India’s population figures; interview with Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar; CJI Chandrachud’s remarks on same-sex marriage plea and more

🔴 This growth in population has been faster than India’s own estimates. In fact, the most reliable figures for India’s population comes from the Census that happens every 10 years. However, there has been an intriguing delay in carrying out the Census 2021 exercise.

⚡ Only in the Express

Meanwhile, another set of figures may see a possible delayed release. Results of the revamped Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CES) for 2022-23 and for 2023-24, meant to reveal more granular details of income and spending patterns in rural and urban households, may now come well after the 2024 general election, The Indian Express has learnt.

In an interview with The Indian Express, state Congress chief DK Shivakumar speaks on his power tussle (or the lack of it) with party colleague Siddaramaiah, Congress’s prospects in the Karnataka Assembly elections and the defection of BJP leaders to the grand old party.

📰 From the Front Page

👉🏽 Shani Singh alias Purane is one of the three assailants arrested for killing Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf. Much like the other accused, he left home at the age of 13. Police records against Purane in Hamirpur date back to March 2016 — a chain-snatching case, when he was likely still in his teens. Here’s what we found out about the accused.

👉🏽 Meanwhile, the police have announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for information on Atiq’s wife, Shaista Parveen. A daughter of a police head constable, a homemaker and a mother of five, Parveen, who is also an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, is now on the run.

👉🏽 While hearing a set of pleas seeking legal recognition of same-sex marriages for the second day, the Supreme Court said there was no data from the government to back its contention that homosexuality “is…mere urban elitist views for the purpose of social acceptance”. Here’s what transpired in the court on Wednesday.

👩🏽‍💻 Must Read

‘…I don’t know what we will do next,’ says 26-year-old Anshu Rawat, whose family along with 300 more were forced to abandon their houses after cracks appeared on hundreds of structures across the pilgrim town of Joshimath in January this year. With the government announcing the commencement of the Char Dham yatra from April 22, Joshimath appears to be on the mend. Those who have had to move out of their homes face an uncertain future.

Days after an eight-year-old Jammu girl appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for better facilities at her dilapidated school, wherein she said: “Please Modi ji, humarey liye ek achi si school banwa do na” (Please Modiji, build a good school for us)– her efforts bore fruit! Jammu’s Director of School Education, Dr Ravi Shanker Sharma, paid a visit to the school in Kathua district’s Lohai village.

In our Opinion column today, Sachidananda Joshi writes on how liberal democracies of the West exclusively focus on achieving good governance, while Indian democracy is focussing on developing a sense of universal responsibility, the well-being of all creatures, concern for nature and mankind, and avoiding abridging freedom of others.

⏱️ And Finally…

An intriguing battleline looms and the coaches are looking forward to the fight for supremacy between 57kg wrestlers Aman Sehrawat, the newly crowned Asian champion, and the proven medal winner Ravi Dahiya, the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist, who is on a comeback trail from a knee injury.

🤐 Delhi Confidential: Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot was on the list of star campaigners for Karnataka in the 2018 elections, for the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections, and also for the recent Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections. However, amid fresh turmoil in Rajasthan Congress, has the party high command given a signal to young leader Sachin Pilot by not including him in the list of star campaigners for the upcoming elections?

🎧 In today’s episode of 3 Things, we discuss the heatstroke deaths in Maharashtra last week, allegations of custodial torture against a 30-year-old IPS officer Balveer Singh in Tamil Nadu who allegedly extracted victims’ teeth with rocks and crushed some victims’ testicles and the case against 30 army personnel who were involved in killing six men in Nagaland’s Oting in December 2021.

Until tomorrow,

Sonal Gupta and Varsha Sriram