Firstpost Editor's Picks: European settlers and Islamophobia, #MainBhiChowkidar, Milan Talkies review; today's must-read stories

Why New Zealand shooter's Islamophobia is unfounded: History shows European settlers were worst oppressors

The prime minister of New Zealand said after the massacre that she would change the country’s gun laws. This will of course help prevent future violence. It is astonishing that nations allow civilians to purchase and keep high powered rifles with large magazine capacities whose only purpose is war. America’s resistance to gun control has inflicted the greatest massacres on its population, including its children.

Main Bhi Chowkidar: Narendra Modi’s catchy slogan aims to seal working class support by focusing on dignity of labour

At one level, the video and the #MainBhiChowkidar slogan effectively kills Rahul Gandhi’s ‘chowkidar chor hai’ (the watchman himself is a thief) jibe that the Congress president has relentlessly propagated as the party’s signature slogan. Rahul's jibe centres around his accusations against the prime minister of corruption in Rafale deal. Be it in public rallies or TV debates, Congress politicians and spokespersons have made liberal use of the slogan to etch it in public memory. The attempt was to emulate the “gali gali mein shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai” slogan of the 1980s around the Bofors scandal.

Raghu Karnad on winning Windham-Campbell Prize, his book on India's role in WWII, and forgotten histories

The win for Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War, a simultaneously emotional, political and dramatic story has maneuvered the author towards returning to what he knows he loves to do best. The Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar awardee has taken a sabbatical from writing until the end of the 2019 national elections but this award has now lit up a path for him for what comes next.