Overview
- On December 29, the Supreme Court temporarily stayed the Delhi High Court order suspending Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s sentence and granting him bail in the Unnao rape case, and directed legal assistance for the survivor.
- The CBI argued Sengar’s release endangers the survivor and family and said the High Court took an unduly narrow view of a legislator as a public servant; the survivor has sought enhanced security.
- Inside Congress, Digvijay Singh’s praise of the RSS’s organisational strength and his CWC remark about party ‘sleeper cells’ drew sharp criticism from Pawan Khera, Salman Khurshid and Manickam Tagore, with support from Shashi Tharoor and T.S. Singh Deo.
- Following a contentious demolition drive near Bengaluru’s Yelahanka, AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar to prioritise relief and rehabilitation, as SDPI and locals protested and the state defended the action as protection of public land.
- Communal temperature rose as Mehbooba Mufti said India has become ‘Lynchistan’, clerics in Mumbai and Lucknow held protests over alleged atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh, and Humayun Kabir told IANS he plans to start building a Babri mosque before mid‑February; a brief public exchange between Amit Shah and Narottam Mishra was widely read as a political signal.