The Latest: Top stories of the day

1. Art of Living: The National Green Tribunal cleared the fest after a minor fine of Rs 5 crore. Half of that amount – Rs 2.25 crore – was also given as a grant to Ravishankar’s foundation by the Union government.

2. The Lok Sabha passed a bill to amend the Enemy Property Act in order to make in near-impossible for heirs of Pakistani and Chinese citizens to inherit property in India.

3. The Rajya Sabha passes an amendment to the motion of thanks as the Opposition stands up to be counted.

4. New complaint filed against Kanhaiya Kumar after he links AFSPA to sexual assaults.

5. Malayali newspaper Mathrubhumi apologises after massive protests over an alleged insult to Prophet Muhammad.

6. Kodaikanal mercury poisoning: Hindustan Unilever and ex-staff have signed a settlement to provide an “undisclosed” ex-gratia amount to the victims consisting of future health care benefits.

The Big Story: glaring double standards

In January, 2015, the Modi government took up its fight against environmental NGO Greenpeace by a notch. On January 11, Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai was stopped at the Delhi airport by the authorities. Pillai was headed to London to campaign for the forest rights of adivasis in the Mahan coal block area of Madhya Pradesh. Greenpeace had been mobilising residents there against a mining project that would have had a detrimental effect on their lives.

Fighting for the rights of adivasis and the environment might seem like a good thing to do. To most people, this was a campaign to uphold the national interest. States and governments, though, often have different ideas. The Modi government said it stopped Pillai because it did not want to create a “negative image” of India. So crude was the government’s rationale that the Supreme Court would later direct the authorities to remove Pillai's name from the “no travel” database and allow her to travel abroad.

If this is how the government treated an activist working for adivasi and environmental rights, how would it treat a person who has through various means defrauded the country of billions of rupees? Vijay Mallya owes India’s banks Rs 7,000 crore. Much of it is owed to state sector banks, paid for by the poorest of Indians with their taxes.

As it turns out, Mallya’s offence was much more minor in the eyes of the Union government. He was allowed to fly out without much hassle last week, putting in serious peril the attempts to recover his debts.

There was even a Central Bureau of Investigation look out-notice against Mallya but as it so happened, the system didn’t work as well as it did with Pillai. A day after he had left, the government is silent as to how an error of this magnitude could have occurred.

There have been many warning signs about India's failing governance and arbitrary application of law. But when an activist for adivasi rights is prosecuted by the government with greater vigour than a man who owes the country billions, something is seriously wrong.

The Big Scroll

Here's all you wanted to know about why Vijay Mallya made his great escape from India last week. And four charts show how the bad loan problem of Indian banks is much bigger than even Vijay Mallya.

Politicking and policying

1. A Delhi court has summoned Arvind Kejriwal and five others in Arun Jaitley’s defamation case.

2. The Trinamool Congress broke opposition ranks to not participate in the voting on an amendment to the motion of thanks to the President’s address.

3. Why should only the prime minister’s picture be allowed in advertisements, Union government, asks the Supreme Court.

4. Autos driven by non-Marathis “will be set on fire,” says Raj Thackeray.

Punditry

1. In the Business Standard, VS Krishan lays out an argument in favour of the Goods and Services Tax.

2. The cycle of communal hatred and violence can be stopped only by ending first the false equivalence between minority and majority communalism, says Nissim Mannathukkaren in the Hindu.

3. In the Indian Express, Shivani Naik explains how, as always, Maria Sharapova polarises tennis opinion.

Don’t Miss

Six weeks after Rohith Vemula’s death, Hyderabad University students maintain a precarious unity, writes Aarefa Johari.