Firstpost Editor's Picks: Naseeruddin Shah's remarks, BJP's rath yatra, Pulwama encounter aftermath; today's must-read articles
What Naseeruddin has said in the context of the 3 December killing of police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and local youth Sumit Kumar in Bulandshahr and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's reaction to it, makes eminent sense.

Naseeruddin Shah deserves to be heard because Bulandshahr is a blot on India's conscience
What Naseeruddin has said in the context of the 3 December killing of police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and local youth Sumit Kumar in Bulandshahr and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's reaction to it, makes eminent sense. The killing of a police inspector in mob violence is nothing new. But the Bulandshahr case is entirely different.
Politically and ideologically, the BJP continues to be on a sticky wicket in Bengal, which is why it is making outlandish claims. The Trinamool Congress may not be an exemplar of democratic functioning, but the rath yatra ban does not prove that. In any case, it would be hard put to be more "undemocratic" than the BJP.
CPEC's real benefit for Islamabad and Beijing is strategic, not economic
Pakistan’s comparatively advantageous geostrategic location in South Asia is rarely quoted in Indian strategic circles; that its real estate in different ways is a potential boon to the neighbouring five major civilisations: Indian, Chinese, Central Asian, Persian and Arab. It’s a question of who exploits it to advantage and to whom Pakistan denies that advantage.
Week after Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama encounter, civilian deaths continue to evoke rage
The death of seven civilians, the highest in a single gunfight in recent years, triggered widespread anger. It was condemned widely, and both sides following the same drill. The separatists called a strike and a symbolic protest march to the army cantonment in Srinagar while the administration resorted to blocking internet in the Valley and restricted people’s movement in Srinagar. Elsewhere, there was talk of “following the SOPs”.
also read

JP Nadda to be BJP president till June 2024, says Amit Shah
The decision was taken at the National Executive Meeting of the BJP here in the national capital

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: How a former teacher with no political ambitions is taking on Belarus' strongman
Since being forced to flee Belarus in 2020, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has urged greater Western pressure on Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who has lent his country as a staging ground for Russia's operations in Ukraine

Beyond the SC verdict: How demonetisation has been a revolutionary and disruptive success story
The biggest success of demonetisation, is the fact that anywhere between 2 lakh crore rupees and Rs 5.4 lakh crore of money that was earlier outside the ambit of the tax net and largely unaccounted for, came to be a part of the formal banking system