In a clear display of bias against the Allahabad High Court, some media outlets published misleading headlines about a recent order of the High Court, which dismissed the petition of a person charged with disturbing communal harmony, seeking the quashing of an FIR against him.
Reporting about the High Court order, Live Law published a report with the headline “Unsaid Words Can Also ‘Promote Enmity’ Under BNS: Allahabad High Court On ‘Subtle’ Religious Undertones In WhatsApp Message”. A plain reading of the headline suggests that the High Court made out an offence where there was none.
Similarly, The Scroll also emphasised the words “Even ‘unsaid’ words can amount to promoting enmity” in the headline of its report on the Allahabad High Court order, insinuating that the High Court wrongly inferred an offence while no act was committed to constitute the offence.
Another media portal, Law Chakra, also used a similar language regarding the High Court order. Its headline read, “Even Unsaid Words Can Spark Communal Tension: Allahabad High Court”.
The abovementioned reports relate to a judgment of the Allahabad High Court dated 23rd October, passed by a division bench of Justices JJ Munir and Pramod Kumar Srivastava. The verdict was passed by the judges after the hearing of a petition filed by an individual booked under Sections 299 and 353(3) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023. The petitioner, Afaq Ahmad, sought the quashing of the FIR filed against him for circulating inflammatory WhatsApp messages after his brother was arrested in a religious conversion case.
“The petitioner, making this arrest of his brother in the case crime last mentioned, a foundation for disturbing communal peace and outraging religious feelings of a class of citizens of India, maliciously sent an inflammatory message to individuals on their mobile phones,” the High Court stated in its order. Explaining the intent of the inflammatory messages shared by the petitioner, the High Court said that in the message, the petitioner alleged that his brother was implicated in a false case because he belonged to a particular religious community.
“The words of the post quoted in the FIR may not speak per se about religion, but definitely convey an underlying and subtle message that his brother has been targeted in a false case, because of his belonging to a particular religious community. These unsaid words in the message prima facie would outrage religious feelings of a class of citizens hailing from a particular community, who would think that they are being targeted because of belonging to a particular religious community,” the court stated.
While the media outlets selectively picked the words used by the High Court, the entire statement of the court reads as, “Quite apart, and, even if one were to think that no religious feelings of a class of citizens or community have been outraged, per se by the WhatsApp message, it is certainly a message, which, by its unsaid words, is likely to create or promote feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will between religious communities, where members of a particular community, in the first instance, could think that they are being targeted by members of another religious community by abusing the process of law”. It is clear from the statement of the High Court that the inflammatory message sent out by the petitioner attempted to promote feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will between religious communities in an indirect manner, without using express words. Notably, the petitioner sent the message to multiple persons to expand its reach.
Maintaining that a prima facie case was made out against the petitioner, the High Court rejected his request for quashing the FIR against him. “In the totality of circumstances, we are of the opinion that this is a matter which requires investigation and cannot be scuttled at an incipient stage, foreclosing probe that must be carried to its logical conclusion,” the High Court noted.
It is evident from reading the High Court’s order in its entirety that the media portals attempted to attribute a malicious intent to the High Court in its decision on the petition. While the High Court explained how the petitioner tried to disrupt religious harmony through his inflammatory message in an indirect manner, the media portals cleverly focused on a set of words to raise suspicion about the intent of the High Court.
On 23rd October 2025, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that his government will table the 1985 Tiwari Commission report on the 1983 Nellie Massacre in state assembly during the upcoming winter session. This would be the first time that real truth of Nellie Massacre will come out after around four decades.
In a press conference on Thursday, CM Sarma said, “In 1983, a massacre occurred in Nellie. At that time, the state government formed a commission called the Tiwari Commission. However, until today, the commission’s report has not been presented in the legislative assembly. In the upcoming November 25th session of the legislative assembly, we have officially decided to present the Tiwari Commission report, which was formed in the context of the 1983 Nellie massacre.”
“Since this is a part of Assam’s history later studied and presented by scientists, historians and social scientists in different ways, making the report available will at least allow people to access accurate information about what happened at that time…” he added.
In 1985 the Tiwari Commission submitted its findings to the then government on the 1983 Nellie Massacre.
Today the Assam Cabinet has decided to place this report on the floor of the Assam Assembly, so its facts can be made available to the public. pic.twitter.com/MW3rbttV8a
Nellie Massacre of 1983 and why it took over 40 years to bring out the truth
The Nellie massacre took place on 18th February 1983 in and around Nellie area in central Assam during the height of the Assam Movement or the Anti-Foreigners Agitation. Between 2,000 to 3,000 lives were lost when the villages occupied by Bengali Muslims were attacked by hundreds of indigenous people from nearby areas. Armed with machets, spears and sticks, the mob comprising people belonging to local communities burnt houses and blocked roads killing anyone who tried to escape. Most of the casualties were women and children.
While the official figures put the death toll at 1,819 including 1,327 women and 253 children, human rights groups and scholars estimate that the actual figures were way higher. The local police are alleged to have failed to protect the victims and the situation came under control only after the CRPF arrived.
Notably, twelve out of the fourteen Lok Sabha seats in Assam were vacant since 1980, the year after the anti-foreigner agitation in Assam began. The assembly was likewise dissolved in 1982. Elections had to be held, and on 6th January 1983, it was announced that there voting would take place for the assembly and Lok Sabha seats in four phases.
The election, however, was boycotted by the Assam movement supporters with many political parties not partaking in the elections. Despite this, the elections took place amidst violence and chaos. Eventually, Congress (I) won and formed a government under the leadership of Hiteswar Saikia.
The violence in Nellie erupted during the height of state assembly elections in Assam, which took place amid the Assam agitation, a movement led by the All-Assam Students Union (AASU) demanding detection and deportation of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and deletion of their names from voter lists. They feared that an unchecked influx of Bangladeshis would alter the demographic composition of the state.
On 18th February 1983, the attacks began in Nellie which now comes under Nagaon district, when tensions peaked amidst the Assam Agitation. Within hours on that day, mobs comprising people from the indigenous Tiwa community, local Bodos and others stormed 14 villages housing Bengali-speaking Muslims around Nellie. During this massacre, the state was under President’s rule.
It is also alleged that Assam police perssonnel misled CRPF troops away from the massacre site, allowing the killing to go on. However, this claim remains unverified, which could be one of the major findings in the report.
The violence erupted on the day of voting Assam’s state assembly elections. These elections were pushed forward by the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi-led Congress government in Centre. The Congress-led central government decided to proceed with the state elections without addressing the demands of AASU and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) for a revised electoral roll which could have weeded out illegal voters including undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants. It is said that the elections were conducted in a haste even as demands for revision of electoral roll were raging.
Post the massacre, in another agitation-filled election, Congress government came to power in 1984, where mostly the Bengali-majority areas voted.
After the Nellie massacre left thousands of people dead, the Congress government in the state headed by Hiteswar Saikia established the Tiwari Commission headed by IAS officer Tribhubhan Prasad Tiwari to investigate the causes that led to the violence, identify culprits, and recommend actions. The commisson submitted a 600-page report in 1984 to then Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia. However, the report was never tabled in the assembly or made public. Reports say that only three classified copies were retained in government archives.
Tribhubhan Prasad Tiwari
As a precondition to the signing of the Assam Accord, the Congress (I) government was dissolved prematurely. Riding on the sympathy wave after Indira Gnadhi’s assassination, her son Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister. He signed the Assam Accord in 1985 where 1 January 1966 became the base year for detecting foreigners and 24th March 1971 was decided as the cut-off date for detecting illegal foreigners and removing them from the electoral rolls.
Ram Pradhan, the Union Home Secretary who negotiated the Assam Accord with AASU said that Rajiv Gandhi did not pursue the Assam Accord because “it would have impacted Congress’ (Muslim) votebank”.
About the survey to identify illegals, Ram Pradhan said,“This was a part of the accord, but they realised that the survey would seriously impair the votebank of the Congress”.
Following the Assam Accord which was signed a year after Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 194, state assembly elections were held and the leaders of Anti-Foreigners Movement won a majority and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) formed government with Prafulla Kumar Mahanta becoming the youngest Chief Minister of the state.
Interestingly, the BJP government recognised the 885 AASU members who died during the Assam Anti-Foreigners Movement as “martyrs”. The Congress government, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) government and the BJP government under Sarbananda Sonowal also gave them financial compensations.
Coming back to the Nellie Massacre and the Tiwari Commission report, although the commission reportedly submitted its report in 1984, the Hiteswar Saikia led Congress government in the state decided to not make it public. Since then, it has never been made public until now, as subsequent governments also followed the same policy of keeping it confidential.
It remained unclear why the report was not made public in the last four decades with many accusing Congress of a deliberate cover up, AGP and the BJP of nonchalance in bringing out the truth.
However, now, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has revealed the main reason why the report was never made public. According to him, the report was not made public because its veracity could not be confirmed. The CM stated that the copies of the 600-page Tiwari Commission report which were available with the Assam government did not have the signature of the retired IAS officer Tribhuvan Prasad Tiwari who headed the commission, due to which there has been second guessing of questions that would be raised on whether the report was authentic or not.
Tribhuvan Prasad Tiwari, who later become the governor of Puduchery, died in 2015 at the age of 93 years, making it even more difficult to confirm the authenticity of the report. However, Himanta Biswa Sarma government talked to other officers who worked under the commission, and they have confirmed that the copy of the report available with the govrernment is genuine.
“We have interviewed different clerks from that time and did forensic tests and found that it is genuine. The previous government was fearing taking a courageous step on this. Some government or the other should present it, it is a chapter of our history,” CM Sarma said.
More than 600 FIRs were filed, chargesheets were filed following probe in around 300 cases, however, most of the cases were eventually dismissed. In the early 2000s, a few cases were filed in the Guwahati High Court to seek better compensation for families of the victim of Nellie massacre, however, these cases too were dismissed.
The Assam Accord of 1985 ended the Anti-Foreigners agitation, however, neither the complete truth of the Nellie Massacre came out nor the menace of illegal immigration of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas in Assam has ended. However, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is ensuring that neither the truth of past injustices go untold nor the issue of deliberate attempts at altering Assam’s demography go unaddressed.
If you walk down the streets in Bihar’s West Champaran district in the evening, you feel the serenity of a village. But about three decades ago, this area was known as “Mini Chambal”. Dacoits ruled the region, and for locals, leaving home after 5 pm amounted to inviting death. Kidnapping, robbery, murder, and massacre were a daily occurrence. The situation worsened during Lalu Yadav’s Jungle Raj.
Seeing the shattered law and order situation in the area and the locals being left to fend for themselves, Badri Narayan Pandey, displayed immense courage and formed a self-defence group comprising locals called the ‘Village Defence Force’. The self-defence group not only liberated Champaran from dacoits but also became an example of self-defence across the country. From the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh to the Village Defence Force in Jammu and Kashmir, Pandey’s story continues to inspire many.
In conversation with OpIndia, Badri Narayan Pandey narrated how it all began. Let’s first start by understanding the dark period when Bihar was a victim of Jungle Raj. From 1990 to 2005, under the governments of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, the crime rate skyrocketed. The statistics were shocking. According to a report, there were more than 32,000 kidnappings, 18,000 murders, and 59 major massacres during the dreaded period. In 1997, the Patna High Court had termed the period as “Jungle Raj”.
The era of Jungle Raj in Bihar and of Mini Chambal
The 1990s were a dark period for Bihar. Lalu Prasad Yadav was in power at the time, and the term “Jungle Raj” had become commonplace in Bihar. The Bagaha region of West Champaran, known as “Mini Chambal,” had become a hotbed of dacoit terror. People were afraid to leave their homes after 5 p.m. Kidnapping, robbery, murder, and rape had become routine. Schools and colleges were closed, traders avoided going to markets, and farmers feared visiting their fields. The threat of dacoits in this region was so prevalent that people were not safe even in their own homes.
One of the most harrowing examples of peak criminal activities during the Jungle Raj was the Narkatia massacre of December 14, 1994. In the horrifying incident, dacoits brutally killed 15 villagers in Narkatia Bhuarwa village, in Ramnagar block. More than a dozen villages were brutally murdered by the dacoits in a single night. The victims were Gauri Shankar Mahato, Jai Ram Mahato, Ramvilas Mahato, Vishram Mahato, Dharamraj Mahato, Bhikhari Mahato, Chhedi Mahato, Roshan Mahato, Rogahi Mahato, Narsingh Mahato, Bhubaneshwar Mahato, Rudal Mahato, Baliram Mahato, Sadakat Miyan, and Pandu Munda.
The massacre spread terror throughout the region. Gangs of notorious dacoits like Radha Yadav, Ramchandra Mallah, Alauddin Miyan, Chumman Yadav, Rajendra Chaudhary, Kishori Nunian, Patthar Chauhan, and Nema Yadav had become synonymous with terror in the area.
Jungle Raj meant a free pass to criminals under Lalu Yadav’s rule
During the rule of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, the nexus between crime and politics was at its peak in Bihar. In West Champaran, dacoits held such sway that they held their own courts, where politicians came to pay obeisance to ensure their electoral victory. Dacoit leaders like Bhagad Yadav, Lachhan Yadav, Bansi Yadav, Harihar Yadav, Lalu Yadav, and Suresh God not only blatantly committed crimes but also interfered in local politics. The police and administration had no power or control. Due to the government’s failure to maintain law and order, ordinary people were left helpless. Children were unable to attend school, and parents constantly prayed for their children’s safety.
Even the judges were not safe, and some of them were shot dead by dacoits. The District Judge of the West Champaran district referred to the area as ‘Mini Chambal’. In 1986, the police launched ‘Operation Black Panther’ to wipe out dacoits but failed to curb the menace. Seeing the government and the police fail, the locals mustered courage and decided to fight the terror on their own.
Badri Narayan Pandey started the village defence team
In the terror-ridden environment of West Champaran, an ordinary man, Badri Narayan Pandey, was determined to free society from the dacoits. A retired clerk from the Army Medical Corps, Pandey had witnessed the terror of dacoits in his village, Siswa-Basantpur. People wouldn’t open their doors before 8 a.m. in the morning and would not step out of their homes as soon as the sun set. Pandey resolved to change this situation.
On July 27, 1990, he founded the Gram Raksha Dal (village defence team), which included people of all ages and castes in the village. Pandey initially gathered a few villagers to form a “Shaheedi Jattha” (martyr squad) and collected all their licensed weapons. They swore an oath to sacrifice their lives to protect the village. This group began patrolling the village. Checkpoints were set up in every village, where no one was allowed to enter without identification and verification. During the day, people received weapons training and remained awake at night to perform duties. Women and children also participated in the search missions.
Abhayanand and G. Krishnaiah received support
In this campaign, Pandey was supported by the then Superintendent of Police, Abhayanand, and District Magistrate, G. Krishnaiah. Abhayanand recognised Pandey’s efforts and provided moral and logistical support. G. Krishnaiah, too, prioritised the safety of the villagers, without caring for his own job. Both officers participated in Gram Raksha Dal meetings and encouraged them. However, in 1994, G. Krishnaiah, then serving as District Magistrate in Gopalganj, Lalu Yadav’s home district, was assassinated. His murder sent shockwaves throughout Bihar, but it failed to dampen the spirits of the Gram Raksha Dal.
The Gram Raksha Dal operated like a disciplined army
The Gram Raksha Dal operated in a military style to fight the dacoits. They identified the dacoits’ informants and associates. They tried to reform some, and those who refused were expelled from the village or punished. Pandey infiltrated the dacoits’ gangs and won over their associates, luring them into the mainstream and assuring their families’ safety. They also spied on the dacoits and gathered complete knowledge of their weapons and ammunition stock. Gram Raksha Dal waited for the dacoits to run out of ammunition before launching their retaliatory attack and killing or capturing the dacoits.
This armed struggle lasted from 1990 to 2002. During this period, the Gram Raksha Dal seized weapons such as machine guns and handed them over to the government. At one point, they possessed 16,000 weapons, including 9,500 licensed ones. The organisation established units in over 375 villages, covering over 60% of West Champaran. The dacoits were driven into the forests of the Someshwar Hills. The courage of the villagers forced them to surrender or flee.
Narkatia massacre and the Village Defence Party’s response
Following the Narkatia massacre, when dacoits demanded rice, goats, and women from villagers and killed 15 when they refused, the Gram Raksha Dal took a unique action. They formed a kilometre-long human chain, including women and children. The solidarity demonstrated by villagers shattered the morale of the dacoits. In another case where dacoits kidnapped 16 children, the Gram Raksha Dal acted swiftly and rescued them.
There was also political opposition, the RJD was wary of the Gram Raksha Dal
The ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was alarmed by the growing strength of the Gram Raksha Dal. They feared that Badri Narayan Pandey would challenge their power by forming his own political party. Voices were raised against the Gram Raksha Dal in the Assembly and Lok Sabha, but the then Assembly Speaker criticised the government, stating that the local people were compelled to defend themselves after the elected government failed to protect them. This support further emboldened the Gram Raksha Dal.
By 2002, dacoits had been completely eliminated from West Champaran. Dacoits surrendered, and peace returned to areas like Bagaha. The success of the Gram Raksha Dal inspired movements like the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. Even today, organisations like the Gram Raksha Dal are deployed by the government to fight terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
SN Subbarao became the inspiration for Badri Pandey
Badri Pandey’s source of inspiration came from his participation in the Youth Project in Bengaluru, where, under the leadership of S.N. Subbarao, young people were encouraged to engage in social work. Pandey applied this inspiration to his village, uniting the community to fight against dacoits. Under his leadership, the Gram Raksha Dal not only defeated the dacoits but also created a new atmosphere of discipline and unity in the community.
Today’s West Champaran is moving towards freedom from crime.
After Nitish Kumar’s government came to power in 2005, crime in Bihar was significantly curbed. Once a stronghold of dacoits, the Gobarahiya police station area of West Champaran is now crime-free. In the past five years, there have been almost no cases of murder, robbery, snatching, or harassment of women. In villages, individuals referred to as ‘Gumasta’ help in the resolution of disputes at the local level, thus reducing the burden on the police system.
Listen to Badri Narayan Pandey narrate how Champaran slipped into the darkness of robbery and plunder, and how he freed Champaran from the terror of dacoits by establishing ‘Gram Raksha Dal Shaheed Jatha’ in 1990.
The story of Badri Narayan Pandey and his Gram Raksha Dal is a story of a community’s triumph in the face of Bihar’s Jungle Raj. Emerging from the horrific events like the Narkatiya massacre, West Champaran set an example of peace and security. Pandey’s courage, the support of officials like Abhayanand and G. Krishnaiah, and the solidarity of the villagers transformed “Mini Chambal” into a crime-free zone. This story is an inspiration not only for Bihar but for the entire country: if a community unites, no challenge is impossible.
In the early hours of October 23, 2025, a horrifying accident took place on National Highway 44 near Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. A private sleeper bus traveling from Hyderabad to Bengaluru collided with a motorcycle, sparking a massive fire that claimed at least 25 lives. Charred bodies were pulled from the wreckage, and survivors described a frantic scramble for escape as flames engulfed the vehicle in minutes.
Just nine days earlier, on October 14, another similar tragedy struck near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. A bus travelling from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur burst into flames, killing 22 passengers, many of whom were trapped inside due to a jammed emergency door. Both these incidents took place in just one month, and several such accidents of large number of causalities in bus fires have taken place in recent times.
While buses, like any other vehicles, do meet with accidents, it has been observed that casualty numbers are unusually high in case of night service luxury and sleeper buses, compared to day service buses. Common wisdom says that when fire starts in a bus, it will be immediately spotted, the vehicle will be stopped and the passengers will come out quickly. In fact, that is what happens with buses that run in the day, even though daytime buses carry more passengers as they often take standing passengers, but things get complicated with night service buses.
One of the obvious reason is the time, during the day, most people in a bus are awake, and therefore they are able to spot fire as soon as it starts, enabling fast evacuation. In contrast, as most passengers remain asleep in night service buses, it is often too late when the fire is spotted, resulting in higher number of deaths and injuries. However, that is not the only reason. There are some very important differences between luxury sleeper buses and the basis buses that run for shorter distances during the day, and these factors contribute to such higher casualties.
Fewer Escape Routes, Tight Spaces
The interiors of basic day-service buses often feel open and more spacious, while the sleeper and luxury buses feel like cramped in the inside, even though they are actually often taller and longer. In a standard day bus, there are two main doors for passengers, one at the front and one at the rear, apart from emergency exit doors. Standard non-luxury buses also have sliding windows, which can be easily opened, and can be used to evacuate in case of fire or other accidents. These buses are built for short daytime trips, therefore they have basic seats, making it simpler to stand and move.
But on the other hand, sleeper and luxury buses are designed for comfort, as they are made for longer overnight journeys. One big compromise in these buses is the lack of the back passenger door. These buses have just one passenger door at the front. They includea or two emergency exits in the back, but they are not easily accessible. In the Jaisalmer fire, that single emergency door was jammed, trapping dozens inside.
These buses also have fixed, sealed windows, meant to keep out dust and noise, and offer better climate control. However, in case of accidents, they become walls of glass. The glass needs to be broken in case of an emergency, but without something hard to hit them with, it is nearly impossible to break them with bare hands.
The openable windows in basic also play a vital role in letting the fume and smoke go out, allowing people to survive long enough to escape. In contrast, the closed nature of luxury buses traps smoke and fume, and people pass out quickly due to lack of oxygen, and then are engulfed in flames.
Another design difference is width of aisles. Luxury buses have wider recliner seats and bed bunks, leaving a narrow walkway. That space is wider in basic buses, as they feature standard seats. In case of a fire, this narrow aisle, and the lack of a backdoor, means there is a long queue to reach the front quickly. In a closed cabin filled with fume and smoke, people can’t survive long enough to cover that distance. The problem gets even more complicated for sleeper buses, as people in upper bunks need to come down evacuate, and they often can’t do it in time.
Luxury and sleeper buses are also darker inside compared to general buses, due to curtains and tinted windows, presence of sleeper bunks, and bigger seats. This makes evacuation a bigger challenge for the passengers.
Inaccessible emergency exits
Luxury buses comprise one or two emergency exits, and such exits on the right side become vital if the main door on the left side gets blocked or jammed. But these emergency exit doors are often located behind seats, and are hard to reach even in normal circumstances. Moreover, such emergency doors are often hidden behind curtains, and are not properly marked, making them difficult to locate.
As the emergency exits are not regularly opened, they often get jammed, and become difficult or impossible to open when it is needed. Unlike airlines, bus operators don’t have protocols requiring regular test to confirm that everything is working perfectly. Therefore, they find about a jammed emergency exit only in case of an emergency.
For most buses, the rear windshield is meant to be broken in case of an emergency. But the buses don’t carry hammer or such tools to break the glass. In most cases, it is the outsiders who are able to break the glass using rocks or bricks, as passengers often don’t have such hard objects.
Flammable Interiors: Curtains, Fabrics, and Fast-Spreading Fires
Luxury doesn’t always mean safer; it often means more fuel for the flames. Luxury and Sleeper buses are decked out with thick curtains to block light for sleeping, plush upholstery on seats, and thick foam mattresses on bunks for a “hotel-on-wheels” feel. These materials are often highly flammable and release toxic smoke when they burn, filling the cabin in seconds.
A spark in a sleeper bus can turn those cozy touches into a roaring blaze. Worse, the smoke isn’t just thick, it’s poisonous too. Burning plastics and foams produce cyanide-like gases that cause disorientation and unconsciousness. In day buses, open windows might vent some of it out, but sealed sleeper cabins trap it all inside.
In contrast, basic day buses stick to simpler vinyl seats and metal frames with fewer flammable soft furnishings, which means less fuel for a bad fire.
Customized Builds: Hidden Risks from Aftermarket Tweaks
There is another big difference, most basic buses today are fully built by the company in factories. They can be operated just after driving out of the dealerships, just like cars. They follow strict designs with tested wiring, fuel lines, and fire safety features baked in from the start.
On the other hand, most luxury and sleeper buses that operate in India are not factory built. They are actually custom-made coaches built on chassis bought from automobile dealerships. Bus operators purchase the basic chassis and then take it to a ‘body building workshops’ where the coach is built, including everything from the body to seats and bunks, and all other amenities.
This means drilling holes for AC units, adding bunk frames, and rerouting wires without proper checks. Faulty electrical work is a top fire starter, like short circuits from overloaded inverters, loose connections under seats, or sparks from modified exhausts. These modification to the chassis can weaken the structure too. A custom door might not seal right, or added weight could make the bus unstable, tilting it during a collision and blocking exits. Buses fully built in factories avoid this by sticking to proven blueprints.
Even though now automobile companies like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Volvo, Bharat Benz etc offer fully built luxury buses, many operators still prefer the custom-built route.
Notably, till a couple of decades ago, all buses in India were such coaches made by local garages on chassis bought from companies. At that time, companies like Tata and Ashok Leyland didn’t offer fully built buses or trucks, they only sold chassis. In fact, for many decades they didn’t even make dedicated bus chassis, all of them were same truck chassis. Bus operators needed to purchase such truck chassis and get a bus coach or a truck bed built on them. This is the reason why bus journeys were not comfortable in the past, their suspension was not made for carrying people.
After opening up of the automobile sector and entry of foreign companies, automobile companies started to offer factory-built buses and trucks. Now companies like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Volvo, Bharat Benz etc offer fully built luxury buses too, apart from bare chassis for buses and trucks. But despite this availability, many operators still prefer the custom-built route.
Such bus building work is done in workshops located in almost every part of the country. As this is an unorganised sector with no strict quality control, safety and quality of such custom-built buses remains a question, even though they look more luxurious and swankier. They feature additional lights and other electrical systems, putting more load on the electrical lines.
Such customised buses are also relatively taller, to fit double-decker bunks and more luggage space. If a bus tilts suddenly, reaching emergency exits or windows becomes difficult for passengers.
Countries like China banned double-decker sleepers years ago for these risks, but India still allows them with minimal checks.
These issues related to luxury sleeper buses point to one thing, there is requirement for drastic changes to their design and regulation. Instead of checking just the documents, the authorities need to check whether the buses comply with safety norms.
Regular safety audits for such buses, ensuring use of fire-proof materials by law, and heavy penalty on unauthorised modifications are required, bans on overcrowding. Rules must mandate easily breakable windows and better emergency exits, wider aisles, and mandatory installation of fire detection and fighting systems.
The Korean Peninsula is once again the most closely watched flashpoint in the world as the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meet in the ancient city of Gyeongju, South Korea, from October 31 to November 1. Trade, supply networks, and technology appear to be on the agenda. But just underneath it is a complex network of signalling, counter-signaling, and low-key risk-reduction, much of which is intended to allow for high-level optics and, maybe, little steps back from the edge.
After a pause of several months, North Korea resumed short-range missile testing. South Korea, meanwhile, is subtly changing its border arrangements. The situation is delicate because China’s leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump are both scheduled to visit Gyeongju soon. China’s persistent presence, South Korea’s composed response, and North Korea’s military pressure have left the regional balance precarious.
A SUMMIT WITH HEAVY WEATHER
Let’s start with the fundamentals. In order to safeguard Gyeongju and surrounding venues for the APEC Leaders’ Meeting, South Korea has intensified a vast security operation that includes anti-drone jammers, helicopters, armored vehicles, and over 18,000 troops. The goal is to fortify the perimeter while maintaining the appearance of a well-run host economy that can bring adversaries together without any problems. The dates and venue are sealed. The guest list, significantly, includes both Trump and Xi. Because it is the first opportunity in years for the leaders of the two biggest economies in the world to exchange messages in Korea’s neighborhood.
Pyongyang’s reaction has been predictable and exact. The first of the missile launches in months occurred on October 22, when a series of short-range ballistic missiles headed east. Days prior to the leaders’ arrival, North Korea announced its veto over quiet, reminding all sides that any negotiations must go on Kim Jong Un’s terms. This timing is a typical example of pre-summit pressure. Analysts have warned of more attempts to shape headlines and extract leverage, and independent outlets and wire services have agreed on this assessment. The goal is to occupy APEC’s peripheries rather than to undermine it.
SEOUL’S SILENT EDITS TO THE DEMILITARIZED ZONE STAGE
It’s easy to overlook, but equally significant, what South Korea has done. The new government shut down the banks of loudspeakers that were broadcasting K-pop and propaganda throughout the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in late June. Despite Pyongyang’s animosity, the action was intended as a “goodwill” de-escalation and reversed the previous year’s approach. That choice was in line with a larger initiative to lessen “trip-wires,” which frequently lead to tit-for-tat escalations.
A recurrent issue that Pyongyang views as a security danger and a degrading affront to human dignity, Seoul has also increased enforcement against activist organizations who use balloons to carry USB sticks and pamphlets into the North. To prevent launches, police have been called in, “risk zones” have been marked along the border, and other authorized routes have been mentioned. Once more, removing the hair-trigger events that may escalate in minutes, exactly the kind of tensions a host country wants to eliminate weeks before a global summit is the goal, not caving in to the North’s demands.
The most significant change occurred in the Joint Security Area (JSA) within the DMZ, the congested collection of sky-blue structures in Panmunjom where Trump and Kim had a brief encounter on the border in 2019. During the APEC timeframe, from late October to early November, Seoul’s Unification Ministry has canceled field excursions to Panmunjom. For the same time frame, the United Nations Command, which is in charge of the southern portion of the JSA, has put a halt to its own visitation program. This is considered standard security cooperation. If choreography at the border is needed quickly, it unofficially clears the schedule. The stage has been swept whether or not a handshake occurs.
THE SHATTERED DÉTENTE AND ITS RELEVANCE TODAY
The significance of these changes may be understood by keeping in mind that the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, which was the finest attempt in years to reduce hazards along the border, has long ago fallen apart. Following a bleak 2024, South Korea terminated portions of the agreement and resumed the activities that the treaty had restricted. Pyongyang subsequently said that it was no longer obligated by the agreement and promised to resume the military actions that had been paused. A re-militarized border was the end outcome. Seoul has hinted at the possibility of reestablishing the deal in some capacity in 2025, but the North has not provided the reciprocal measures that would be necessary. This creates a void that can only be partially filled by tactical solutions like restricting leaflets or suppressing speakers.
HUMANITARIAN THREADS: FAMILY REUNIONS AND POLITICAL SIGNALING
President Lee Jae Myung has highlighted a humanitarian road amid the missile theater and high security. He openly asked Pyongyang to think about resuming reunions for families who have been separated since the 1950–53 conflict at the beginning of October. This is one of the few morally significant problems that does not directly relate to nuclear negotiating. When they do happen, these reunions are short, painfully formal, and quite popular in the South. Most importantly, they provide North Korea with a gesture that it can accept without compromising its deterrence. Seoul’s message is clear: this is low-hanging fruit if Pyongyang seeks a minor victory that enhances the mood at the summit and softens South Korean public sentiment.
UNDER THE RADAR
When you combine these elements, a pattern becomes apparent. The speaker switch-off, the balloon crackdown, and the tour freeze at the JSA are all minor script changes. During leaders’ week, each lessens the likelihood of an incident that would cause everyone to cancel the picture opportunities or, worse, set off an escalating cycle. If the principals desire it, Seoul is essentially opening the way for political drama to take place. Although Washington officials have floated the possibility of a Trump-Kim meeting, reliable reports indicate that no official agreements are in place, and previous attempts at outreach were met with a lack of interest. The network of signals supports a realistic assessment: a DMZ ‘HELLO’ is still feasible under extreme circumstances, but it is unlikely. The more likely scenario is that Pyongyang pushes provocations to the limit without overthrowing the set, South Korea demonstrates competence and hospitality, and Trump meets Xi.
Map of the DMZ between North and South Korea, image via Visit Korea
BEIJING’S SHADOW AND THE RUSSIA VARIABLE
China’s involvement is crucial as the North Korea’s political backer and economic lifeline, not as a mediator who can bring about disarmament. Kim and Xi have officially promised “deeper ties” in recent weeks, and their foreign ministries met to denounce “hegemonism,” a diplomatic jargon that often refers to Washington. Mainstream think tank analysts point out that stability and leverage, not mediation for its own sake, are China’s top priorities. In that regard, Xi’s presence in Korea focuses attention, Beijing has the option to lower the temperature if it so chooses, or it may let the pressure cook, say, in order to maintain influence over Seoul and Washington. Since there is no indication that Beijing will request that Pyongyang divorce its increasing military ties with Moscow, the default assumption from serious analysis is that China will exert mild pressure on Kim at most.
The largest structural shift since Trump’s initial DMZ tour is this closeness to Russia. This isn’t conjecture. According to many intelligence-supported reports and assessments of war debris, Russia had deployed North Korean short-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine by early 2025, and Pyongyang’s assistance had grown from shells to rockets to personnel. Open-source catalogs have identified the components, friendly nations have sanctioned facilitators, and Kyiv and Washington have made proof public. While Seoul’s defense minister recently issued a warning about probable Russian technological inputs into North Korea’s submarine programs, South Korean briefings and Reuters’ in-depth research indicate a growing pipeline of military collaboration. In summary, Kim is less motivated to make hasty concessions from the United States or South Korea, especially on his nuclear deterrence, because he has more outside backing and a wider range of allies than he had during the 2018–2019 talks.
MARKETS ARE READING THE TEA LEAVES
The rumor cycle has already been noted by Korean equities markets, which have a tendency to lead geopolitical narratives. In response to speculation about potential Trump-Kim optics, the “inter-Korean” basket, consumer, construction, transport, and logistics names that often pop on peace signals, has witnessed rash, rumor driven actions. This is a sentiment barometer, not a prediction machine. In effect, traders are pricing in a higher likelihood of headline level de-escalation, which may lower volatility but would not change fundamentals, and a smaller likelihood of a DMZ cameo.
HOW TO READ THE SIGNALING
The best approach to interpret the upcoming two weeks is to view restraint and pressure as complimentary strategies. The goal of North Korea’s testing is to strengthen its negotiating position and maintain the nuclear status quo. Silencing speakers, restricting pamphlets, and halting JSA visits are all examples of South Korea’s calm restraint, which lowers friction and maintains a path for optics that may, if only momentarily, temper the mood. China, on the other hand, is in an ideal position, close enough to Pyongyang to influence the atmosphere, but far enough away to avoid responsibility for the outcome. Furthermore, Kim may play for time, extract military and economic value, and wait for better conditions before considering anything that appears to be a restraint thanks to Russia’s growing support for North Korea.
THE BOTTOM LINE: CALIBERATED THEATER
The most likely scenario for APEC’s opening is a well-balanced theater that avoids a crisis and highlights South Korea’s capacity as both the host and a middle power. There will be strict upfront security. The main concerns of supply chains, tariffs, and chips will probably remain parked at “frameworks” and “working groups” when Trump and Xi meet and exchange jabs shrouded in diplomatic jargon. Pyongyang will keep showcasing its capabilities without resorting to a red-line reaction. Every rumor of a border cameo will cause the markets to fluctuate. Seoul will also record little victories, such as a clean summit, a few technical deliverables, and, with luck, a humanitarian foundation that it can grow into something more.
Every few months, BBC India publishes a piece that blurs the line between journalism and psychological warfare. Recently, it published an essay titled “Gen Z rising? Why young Indians aren’t taking to the streets”, the latest addition to this tradition of subtle sabotage.
At first glance, the article poses a harmless sociological question: why is India’s Gen Z, despite being vast, restless, and hyper-connected, not staging revolutions like their peers in Nepal or Bangladesh? Scratch the surface, and the essay reads less like an analysis and more like an incitement, an open call for Indian youth to “rise up” in rebel and imitate the chaos unfolding across the border.
For a platform that insists on its neutrality, the BBC’s romanticisation of violent uprisings is striking. Its tone suggests disappointment, not relief, that Indian students haven’t yet taken to arson, vandalism, and regime change. And this isn’t merely a colonial hangover yearning to see a former subject in disarray for moral sermonising from afar, it’s something far more deliberate, ideological, and deeply political.
A masterclass in subtle agitation
The structure of the BBC’s essay is textbook propaganda. It begins by admiring Asia’s “restless” Gen Z, those brave young souls who “brought down governments in 48 hours” as if the collapse of institutions were a badge of progress.
Then comes the inevitable comparison: India’s youth are “fragmented”, “afraid”, and “detached”. The implication is clear: they are failing their generational duty by not rioting.
The framing is psychological, not analytical. Words like “fear of being branded anti-national” and “government demonising protest” are planted to stir guilt, not introspection. This is not journalism seeking to understand why Indian youth are calm. It is agitation disguised as analysis, a suggestion that calmness equals cowardice and restraint equals repression.
The Nepal Template: BBC’s new obsession
The piece finds its inspiration in neighbouring Nepal, where a supposed “Gen Z revolution” toppled the KP Oli government in September 2025. BBC describes it with almost cinematic flair as if watching a historic moment of youthful heroism.
But behind the glamour lies a gruesome truth. The Nepal uprising left nearly 20 dead, homes of former prime ministers burnt, ministers assaulted, and heritage sites like the Singha Durbar complex vandalised. The army had to impose curfew, and the country now teeters on military rule.
BBC, however, cherry-picks this chaos as a success story, a “template” India’s youth should supposedly emulate. What the article doesn’t tell you is that even Nepali protestors themselves distanced themselves from the violence, insisting that infiltrators had hijacked their movement.
But why would the BBC mention that? Because the purpose is not to inform. The purpose is to seed an idea that India’s “restless” Gen Z should follow the “heroic” footsteps of Nepal’s rioters.
Selective amnesia: When protests turn bloody
Notice how the BBC recalls India’s past street movements from the Anna Hazare agitation to the CAA protests with nostalgia, as though they were the golden age of dissent. Yet, when it comes to the blood, destruction, and communal fractures those protests left behind, the BBC goes conveniently silent.
In the CAA protests, mobs burnt public property, blocked roads, and in Delhi, communal violence erupted, leaving over 50 people dead. The “student leaders” the BBC now romanticises were not Gandhian satyagrahis but radical organisers accused of fomenting riots.
By portraying such movements as “noble” while lamenting today’s absence of similar uprisings, the BBC is essentially mourning the loss of chaos. It misses the era when India could be portrayed as “unstable” and “oppressive”, headlines that sell better in London newsrooms than “India growing at 8%.”
The ‘anti-national’ smokescreen
A key rhetorical device in the article is the term “anti-national.” According to the BBC’s framing, the fear of being labelled anti-national has paralysed young Indians from taking to the streets. It’s a clever trick, equating national pride with authoritarianism and dissent with heroism.
But the reality is that Indians have simply matured. They’ve seen how “activism” can be weaponised by vested interests. From Shaheen Bagh’s organised blockades to foreign-funded NGOs masquerading as student movements, Gen Z is not silent because it is scared; it is silent because it has grown wiser.
They’ve realised that burning buses doesn’t create jobs, pelting stones doesn’t fix corruption, and toppling governments doesn’t guarantee a better tomorrow. India’s Gen Z is building startups, writing code, making films, and exploring the world, not wasting its energy on political theatre staged by external puppeteers.
The Ghost of 2019: BBC’s nostalgia for street anarchy
When the BBC invokes Umar Khalid’s incarceration and Jamia clashes, it’s not as an academic reference; it’s an emotional trigger. It wants to rekindle the memory of “brutal state suppression” and reframe 2019 as unfinished business.
The subtext is unmistakable: “You saw what happened to your seniors. Don’t you want to fight back?” This is not journalism, it’s emotional manipulation.
The BBC pretends to mourn the “loss of university protest culture” but what it’s really mourning is the Modi government’s success in restoring campus discipline and stopping educational institutions from being hijacked by political outfits.
India’s campuses have evolved from battlegrounds of ideological indoctrination to hubs of innovation. That transformation, of course, is intolerable to the BBC, which prefers its Indian youth angry, aimless, and anti-establishment.
Fragmented or free? BBC’s doublethink
Throughout the article, the BBC presents India’s diversity as a weakness, stating that the country’s youth cannot unite because they’re divided by caste, language, and region. But the same diversity is celebrated as “vibrant multiculturalism” when convenient.
In Nepal or Bangladesh, homogeneity makes mass mobilisation easy. But in India, decentralisation is the soul of democracy. The BBC calls this “fragmentation.” Indians call it federalism.
BBC’s yearning for a “unified national youth uprising” betrays its colonial mindset, an obsession with singularity, uniformity, and chaos that can be broadcast as crisis.
The West’s problem: India’s stability
The BBC’s disappointment is not with India’s youth, it’s with India’s stability. Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are useful examples for Western media precisely because they remain unstable enough to be studied as “exotic democracies.” But India, with its 370 million Gen Z citizens and yet an unbroken constitutional order, spoils that narrative.
Every election, including 2024, proves that young Indians are not disillusioned but discerning. The BJP continues to command strong youth support, not through coercion, but through performance, infrastructure, welfare, nationalism, and digital empowermentThis is why BBC’s claim that youth “avoid politics” rings hollow.
Young Indians have simply migrated from street activism to digital and electoral activism where their voice matters more and their protest doesn’t get hijacked by professional anarchists.
BBC’s hidden despair: The Modi factor
At the heart of the BBC’s lament is not sociology but politics. The Western establishment, led by outlets like BBC, The Guardian, and The New York Times, has never forgiven Narendra Modi for two things: First, for unapologetically asserting India’s Hindu civilisational identity; and second, for doing so democratically, through the ballot, not the bullet.
When Modi consecrated the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, it wasn’t merely a religious ceremony; it was a civilisational correction. It signalled to the world that India will no longer apologise for its faith, nor define secularism as the absence of Hindu identity. For the BBC’s worldview, this was blasphemy.
It thrives on binaries: majority equals oppressor, nationalism equals fascism, stability equals authoritarianism. So when India’s youth reject these binaries and choose progress over protest, the BBC’s ideological ecosystem panics.
The Western media’s revolt fetish
There’s something disturbingly voyeuristic about how Western outlets cover uprisings in the Global South. They cheer revolutions from afar, then disappear when the rubble sets in.
From the Arab Spring to the Sri Lankan protests, Western media lionised “youth-led revolts” only to move on when those countries slid into instability, hyperinflation, or civil conflict. Now they’re looking for a new playground, and India, with its vast youth population, is the ultimate prize.
That’s why the BBC’s essay reads less like journalism and more like a recruitment poster: “Look at your neighbours. Don’t you want to be like them?”
But Indians are no longer gullible. They’ve seen how these “leaderless” movements end, not in democracy, but in disarray.
The real Gen Z revolution: Silent, digital, and decisive
India’s Gen Z doesn’t need to storm the streets to make history. Their revolution is quieter but deeper in startups, civic tech, digital governance, and a renewed pride in identity. They’re coding the next Aadhaar, not chanting slogans on the streets of Delhi. They’re earning in dollars from Tier-3 towns, not burning tyres on highways.
This is the new face of Indian dissent, constructive, not destructive. And that’s precisely what unnerves the BBC, a generation that cannot be radicalised, only inspired.
Why the BBC wants India to bleed
When the BBC writes that India’s Gen Z is “watchful but not rebellious,” it’s not a compliment. It’s a lament. What it truly wants is footage of broken glass, tear gas, and tricolour-tinted turmoil that can once again depict India as a land of unrest.
Because for the BBC, a peaceful, confident, and self-assured India under Modi is the ultimate nightmare. It cannot process a Hindu-majority democracy that thrives without apologising for its faith, that dismantles the street veto, and that refuses to bow to Western moral lecturing.
The same BBC that glorified arson in Kathmandu would call it “democratic expression” in Delhi, until, of course, the fires spread too close to its own embassies.
Rahul Gandhi and the BBC Connection
Interestingly, BBC’s provocation hasn’t echoed in isolation. Within days of the Nepal uprising that toppled KP Oli’s government, Rahul Gandhi suddenly discovered his newfound love for India’s Gen Z, timing that can only be described as politically convenient.
On X, Gandhi proclaimed that ‘Gen Z will save the Constitution and stop voter fraud,’ followed by his party’s bizarre attempt at a “Gen Z anthem”, a rap song romanticising rage and rebellion, branding it as the “voice of young India.”
It’s not difficult to see the perfect symmetry between BBC’s lament and Congress’s latest gimmick. The British broadcaster frames Indian youth as subdued victims of fear; Rahul Gandhi steps in to “awaken” them with slogans, songs, and curated outrage. One lays the intellectual groundwork, the other provides the political script.
This synchronisation isn’t accidental; it’s ecosystemic. Both share the same premise: that India’s youth must rebel, not reform; destroy, not debate. The BBC writes the narrative; the Congress amplifies it, hoping a spark on social media will ignite on the streets.
India’s calm is its reassurance in its current leadership
But so far, the Indian youth has reposed its faith in democracy and its current leadership. But it is not just trust, it is so much more than that.
The genius of India’s democracy is not in its noise, but in its restraint. For a billion people to coexist, argue, and vote without burning down their capital is not a weakness. It’s civilisation.
The BBC may crave another Shaheen Bagh, but India has moved on. The Modi government has redefined the idea of participation from street revolts to digital empowerment, from protests to policy engagement. And India’s youth, far from being “suppressed,” are simply too busy building the nation BBC loves to doubt.
So, no, Gen Z is not “failing” its destiny. It’s fulfilling it in silence. And that silence, for the BBC, is deafening.
In poll-bound Bihar, political parties are trying all tactics at hand to woo voters on their side, be it promising freebies, welfare schemes to serving hollow rhetorics. Call it uncouthness or self-goal, the supporters of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are threatening people with the return of the infamous Gunda Raj if they are voted to power.
Songs with obscene visuals and cheap lyrics have been a part of poll campaigns in Bihar. However, RJD supporters are making songs with crowd brandishing guns, rifles and lathis, glorifying violence, implying dominance, caste-based intimidation, specifically a “Yadav Raj”, abduction of those who dare to oppose them.
YouTube and Instagram are flooding with pro-RJD song tracks and reels racking up thousands of views.
In one such song,”Koi boltere, Rabri Yadav ji ke raj chali” (Rabri Yadav’s rule is coming), the lyrics glorify the idea of ‘Yadav supremacy’ just as it used to be during the Gunda Raj in the era of RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav during 1990s.
*USE headphones… ?
RJD = यादवों का राज? ?
बिहार में 1990 का गुंडाराज वापस लाने की तैयारी है?
Another song threating kidnap says “Bhaiya ke aave da satta mein, katta sata ke utha lebo ghara se re” (Let bhaiya come in power, we will abduct you from you house by point gun at you). This song released on YouTube on 7th October has garnered over 2 lakh views.
Similarly, one song titled “RJD sarkar banto, bhaiya rangdaar banto” (When RJD will form government, bhaiya (Yadav) will become rangdaar/mafia dons) by Deepak Raj Yadav also glorifies RJD’s hooliganism. The song contains lyrics saying that Yadavs will become mafia rangdaar after RJD comes to power and weapons will be kept in every home.
Not only the supporters of RJD but actor and RJD candidate from Chhapra, Khesari Lal Yadav also featured in a casteist song promoting ‘Yadav supremacy’. In the “Maar dehab goli…Ahirey ke chali” (Ahirs will dominate) song released around four months back, Khesari Yadav is seen performing on glorifying lathi and rifle of ‘Yadav ji’.
Recently, Khesari Yadav drew flak from the BJP for his vulgar songs. In his defence, the actor and singer-turned politician said that some of his songs were a “mistake”. To justify the vulgarity in his songs, Khesari even said that his songs do not cause waterlogging, or ruin education system, not realising that casteist and obscene content he is creating and promoting is flooding the minds of Bihari youth, especially his supporters with caste-supremacist mindset and justification of violence to establish caste dominance.
Another song composed by a group of RJD supporters titled, “Lalu ji ke laalten, Tejashwi ji ke tel”, essentially says that those against RJD will be burnt with matchsticks.
There are numerous Bhojpuri songs glorifying Yadav caste, caste-based violence and gun culture. One such song has lyrics saying this is an era of Ahirs/Yadavs and thus everyone will have to bow down before them.
Similarly, one song contains lyrics “Jab tak suraj chand rahega, Ahir rangdaar rahega”.
‘भैया के आवे दे सत्ता में, रे उठा लेब सटा के कट्टा घरा से रे’
बिहार चुनाव आते ही, राजद समर्थित, यादवों के नाम पर गुंडागर्दी करने वाले यूट्यूबिये गायक अभी से जंगलराज की धमकी दे रहे हैं।
जिस लालू के जंगलराज की वजह से इतने साल से विपक्ष में हैं आज भी RJD के सपने उसी जंगलराज के… pic.twitter.com/8K9eXQC8QK
RJD and its supporters want Yadav-dominant Gunda Raj in Bihar?
Casteism, glorification of crime, violence and obscenity have become too mainstream in Bihar elections to ignore. What seems like harmless entertainment and mere over-dramatization, in reality, gives a glimpse of how Bihar could actually get engulfed in caste-based violence, revenge attacks and utter chaos if those intending to establish supremacy of one particular caste manage to get to the helm of power.
These concerns cannot be dismissed as mere apprehension given the Gunda Raj or Jungle Raj in Bihar during the era of scam-convicted RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1990s and early 2000s. During 15 -year RJD rule, law enforcement collapsed, crimes became rampant, economy decayed, kidnappings for ransom became a thriving industry, mass murders, caste clashes became the new normal. This opprobrious era also marked the rise of brutal ‘Bahubalis’ like Mohammed Shahabuddin and Mohammed Taslimuddin, who ran their fiefdom with impunity. Police became puppet of the RJD government, and migration of youth in search of job and to flee violence contributed to the law and economic collapse in the state. The murder of Dalit IAS Officer G Krishnaiyyah, Champa Biswas rape case, Shilpi-Gautam rape and murder case and numerous such cases are enough to remind what era of horror Lalu’s Jungle Raj was.
However, the Yadavs enjoyed caste-based dominance. In fact, Rohini Acharya’s mob-style wedding exemplified that dominance RJD and its supporters enjoyed based on the Kursi and Bandook (power and gun). Car dealerships and furniture shops were looted all while the police was either hand-in-glove or turned a blind eye to save themselves. Apparently, the casteist songs being made by pro-RJD content creators advocate for a return of Gunda Raj/Jungle Raj where pro-RJD Ahirs would rule the ruins.
It took many years for Lalu Yadav to face conviction in corruption cases. While Bihar has become no utopia in post RJD days, the state’s return to the same Gunda raj and one-caste-dominance era will essentially kill all hopes for Bihar’s development and rise.
In the world of journalism, timing often reveals more than the headlines do. Just weeks after The News Minute and its editor-in-chief Dhanya Rajendran were exposed for their role in amplifying the baseless Dharmasthala “mass grave” hoax, a calculated attempt to vilify one of Karnataka’s most hallowed Hindu institutions, she has found herself nominated for a global “press freedom” award.
The award in question, the “Impact Prize of the Year 2025” by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), lauds Rajendran’s supposed “fight for press freedom” and “leadership in independent media.” Yet, for anyone who has followed the Dharmasthala scandal and The News Minute’s abominable coverage, the nomination reeks less of journalistic honour and more of ideological endorsement.
The Dharmasthala hoax: Anatomy of a manufactured scandal
In July this year, the tranquil temple town of Dharmasthala found itself at the heart of a grotesque narrative. A man named C.N. Chinnaiah claimed he had buried “hundreds of bodies” between 1995 and 2014, allegedly victims of ritualistic murders covered up by the temple trust. Without evidence, the Congress-led Karnataka government jumped to action, forming a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and setting off a frenzy of media sensationalism.
Leading the pack was The News Minute. The portal treated the story as a national crisis, running detailed “explainers,” frequent updates, and sombre analyses of what it called “grave allegations.” It was a perfect media storm, a poor man’s confession, a powerful temple, and a story that seemed to confirm the liberal establishment’s caricature of Hindu institutions as dark, superstitious power centres, and a hub of criminal activities.
But the scandal collapsed just as swiftly as it began. The SIT found nothing. Seventeen of the eighteen alleged burial sites yielded no evidence. Chinnaiah himself admitted he had been coached, paid, and promised protection by handlers who instructed him to play his part. The skull he produced as proof turned out to be a prop. What was left was the wreckage of a hoax, a deliberate attempt to malign Dharmasthala and its dharmadhikari, Dr. Veerendra Heggade, under the cover of “whistleblowing.”
Propaganda by amplification
The News Minute’s defence is predictable: it did not “accuse,” it merely “reported.” But propaganda rarely announces itself in bold letters; it seeps in through repetition and framing. By repeatedly publishing unverified claims, by giving credibility to an uncorroborated story, The News Minute helped transform a fringe allegation into a mainstream narrative.
This is the subtlety of modern propaganda; it weaponises neutrality. When a temple or Hindu institution is the target, the media cloaks its hostility in the language of “investigation.” When the perpetrators are Islamist, the same media finds moral ambiguity. The News Minute’s record bears this out: the Ajmer Dargah sex scandal, where over 100 Hindu girls were raped and blackmailed by Congress-affiliated Khadims, barely found mention on its website. No “timelines,” no “deep-dives” or “analysis” on one of the biggest scandals to have rocked the nation.
Similarly, when The Kerala Story depicted the testimonies of Hindu and Christian women lured, converted, and trafficked to ISIS, TNM dismissed it as “propaganda.” Yet, a completely fabricated story about a Hindu temple burying bodies became “serious journalism.”
And on top of it, the TNM didn’t even issue an apology for its misleading coverage on Dharmasthala, which may have shaped opinions of if not hundred but at least a handful of their ‘subscribers’ or viewers/readers who may have accidentally stumbled upon their coverage of how a temple was at the centre of a raging controversy involving ‘mass graves’.
This is not journalism gone wrong, it is journalism gone rogue.
A pattern of selective morality
The bias is systematic. When the victim is Hindu, the story becomes a national debate. When the perpetrator is Islamist or Church-linked, silence reigns. TNM has no appetite for covering mosque encroachments in Uttarakhand, Love Jihad cases, or sexual abuse in seminaries. But it spares no effort in casting suspicion on Hindu temples.
This selective morality is not accidental, it is ideological. It aligns perfectly with the Western-funded “secular” discourse that sees Hindu civilisational confidence as a threat and portrays it as fundamentalism. In this worldview, Hindu religiosity is “dangerous,” while Islamic radicalism is “contextual.”
RSF: The western arbiter of ‘freedom’
Enter Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based NGO now celebrating Rajendran’s “courage.” On the surface, RSF presents itself as a global watchdog for press freedom. In reality, it is a soft power instrument, funded by Western governments and billionaire philanthropists to shape media narratives in developing nations.
RSF’s donors include the French Foreign Ministry, European Commission, Swedish SIDA, the Ford Foundation, and most crucially, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S. government-funded organisation widely known as the CIA’s soft arm for regime change. Add to that George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF), and the puzzle assembles itself.
Soros, who famously vowed to “fight nationalists and authoritarian governments,” has long considered India under PM Modi one of his “greatest setbacks.” His OSF network funds a web of Indian NGOs, media portals, and “civil society” actors that consistently amplify anti-India and anti-Hindu narratives. Among its known beneficiaries are Scroll, ICIJ affiliates in Indian Express, Harsh Mander, Amartya Sen, Indira Jaising, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Yamini Aiyar.
RSF’s India ‘Fact File’: A study in bias
One need only glance at RSF’s own reporting on India to understand its political motivation. Its “India Fact File” casually refers to Modi supporters as “Bhakts,” mocks “Godi Media,” and blames the PM for a “press freedom crisis.” One doesn’t expect an outlet claiming to uphold principles of journalism, both in letter and spirit, to indulge in such brazen acts of dehumanisation and name-calling of dissenting opinions. But that’s what RSF has mastered in.
Besides, RSF’s own data only reinforces this assertion. Between 2004 and 2013 during the Congress-led UPA era, India’s press freedom rank plummeted from 120 to 140. Under Modi, it has oscillated between 133 and 150. The decline began under UPA, but RSF conveniently starts its timeline from 2014. Data, for RSF, is merely decoration on an ideological conclusion.
Even its rankings are farcical. India, where thousands of media outlets operate freely, is often placed below Mexico, where journalists are routinely murdered by drug cartels; below Turkey, where hundreds of journalists remain imprisoned; and even below Somalia, a country that barely has functioning law enforcement.
The Soros connection: Funding narratives, not journalism
To understand RSF’s worldview, one must understand Soros’s network. His Open Society Foundations operates as a global narrative factory, funding “independent” media that toe the Global Left line. In India, Soros’ influence runs through Omidyar Network (which backs Alt News, The Wire, and The Quint), Namati (linked to Amartya Sen and Pratap Bhanu Mehta), and the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), which invests in “independent” portals like Scroll.
The goal is not journalistic diversity but narrative control to shape how India is perceived abroad and debated at home. By funding a network of “fact-checkers,” activists, and NGOs, Soros and his ideological partners ensure that any dissent from the Western liberal orthodoxy is branded “nationalist,” “Hindutva,” or “authoritarian.”
It is no surprise then that RSF, Soros’s ideological ally, frequently rewards journalists who fit this mould, those who conflate “free speech” with anti-national activism and “press freedom” with government bashing.
From Pegasus to Dharmasthala: The ecosystem in action
RSF’s network overlaps seamlessly with another Soros-backed initiative, Forbidden Stories. The group claims to “continue the work of threatened journalists,” but in practice, it serves as a content pipeline for anti-national and problematic narratives. In India, Forbidden Stories was behind the Pegasus spyware hoax, which The Wire gleefully fronted before it was debunked by the Supreme Court.
The same familiar names reappear. Siddharth Varadarajan, Swati Chaturvedi, Sushant Singh, and RSF’s India correspondent Shubhranshu Choudhary, all part of the same ideological web. When one narrative fails, the other picks up the baton. When one organisation is called out, the other one works as a proxy, so that the gullible India is compelled into believing they are living in a dystopian world under the current dispensation. When one hoax collapses, another is born. And each time, the reward is the same: international acclaim, a new “freedom” award, or an invitation to a Western symposium on “press safety.”
Dhanya Rajendran’s nomination fits this pattern perfectly. Just as her credibility was dented by the Dharmasthala fiasco, RSF steps in to polish her image to elevate her from propagandist to martyr. It is the same cycle of mutual reinforcement that has kept India’s “Lutyens media” relevant long after it lost public trust.
When awards become tools to shape narratives and reward loyalty
These awards are not meaningless trophies; they are tools of narrative laundering. They grant legitimacy to those who serve the ideological interests of their patrons. Once a journalist is branded an “award-winning defender of freedom,” any criticism of their bias becomes “attacks on free press.”
This international validation is then weaponised within India. The same journalists, now armed with Western badges of honour, lecture domestic audiences about “declining democracy” and “rising intolerance.” Western outlets like The Guardian, BBC, and Washington Post cite RSF rankings to question India’s democratic credentials. The circle completes itself: fund, amplify, reward, and repeat.
Truth becomes casualty in the game of propaganda
The real casualty in this game is truth itself. The Dharmasthala scandal showed how easily lies can be weaponised when cloaked in journalistic respectability. It showed how Hindu institutions, despite centuries of service, are one fabricated allegation away from global defamation. If someone from the nationalist bent tries to report on the Ajmer sex scandal, instead of outraging over safety of women, the attention is quickly diverted by screaming ‘Islamophobia’ and branding such coverage as ‘alarmism’.
Meanwhile, proven atrocities like the Ajmer Dargah sex scandal or the ISIS grooming networks in Kerala fade into silence. Victims vanish from memory because their stories do not serve the global Left’s narrative of a “Hindu majoritarian India.”
This inversion of morality, where Hindu institutions are presumed guilty until proven innocent, and Islamist crimes are ignored unless politically convenient, is the defining feature of this ecosystem.
The Soros-style reward system
The nomination of Dhanya Rajendran by Reporters Without Borders is not an isolated event, it is part of a broader pattern of narrative management. It rewards ideological conformity, not journalistic integrity. It recognises those who amplify disinformation against India while ignoring those who expose it.
That an editor who helped mainstream a fabricated story against a Hindu temple now finds herself feted by Soros-linked institutions is no coincidence, it is choreography. It is how global influence networks operate: using awards, reports, and “freedom” indices as tools of psychological warfare against self-respecting nations.
In the end, the RSF’s award may glimmer under Parisian lights, but its meaning is hollow. It is not a tribute to courage; it is a medal for complicity. Months after Dharmasthala was falsely smeared, the ecosystem that engineered the outrage now celebrates its own. The propaganda machine applauds itself, even as truth lies buried, this time, not in any forest of Karnataka, but beneath the rubble of Western hypocrisy and domestic deceit.
In Arunachal Pradesh, a massive protest is ongoing as thousands of people from 27 districts, 26 major tribes, and 100 sub-tribes have taken to streets. The locals are demanding the immediate implementation of the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act (APFRA), 1978, a 46-year-old anti-conversion law.
On 20th October, Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFCSAP) organised a “Chalo Itanagar” rally in the capital city of Itanagar. Dressed in traditional attire, the protestors said that the increasing religious conversions are threatening traditional beliefs like Donyi-Polo. “Donyi” means sun and “Polo” means moon, symbolizing Arunachal Pradesh’s ancient faith. Besides Donyi Polo, Christianity and Hinduism, Arunachal Pradesh is also home to the followers of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism.
? Massive Unrest in Arunachal Pradesh, North East India ??
Huge protests rock Changlang, Arunachal Pradesh after reports claim illegal Rohingya migrants from Bangladesh have built colonies & mosques on government land ⚠️
Dr. Amy Rumi, president of the organization, said that the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act was passed in 1978, just months after the first session of the Legislative Assembly. He said that the law also received the assent of the then President, however, till now the law has not been implemented.
“If this law is implemented, our culture, tradition, and religious identity will be protected,” Rumi said.
Image via TOI
Addressing the protestors, lawyer R.S. Loda, said “We don’t want Arunachal Pradesh to lose its original identity like Mizoram or Nagaland, where local beliefs have been eroded by foreign religious propaganda.”
Image via IndiaTodayNE
Those demanding implementation of the anti-conversion law in Arunachal Pradesh assert that the law is not against any religion, rather, it only protects “tribal communities from conversion through allurement or inducement”.
A delegation from the Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFCSAP) met with Home Minister Mama Natung, urging the immediate implementation of the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 1978 (APFRA). They submitted a memorandum pressing for the enforcement of the Act to safeguard the state’s indigenous faith, culture, and tribal identity.
The group said that protection of Arunachal’s tribal heritage is becoming increasingly urgent amid external influences and rising concerns over cultural erosion.
It is essential to note that there has been a significant increase in Christian population and conversion activities in the state over the years.
Alarmingly, the Christian population in Arunachal Pradesh has gone from 0.79% in the 1971 Census, to 30.26% in the 2011 Census. The share of Other Religions and Persuasions (ORP) in 1971 was 63.46% and in 2011 census, it was 26.20%.
The share of Hindu population in 1971 was 22% and in 2011 it was 29.04%. The Buddhis population in 1971 census comprised around 13% but in 2011, the share dwindled to 11.77%. Meanwhile, Muslims have gone from 0.18% in 1971 to 1.95% in 2011 census.
Source: Census data/ Centre for Policy Studies
Christians oppose the APFRA law
Predictably, the Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) is opposing the law and its president Tarh Miri argues that the “anti-conversion law violates religious freedom and targets Christians.” In February this year, the ACF had organised an 8-hour long hunger strike in protest against the anti-conversion law.
Earlier this year, Naga Baptist Church Council general secretary Rev Zelhou Keyho wrote a letter to Chief Minister Pema Khandu and claimed that APFRA is not intended to preserve traditional religion but to supress Christians.
“The real intention of the APFRA was not to preserve traditional religion but to suppress a particular religious group of those days… On the ground that the Act is unconstitutional, your people and the region stood to oppose the Bill… Looking at the present situation in the country, a lot has changed, and we know very well what will happen to your people, especially those of the Christian community in your state,” the letter read.
“We do not need to mention how the law (anti-conversion laws) is misused to unnecessarily persecute Christians in other parts of the country. Our common sense tells us that the same will happen to your peace-loving people, and this will spill over to the whole region,” it added.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu reaffirmed commitment to preserve indigenous faiths and traditions
In July this year, Arunachal Pradesh’s Chief Minister Pema Khandu reaffirmed the BJP government’s commitment to promote and preserve the indigenous faiths of the state. He called them the spiritual and cultural soul of the tribal communities.
The Chief Minister published an X post wherein he elaborated on why indigenous faiths are required to be preserved. He said that unlike major religions, indigenous faiths “don’t come from books, but from land, memory, and lived tradition. They are not exported, they are rooted. They hold the soul of our people, our forests, mountains, rivers, and ancestors.”
Why are Indigenous faiths so important to preserve, unlike major religions?
Because they don’t come from books, but from land, memory, and lived tradition. They are not exported, they are rooted. They hold the soul of our people, our forests, mountains, rivers, and ancestors.… pic.twitter.com/RVhXUdqVq4
— Pema Khandu པདྨ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་། (@PemaKhanduBJP) July 24, 2025
To promote and preserve native faiths, CM Khandu also announced 6 Indigenous Gurukuls for Adi, Galo, Nyishi, and Tangsa tribes, Honorarium to 3,000+ registered indigenous priests, Tribal Cultural Centres in all districts and 50 Indigenous Prayer Centres across the state.
In December 2024, CM Khand announced that the Department of Indigenous Affairs will now be renamed to include the words Indigenous Faith and Culture. He called it “a step forward in our commitment to preserving, promoting and protecting the rich heritage of indigenous traditions.”
Indigenous faiths have been an integral part of humanity since time immemorial, even before the advent of organized religions. I am delighted to announce that the Department of Indigenous Affairs will now be renamed to include the words Indigenous Faith and Culture, a step… pic.twitter.com/TfIoeF54dh
The Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act came into existence in October 1978 to “provide for prohibition of conversion from one religious faith to any other religious faith by use of force or inducement or by fraudulent means and for matters connected therewith.”
The legislation, which received the assent of the President of India, was aimed to protect indigenous religions, beliefs and practices.
It identified several ‘indigenous Faiths’ including Buddhism (practiced by the Monpas, Membas, Sherdukpens, Khambas, Khamptis and Singphos), Vaishnavism (practised by Noctes), Akas and Nature worshippers (including worshippers of Dunyi-Polo).
Section 3 of the Arunachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act clearly says – “No person shall convert or attempt to converts, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to any other religious faith by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means nor shall any person abet any such conversion.”
The law further states that anyone found violating Section 3 would be liable to a fine of up to ₹10,000 and punished with maximum imprisonment of up to 2 years.
It also mandates imitating the Deputy Commissioner of the particular district (in Arunachal Pradesh) about the conversion of an individual from a religious faith to another. Failure to do so is punishable with imprisonment of up to 1 year and a fine of up to ₹1000.
“An offence under this Act shall be cognizable and shall not be investigated by an officer below the rank of an Inspector of Police,” states Section 6 of the legislation.
Meanwhile, the law also states categorically that prosecution under the Act needs prior sanction from the Deputy Commissioner of police or authorisation from an officer now below the rank of Extra Assistant Commissioner.
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Gauhati High Court seeking the enactment of rules by the government of Arunachal Pradesh for the implementation of the anti-conversion law. The major breakthrough in the case came in September 2024.
A 2-judge Bench of Justices Kardak Ete and Budi Habung closed the PIL after examining the response of Advocate General I. Choudhury, who pointed out that it would require 6 months for the government to frame rules.
“We expect the concerned authorities to be mindful of their obligations and the draft rules would be finalized within a period of 6(six) months from today,” the Guwahati High Court noted in its order on 30th September 2024.
Notably, CM Khandu has already clarified that following the direction of the Guwahati High Court, the government is supposed to prepare the draft rule within six months. This deadline is ending this month (October 2025).
It is paramount that the state government enact the APFRA or anti-conversion law to protect the religious demography and preserve indigenous faiths and traditions. While Christian groups are seeing the law as an attack on their religious identity, the APFRA if and when implemented will only be against conversions to Christianity carried out either forcefully or for any sort of allurement.
The prospects of an expected diplomatic thaw between Russia and the USA have dimmed again after US President Donald Trump termed a planned summit with Vladimir Putin as a ‘wasted meeting’. The meeting has been postponed indefinitely, and Trump has proceeded with major sanctions on Russian oil giants.
The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed some major sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest oil producers, state-owned Rosneft and privately held Lukoil, along with key subsidiaries, soon after the White House confirmed that the Budapest summit between Trump and Putin, which they had declared last week, has been postponed and there are ‘no plans’ for the two leaders to meet in the near future.
The White House has reportedly informed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a “productive call” but opted against an in-person meeting, further cementing the speculations that Russia is not agreeing to what US is proposing.
Lavrov rejects ‘immediate ceasefire’ demand by the US: Reports
Russia, on the other hand, had stated that US can’t postpone something that was never scheduled in the first place. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov downplayed the US posturing, saying, “You can’t postpone what was never scheduled.”
The lack of trust between Western powers and Russia has been the consistent, and probably the major reason why there has been no definitive progress in peace talks so far.
“European countries are currently showing no interest in peace and are doing nothing to promote it; on the contrary, their leaders are encouraging Kiev to continue military operations”, Dmitry Peskov had recently stated.
As per reports, the US reaction has come after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected key US proposals for an immediate ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war without territorial concessions from Kyiv.
“It is now being said from Washington that there is a need to stop immediately, that there is no need to discuss anything further, and that ‘history should judge’. If we just stop, it means forgetting the root causes of this conflict, which the American administration clearly understood and voiced this understanding upon Trump’s assumption of power, Lavrov was quoted as saying by the NYT.
Just last Thursday, Trump spoke with Putin and expressed optimism for “great progress.”
‘Tremendous sanctions’
Trump declared In an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, “These are tremendous sanctions, against their two big oil companies”, adding that he hoped they would be short-lived if peace talks resume.
The recent sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil and their subsidiaries are the first major sanctions by the USA directly on Russian oil, as per reports. US Treasury has stated that they want Russia to agree to a ceasefire ‘immediately’. Rosneft and Lukoil, together with their subsidiaries, account of nearly half of Russia’s oil.
Speaking to media, Trump claimed that he hopes the sanctions will make Russia agree to talk with Ukraine. “They hate each other, these people hate each other”, he added, referring to Putin and Zelenskyy.
US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting oil companies Lukoil & Rosneft. The US Treasury Department said it was prepared to take further action as it called on Moscow to agree immediately to a ceasefire in Russia's war… pic.twitter.com/HvWcuImctw
Trump then went on to boast how he had stopped 7 wars around the world, repeating his debunked lie of stopping the India-Pakistan conflict in May.
Putin’s response to US sanctions: Overseeing a massive drill of Russia’s nuclear forces
Hours after the sanctions were announced, Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a sweeping readiness drill of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, involving all three arms of the triad, land, sea and air.
Speaking via video link from the Kremlin, Putin directed launches of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a Sineva ballistic missile from the nuclear submarine Bryansk in the Barents Sea, and nuclear-capable cruise missiles from Tu-95MS strategic bombers.
The exercise, described by the Kremlin as a planned test of operational skills, simulated nuclear weapon authorisation procedures and confirmed all missiles struck their targets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches, an exercise that came as his planned summit on Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump was put on hold. pic.twitter.com/bWRmIAxFAY
Though the drill was stated as planned, its timing is crucial. The drill has occurred a mere three days after NATO’s nuclear exercise, Steadfast Noon and hours after the fresh US sanctions.
7️⃣0️⃣ aircraft from 1️⃣4️⃣ Allied countries are taking part in NATO’s annual nuclear deterrence exercise, Steadfast Noon.
This long-planned, routine training event is part of NATO’s ongoing efforts to maintain readiness and promote transparency regarding its nuclear posture pic.twitter.com/Po10byBhGs
The Atlantic Council has welcomed Trump’s sanctions and noted that this is not a ‘maximal blow’ yet, and “Putin still thinks he can outlast any Western leader in pursuing this war of conquest.”
With these developments, it is clear that despite posturing and declarations of ‘pressure’ by NATO nations, Russia is unwilling to commit to a ceasefire until its requirements are met.
The nuclear drill is also a reminder to the world that Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet, with over 5500 warheads.
