Firstpost Editor's Picks: Mani Shankar Aiyar's outburst, Kamal Haasan's remark, IAAF World Relays; today's must-read stories

Mani Shankar Aiyar’s latest outburst against Narendra Modi underlines his role as sidekick of a dying dynasty

Mani Shankar Aiyar and his patrons in the party have genuine reason to be frustrated when they find their barbs hurting themselves more than the opponents. Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be drawing enormous strength from the inability of his opponents to come to terms with the changing grammar of national politics. He has changed not only the vocabulary but also the syntax of the discourse and reduced the likes of Aiyar to being no more than sidekicks of a dying dynasty.

Vote-bank politics or not, Kamal Haasan's 'Hindu terrorist' remark shows politicians are incapable of severing terror-religion link

Invoking religion for political gains is dangerous and polarising in itself. Mixing it with terrorism is even more so. Linking terrorism with a particular faith gives perpetrators a false sense of sacrifice, making them believe that their actions are for a cause and not what they really are — plain and vile acts of violence. When put in words, it's a simple, straightforward thought that would appear easy to understand for those with no particularly strong opinion supporting either side of the argument. But for politicians, it appears hard to interpret.

Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube resigns citing 'personal reasons', third top executive to quit ailing airline in 24 hours

In a major blow to the ongoing efforts to revive cash-strapped Jet Airways, its chief executive officer Vinay Dube resigned on Tuesday evening with immediate effect, according to a filing in the exchanges. This is the third top-level exit in the past 24 hours. Earlier on Tuesday, Amit Agarwal, chief financial officer (CFO) and deputy CEO, and Rahul Taneja, chief people officer (CPO) resigned from the beleaguered airline.

IAAF World Relays 2019: Miserable failure of India's 4x400m relay teams at Yokohama must be an eye-opener for SAI, AFI

Despite months of training, specially designed towards the relays — unheard of for baton exchange practice or lane running in 4x400m relay — the Indian runners are getting into tangles while receiving the baton. Coaches will have to work on this instead of eventually lamenting, “if only we had a better exchange”. Fielding a weak team in the mixed relay, the Indian side ensured that the country would not even figure among the top 12 that was needed for World Championships qualification.

Game of Thrones season 8: Daenerys' decimation of King's Landing needs to be seen in the context of this historical event

When we mull over what might have made Daenerys Targaryen's carnage in King's Landing align better with the idea we've had of her in our minds, it would do well to remember that there is historical precedent for people having acted in a fairly similar way. Maybe the problem with the "Queen of the Ashes" depiction in Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5 isn't so much about Daenerys' awkwardly rendered evolution. Maybe it's that we're holding fiction to a more exacting standard than we've held ourselves.