https://www.navjivanindia.com/india/ram-puniyanis-article-rsss-election-strategies-after-lok-sabha-elections-2024 The RSS feels that the main reason for the BJP's fall in seats in the elections is the shift of Dalit votes towards the India alliance. VHP is being activated to deal with this. Its workers will hold meetings in Dalit bastis and have meals with Dalits. To woo Dalits, seers and seers associated with the VHP will organise religious programmes in their settlements. According to The Hindu, "These religious leaders will undertake padayatras in designated places, hold satsangs and dharma samsads, visit homes of Dalits and have meals with them. The programmes will be carried out in 9,000 units of the VHP. "  Trained RSS pracharaks are all around. Through media and social media, they are promoting regressive values. The rot has reached very deep. Defeating the BJP in elections is the first step towards eradicating this rot. Then, we have to promote a social mindset based on the values of our freedom movement. Whether it is history, science or the judicial system, we have to uproot the poisonous plants sown by communal ideology.

In new criminal codes, a missed opportunity https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/in-new-criminal-codes-a-missed-opportunity-9536700/ 
The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal of the Government of India recognises new-age crimes such as cyberbullying, stalking, email hacking etc. Yet, the BNS does not address these aspects.

It is important that the effort and energies of the forest department are devoted more towards the pressing challenges and threats to India's biodiversity rather than to arbitrarily and illegally acting against wildlife researchers. https://thewire.in/environment/of-red-carpets-and-green-tape 

 Across India, wildlife researchers today are being harassed by forest officers for not taking prior permission for photographing and conducting research on wildlife.

At a recent conference in Bengaluru – the Indian Wildlife Ecology Conference 2024 – one common concern among wildlife researchers was the bureaucratic red-tapeism (or more appropriately, ‘green-tapeism’) that leads to severe delays and restrictions in undertaking research on wildlife.

In a country where wildlife researchers are a rarity and funding for research miniscule, scared and traumatised researchers run pillar to post to secure research permits. For them, it is not the tiger that rules the jungle, but the ‘permit raj’ of the forest department, which is the law of the jungle.

by Ritwick Dutta and Tiasa Adhya

28/08/2024