SILENT, but a piece of pre-war parodising has come back to smite the Congress on its rear. On May 4, a dozen days of non-action had elapsed since Pahalgam, and UP Congress chief Ajay Rai felt time was ripe for a satirical send-up of his state mate, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh. He held up a toy Rafale, with a nimboomirchi evil-eye dangling from it, and waxed vitriolic: “I want to ask the government when this lemon and chilli will be removed from the Rafale to avenge the attack?” It was a direct jibe at Rajnath’s televised shastra puja in 2019, where he had placed a lemon under India’s first Rafale fighter jet before drawing an ‘Om’ with turmeric on its snout. Maybe the rumours of…

SCENARIO 1 USE IT OR LOSE IT CAUSE ↘ A decisive Indian strike across the LoC to capture PoK, or across the international border in Punjab and Rajasthan to threaten Pakistani cities ↘ Also, threat of overwhelming Pakistani defences, including tactical nuclear weapons stationed near the border EFFECT ↘ For fear of conceding territory to India and/or its tactical weapons being captured, Pakistan strikes India with tactical nuclear weapons ↘ India launches a devastating nuclear counterattack SCENARIO 2 BOLT FROM THE BLUE CAUSE ↘ In a limited war, in the one after Pahalgam, Indian air strikes inside Pakistani territory hit a road mobile dual-use missile launcher carrying a nuclear warhead, causing it to explode on Pakistani territory EFFECT ↘ Pakistan sees it as deliberate nuclear escalation by India and responds…

WHEN ANMOL SINGH JAGGI SPOKE, YOU LISTE NED. So it was this February, when the 39-year-old co-founder of ride-hailing app BluSmart declared at a conference in Gurugram: “Our aim for the next 10 years is that everyone in a metro city should get a BluSmart EV cab within five minutes.” For the investors and employees, it sounded not like a goal, but the very gospel. BluSmart had changed the ride-hailing game. It was built on a simple but powerful premise: reliable cabs with professional drivers, fixed fares, no ride cancellations and a wholly EV fleet. Primarily serving metropolitan cities—Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and, more recently, Mumbai—its focus on airport and office commutes won it user loyalty in no time. In 2024, it was clocking 25,000-30,000 daily rides, capturing over 10 per cent…

If Raza rose from his grave and read the vast literature on his art, he would learn a lot about what he had never painted, not intended that to be the mission or message of his work! He was a quiet, wise man humbled by his own cosmic vision. A lot of irrelevance has been attributed to Raza’s art while his internal tapasya—meditation—was tuned more towards a spiritual reverence to colours and forms. Ashok Vajpeyi’s quiet little book scores some advantages: brevity, intimacy, and a poetic interpretation, which stays clear of art jargon. Raza would have been pleased, as his tale has been simply told. Nor does the octogenarian author overplay the proximity card to score points over other critics. Some incisive observations tell of this friendship, by suggestion. Vajpeyi’s…