Firstpost Editor's Picks: Pakistan's peace offer, impunity for cow vigilantes, Bhobishyoter Bhoot review; today's must-read stories

Imran Khan on a sticky wicket: Pakistan PM’s offer of peace talks on Jammu and Kashmir with India draws jihadists’ ire

While Pakistan may be able to reign in the Jaish and United Jihad Council that are expressly pro-Pakistan, the emergence of jihadists espousing a pan-Islamism such as the supposedly Al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, led by the reclusive Hizb rebel Zakir Musa, may be a hindrance in the future.

Lok Sabha polls: Polarisation, NaMo TV twin features of BJP’s strategy to fan anxiety, anger and fear among public

The politics of polarisation is, ostensibly, a win-win strategy: Muslims are not the BJP’s traditional voters; demonising them to stoke the fears of the majority Hindu community could help consolidate a large vote bank, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Impunity for cow vigilantes in BJP’s India threatens the foundational idea of the country’s pluralism

From large-scale Hindu-Muslim riots and pogroms that were the hallmark of earlier phases of Hindutva politics, the violence has now tapered down into small-scale and localised incidents of attacks on individuals.

Bhobishyoter Bhoot movie review: A brave socio-political satire with hits and misses in equal measure

Dutta does not spare anyone, and I mean anyone. He mocks literally everybody, so much so that he ends up mocking Tagore too. And that is simply brilliant, because it shows that he is not biased, and that his mockery is applicable equally across the spectrum of political beliefs.

Monte Carlo 2019 draw analysis: At the Rafael Nadal Open, it’s not looking good for the rest of the field

Since 2005, Rafael Nadal has dominated clay in a way that no other tennis player has ever dominated anything, and it’s hard to imagine 2019 being any different.