Keep him in jail for life, then?

Of the many WTF elements gleaned from media reports of bail proceedings in the Delhi High Court, this one takes the cake:

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta said that similar slogans were raised in Jadavpur University after JNU. If Kanhaiya is granted bail then such incidents will get a boost.

Seriously — how did this gentleman become a lawyer — much less Narendra Modi’s favored lawyer?

Also from the court proceedings:

• “Do you have video evidence that Kanhaiya was raising anti-national slogans?” asked the court at which police denied of having any video in this regard. 

• “When your policemen were present there in the campus in civil dress why don’t they take cognizance when anti-national slogans were raised? Why did not they video record it?” asked the court.

• The Delhi police also say that a JNU official has testified that Kanhaiya called upon cancellation of the programme and further said the programme will continue despite the cancellation of the permission.

 

PSA: Free photography course

The Museum of Modern Art, via Coursera, has this for you. For free.

Would you vote for Donald Drumpf?

John Oliver takes on Donald Trump:

In passing, how I wish we had our own version of John Oliver. Maybe it is time to invent one.

Smriti Irani does not interfere

In 2008 my then colleague in Rediff Syed Firdaus Ashraf and I traveled across parts of Kerala, to report on Muslim issues. At one point we found ourselves at a three-day conference on education, organised by various Muslim organisations in Cannanore — which in turn led us into conversations with several educators.

The crux of the story, in a series of clips:

No video evidence against Kanhaiya Kumar

The News, in Briefs:

#1: The Delhi police today told the High Court that they have no video evidence against Kanhaiya Kumar and that he cannot be seen shouting anti-national slogans.

That is not a typo. He cannot be seen shouting anti-national slogans, according to the Delhi Police.

Now read this clip from the status report filed by the Delhi police, and note among other things the distinction drawn between the doctored video and the full version — which, the police said, it had examined. What did the police see then that they are unable to see now?

Financing a “living memorial to failure”

February 2015: Mr Modi in Parliament:

“My political instincts tell me that MNREGA should not be discontinued,” he said, mocking the opposition benches, “because it is a living memorial to your failures. After so many years in power, all you were able to deliver is for a poor man to dig ditches a few days a month.”

February 2016: Mr Modi’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament:

Rs 38,500 crore has been allocated for MNREGA schemes this year — the highest allocation by any government so far.

Is it fair to say this government does not seem to need any outside help when it comes to embarrassing itself?

Plus, in any case, not true:

Highest ever allocation for NREGA this year at Rs 38,500 cr: @arunjaitley; But allocation for 2009-10 was higher: https://t.co/ohnMylyoub

— Fact Check India (@FactCheckIndia) February 29, 2016