‘If no one entered Indian territory, then how did our 20 Soldiers died?’: Congress asks PM

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday posed five questions for the Centre to answer on government’s position on the Indo-China border conflict over the past 6 weeks that peaked with a deadly clash in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley along the LAC on June 15, resulting in 20 casualties among Indian Army soldiers and an unverified number of deaths on the Chinese side . Among other questions, Sibal alleged that the government was in denial of Chinese “intrusions” as “confirmed” by army generals and satellite imagery and sought to know…

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Coronavirus: When to wear a mask and when you can skip it

The studies on masks aren’t perfectly definitive, but that’s typical of many issues involving health risks — from mercury contamination to cancer screenings. It’s still better to make decisions based on an incomplete body of evidence than to ignore evidence altogether. Science has a lot to say about the effectiveness of wearing a mask to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but the communication of that science has been corrupted by a combination of partisan divides, sensationalist media stories, distrust, false dichotomies, and letting the perfect be the enemy of…

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Govt identifies 67 sites for opening liquor shops in Kashmir

The J&K Government is going to open liquor sale points at different locations in the Kashmir valley, where since 1991 militant groups had declared a ban on its sale and consumption. The Excise Department has identified 183 new locations — 116 in Jammu and 67 in the Kashmir valley — for sale of liquor. According to an official document, the Excise Department has conducted a survey in exercise of the powers under rule 28 of the J&K Liquor and License Rules-1984 and Section 4 (B) of the Excise Act and…

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Bringing the Israeli model to Kashmir

The gradual encroachment on Kashmiri’s rights and the growing prospect of colonisation could set the region on fire. By Anuradha Bhasin For more than 70 years, Kashmiris have lived with the dread of the Indian government changing the demography and special status of Indian-administered Kashmir, which was till recently Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state. Deemed preposterous and exaggerated at one time, these anxieties have now become completely justified and have even deepened. On August 5, 2019, Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which gave the state its special status and…

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