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Delhi Police physically lifted and detained Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in Indian parliament's Lok Sabha , from a sit-in protest outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's official residence, as a crisis over irregularities in the country's national entrance examinations escalated into the most serious confrontation between the government and its opponents in years. Image Via: @RahulGandhi on X Rahul Gandhi, his sister and fellow Member of Parliament Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were removed from the protest site at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg by Delhi Police and the Rapid Police Force after they refused to vacate. Officers were photographed and filmed carrying Rahul Gandhi bodily before placing him in a police vehicle. Reports confirmed by multiple outlets stated that the officers who detained the parliamentarians were not wearing nameboards on their uniforms. Gaand faad edit 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/NzLFhz7aTY — gulvinder (@rebelliousdo...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Thousands of young Indians marched from Jantar Mantar toward Parliament in monsoon rain and were met with tear gas, lathi charges, internet shutdowns, and mass detentions. Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party, was detained. Sonam Wangchuk, on the twenty-second day of a hunger strike that had already cost him at least 8.5 kilograms, wrote a handwritten note from his hospital bed requesting temporary release to join the march. The request was not granted. Image Via: @Cockroachisback on X The Education Minister did not resign. The Monsoon Session opened on schedule. The government held.  And yet something has happened today in Delhi that cannot be managed away with a press briefing. How We Got Here What began on May 15 as a Supreme Court judge's offhand comparison of unemployed youth to "cockroaches" became, within six weeks, one of the most significant youth mobilisations in India since the...

How the termination of This Country Called Us is categorically different from Penguin's withdrawal of Joe Sacco's book — and what it reveals about the Indian publishing industry's deepest ethical crisis. First Person:  Saket Suman When Penguin India refused to distribute Joe Sacco's The Once and Future Riot — a 135-page graphic investigation of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots that killed at least sixty people and displaced over sixty thousand, mostly Muslim — the Indian literary world reacted with appropriate alarm. Arundhati Roy called it "a terrible loss to Indian readers." The Wire reported it. The Print published Sacco's own account of what he was asked to remove. He refused. Penguin India walked away. Tharoor and Guha shouted condemnations.  Representational Image: Home Minister Amit Shah at a Rupa book launch.   The story was covered. The author was heard. The book is available through parallel channels — imported from the UK by independent South Delh...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman I have been a journalist for most of my adult life and this country has become my beat, my burden and perhaps my greatest blessing. This journey has led me to cover India from its plains and its hills, from the coaching centres and the press conferences, from literary festivals, from the front lines of protests to the inside and outside of its policy corridors. I have watched promises made at election rallies dissolve in the unforgiving heat of governance. I have seen individuals become symbols and symbols become power and power become something so sinister that I will leave it unnamed here. I write of these things to establish a vantage point as essential context because what follows is written from the inside, from the ground, with the accumulated scepticism of someone who has seen some bit of this republic to resist, on this particular day, both the celebration and the denunciation that today's milestone will produ...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Hundreds of young people gathered at Jantar Mantar in cockroach masks, carrying flowers they planned to offer to policemen as a gesture of compassion and gratitude. They were there, their organisers said, to demand the resignation of the Education Minister. Image from Jantar Mantar Protest; Via: @Cockroachisback on X How the Cockroach Was Born On May 15, 2026, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant — the custodian of the Constitution, the guardian of the rights of every citizen including the most wretched — sat in open court and said that there are youngsters like cockroaches, who don't get any employment or have any place in the profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists, and other activists, and they start attacking everyone. He later said he was misquoted. The internet did not agree and did not move on. Within twenty-four hours, Abhijeet Dipke, a thirty-year-old political ...

India has activated a coordinated, multi-ministerial response to manage the domestic and overseas impact of escalating tensions in West Asia, with authorities outlining measures to secure energy supplies, safeguard Indian nationals and maintain continuity of key economic and rural welfare programmes. Representational Image/File Photo Via: Indian Nav y At the latest high-level inter-ministerial briefing in New Delhi, officials from the ministries of petroleum, external affairs, shipping and rural development detailed steps to mitigate risks arising from disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, global commodity volatility and regional instability. The government said fuel supply across the country remains stable despite geopolitical pressures, with 100% supply being maintained for domestic LPG, PNG and CNG. Online LPG bookings have reached 99%, while delivery authentication compliance has risen to around 92% to prevent diversion. Public sector oil companies have conducted over 7,000 awarene...