Firstpost Editor's picks: Heckling of Owaisi, Subramanian's overestimation of GDP, Hasan Minhaj in Volume 3 of Patriot Act; today's must-read stories

Heckling Asaduddin Owaisi in Parliament with chants of Jai Shri Ram smacks of an age-old idea of muscular, divisive Hindutva

For the BJP and the Sangh, religion was never a matter of private faith, it also embodies a nation, and therefore the government, its institutions, and its laws. By using Jai Shri Ram to heckle Muslim Members of Parliament like Shafiqur Rahman Barq, Asaduddin Owasi, and taunting member of Trinamool Congress, the BJP MPs took it upon themselves to become a mob that territorialised and marked the secular India Parliament as a religious institution.

Arvind Subramanian's claim on overestimation of GDP is exotic research confined to shelf; CSO should focus on improving robustness of data

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PM Modi to chair 8th governing council meeting of NITI Aayog today

Delhi services row: CM Arvind Kejriwal writes to PM, to skip Niti Aayog meet

What is significant or disturbing about the former CEA’s revelation is that it throws a lot of doubt on the establishment’s credibility as the CSO is considered to be an official agency. Data coming from this organisation has been respected all through. The new methodology using 2011-12 as base year raised eyebrows as the numbers did not seem to gel with the ground reality. There is nothing amiss here as rarely will one see a one-to-one correspondence between the two.

India and the Indian: Hinduism, caste act as unifying forces in the country, writes Shrikanth Krishnamachary

While the “nationalist” narrative is definitely in the ascendant, one hopes that this triumph of “nationalist” politics culminates in a broad political consensus on the idea of India as a “civilizational nation” as opposed to a constitutional artifact. A nation that guarantees freedom of religion to one and all, but is nevertheless rooted in the Hindu way of life – a way of life that unites the numerous sub-cultures of India in a single civilizational whole, but not at the expense of the inherent diversity of the land.

Patriot Act Volume 3 review: Hasan Minhaj perfectly blends his incisive monologues with funny asides

The episodes in Volume 3, that range from corruption in Indian cricket to climate change to unrest in Sudan, are as hard-hitting as any of Minhaj's previous diatribes, but also peppered with the comedian's sharp one-liners. Some of the episodes also feature special segments of interviews with concerned parties, most often to 'first hilarious-then contemplative' effect.

CVC seeks sanction to prosecute ex-NITI Aayog CEO, former MSME secretary, serving IAS officer in INX Media case

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has advised the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance to issue a sanction to prosecute former NITI Aayog CEO Sindhushree Khullar, former secretary of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Anup K Pujari and current principal secretary in the Himachal Pradesh government, Prabodh Saxena, in the alleged case of corruption involving INX Media.