NEW DELHI: Centre’s announcement to include caste enumeration in the upcoming general census has triggered a war of words, with both the ruling BJP and opposition parties scrambling to claim credit for the decision.
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Wednesday that the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has approved the inclusion of caste enumeration in the forthcoming census, marking a significant shift in policy.
The Congress party was quick to attribute the decision to Rahul Gandhi’s advocacy, claiming it as a victory for their leader’s vision.
“Rahul Gandhi Ji said, “Start counting.” Now the Modi government is making arrangements for counting. When our leader Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji had said, “A caste census is the X-ray of society,” people from the ruling party mocked him, ignored him, and procrastinated,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on X.
“He had been demanding this for a long time – raising the issue repeatedly in Parliament, public gatherings, and during his travels. But how long can the voice of millions demanding their rights be suppressed? Now the Modi government has agreed to conduct a caste census. Well, better late than never! This is a decisive step towards ensuring social justice. This is a victory for millions of people in India. It is a victory for all those who have been fighting for years for equality, fairness, and representation,” he added.
However, BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya countered this narrative, pointing out the Congress party’s historical resistance to caste-based census.
“Congress governments have consistently opposed caste-based census until now. In every census conducted since independence, caste has not been counted. In 2010, then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh assured in the Lok Sabha that the Cabinet would consider the caste census. After this, a Cabinet Committee was formed, in which most political parties recommended a caste-based census. Despite this, the Congress government deemed it appropriate to conduct only a survey (SECC) instead of a caste census,” BJP leader Amit Malviya said.

“Even after this, Congress and its allied parties used the issue of caste census merely for their political benefit,” he added.
Union minister Kiren Rijiju also attacked Congress for taking credit and said that grand-old-party can “only talk.
“I fail to understand why is Congress party taking credit??” Rijiju said.
“Congress Party had opposed Caste Census & Reservations on records. PM Narendra Modi ji has taken right decision at right time. Congress can only talk nothing else,” he added.
Taking to X, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister Revanth Reddy said, “We are proud that the actions of the Telangana govt for OBC empowerment have inspired the country, and India has agreed to follow our state’s lead.”
“We congratulate the central govt on deciding to conduct a caste census as part of the next national census. Thank you, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the cabinet,” he added.
A caste census involves systematically recording individuals’ caste identities during a national census. In India, where caste influences social, economic, and political life, such data can offer valuable insights into the distribution and socio-economic status of various caste groups. This information can help shape policies related to affirmative action and social justice.
Caste enumeration was a regular feature of census exercises during British rule from 1881 to 1931. However, with the first census of independent India in 1951, the government chose to discontinue the practice, except for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).

When the remains of 757 Ukrainian military casualties were exchanged in a frozen forest in February, Red Cross officials noted a disturbing anomaly: body number 757 was recorded as “NM SPAS”, an unidentified male, cause of death listed as heart failure.
Weeks later, forensic experts identified the corpse: it was Viktoriia Roshchyna, a 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist, not a soldier, who had been missing since July 2023.
A chilling report has alleged that Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was subjected to severe torture while in Russian custody, including the removal of her brain, broken bones, electrocution, drugging, starvation, and other degrading acts.
As per the reports by Guardian, Roshchyna was not just another victim of war. She was one of Ukraine’s most fearless civilian reporters, venturing deep into occupied territories to document crimes the Russian state wanted hidden. Her final journey was a mission to uncover secret detention sites and expose the use of torture on civilians. Instead, she became one of their victims.
Abduction, knife scars, electric shocks, and starvation
On July 25, 2023, Roshchyna crossed into Russia through Latvia under her own name, taking a circuitous route to reach Melitopol in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region. Her phone went dark soon after.
Witness accounts now help reconstruct the horror that followed.
She was first detained in Enerhodar after allegedly being spotted by a drone. After a brief holding at the local police station, she was moved to a torture site in Melitopol known as “the garages”, controlled by the FSB.
According to a former cellmate, interrogators subjected Roshchyna to repeated electric shocks, evidenced by burn marks found on her feet during autopsy, and stabbed her in the arms and legs, including a 3cm deep puncture in her forearm. A gaping 5cm wound above her heel appeared to have caused her particular agony.
Roshchyna reportedly begged her torturers not to reopen an older wound on her heel. They didn’t listen. “She said: ‘I begged them not to touch that wound,’” the witness recalled. Her captors ignored her pleas, according to the report. “She said one guy, she called him a jerk … was brutal, unhinged,” the witness said.
Drugged and broken in Russia
Later, Roshchyna was transferred to SIZO-2, a notorious pre-trial detention facility in Taganrog, Russia. Detainees there recall she arrived drugged and disoriented. “She basically started to go crazy,” said one witness. She was kept in isolation, food-deprived, and deteriorated rapidly.
Weighing barely 30kg, she was unable to lift her head without help. “I would prop her up and she would grab the top bunk to pull herself up,” said her former cellmate.
Her hair was shaved, ribs broken, and abrasions covered her body. Witnesses said she stayed curled up on the floor, hidden behind a curtain, afraid and barely responsive. “Her eyes were terrified. She didn’t speak. She stopped eating,” said another inmate.
Taganrog is infamous for its methods: prisoners are routinely electrocuted, waterboarded, and forced into prolonged stress positions. Food portions were rationed to four and a half spoonfuls per plate. It was in these conditions that Roshchyna slowly starved.
Signs of strangulation, missing organs
When her body was finally returned, it bore unmistakable signs of prolonged torture. The hyoid bone in her neck — often broken in cases of strangulation — was fractured. Crucially, her brain, eyes, and larynx were missing, making it nearly impossible to confirm the exact cause of death.
Ukrainian prosecutors say the mutilation suggests an attempt to hide the extent of neurological or asphyxiation injuries.
She had made only one call during her detention — four minutes to her parents, nearly a year after her disappearance. That was the last time anyone heard her voice.
Authorities have opened a war crimes investigation, but prosecution may be elusive. Still, over 50 interviews with survivors and insiders have helped paint a horrifying portrait of systemic abuse.
“She died trying to expose exactly what happened to her,” Sevhil Musaieva, her editor at Ukrainska Pravda was quoted as saying. “Viktoriia had no personal life. Her entire world was her mission.”

NEW DELHI: The use of long-range weapons for limited punitive strikes against Pakistan, without crossing the LoC, is currently being considered the preferred military option. This comes amid a review of the situation by the PM-led cabinet committee on security, even as firing exchanges between the rival armies have now spilled over to the international boundary in J&K.
Indian Army warned Pakistan Army to desist from “unprovoked” small arms firings being initiated by its troops all along the 778-km LoC, from Kupwara, Baramulla and Uri to Naushera, Sunderbani, Akhnoor and Poonch, over the DGMO hotline on Tuesday afternoon.
“But later in the night, Pak Army escalated the situation by opening fire in Pargwal sector of the 198-km IB in Jammu region. Our troops are effectively responding in double measure to all ceasefire violations,” an officer told TOI.
The CCS meeting Wednesday, the second since the Pahalgam massacre on April 22, came a day after PM Modi told the military chiefs they had “complete operational freedom” to decide on the “mode, targets and timing” of the country’s response to crush terrorism.
Consequently, it is no longer a question if kinetic military options will be exercised but when, while the public messaging was also clearly meant to keep Pakistan on tenterhooks. “The plans for punitive strikes and the graded dynamic response strategy are already in place. It won’t be a knee-jerk response but a calculated, credible and calibrated one under the threshold of a full-fledged conflict,” a senior officer told TOI.
With Pakistan already on guard and mobilising its forces as well as activating its entire air defence machinery, there is however no element of surprise left. A feasible immediate step is for the Indian Army to launch concentrated fire assaults by 155 mm artillery guns, 120 mm mortars and anti-tank guided missiles against Pak Army posts and positions as well as “terror launch pads” located near them.
“Without crossing the LoC, use of other long-range vectors can also impose serious costs on Pak Army and their infrastructure along the frontier. There are reports Pak Army is facing major shortages of 155 mm artillery shells, with its reserves being sent to Ukraine through third-party channels to make money,” he said.
Then, there are shallow cross-border ground raids that can be carried out by Army Para-Special Forces like the “surgical strikes” conducted in Sept 2016 against terror launch pads in four different locations in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir after 19 Indian soldiers were killed in a suicide attack at Uri.
Calibrated air strikes also remain an effective though escalatory step, much like the one conducted against the JeM terror facility at Balakot in Pakistan in Feb 2019. “The IAF did not have the 4.5-generation Rafale fighters during the Balakot air strikes. This time the targets can be the headquarters of JeM at Bahawalpur or LeT at Muridke,” another officer said.
This will involve jets like Rafales, Mirage-2000s and Sukhoi-30MKIs, armed with long-range weapons like the French ‘Scalp’ air-to-ground cruise missiles, Israeli Crystal Maze missiles and Spice-2000 precision guided penetration bombs, hitting pre-designated targets, as reported by TOI earlier.
The military options are being contemplated after a raft of retaliatory diplomatic measures against Pakistan were announced when the CCS met on April 23, which ranged from the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty to downsizing of the Pakistani high commission and revocation of visas of all Pakistani nationals in India.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has officially notified the income tax return (ITR) forms 1 and 4 for the financial year 2024–25. These forms shall be used for reporting incomes earned between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, that is for the assessment year 2025–26.The government is expected to release the other ITR forms soon.
A key update this year is the inclusion of long-term capital gains from listed equity shares and equity mutual funds in the ITR-1 form. Until now, taxpayers with any capital gains had to use ITR-2. With this change, salaried individuals with basic capital gains up to Rs 1.25 lakh under Section 112A can now file their returns using ITR-1.

Who can use ITR-1?

ITR-1 is meant for resident individuals with total income up to Rs 50 lakh, income from salary, one house property, and other sources like interest. It also covers agricultural income up to Rs 5,000.
ITR-1 form cannot be used for capital gains from the sale of house property or short-term capital gains from listed equity shares and equity mutual funds.
Similarly it cannot be used by individuals who are directors in a company, have invested in unlisted equity shares, have had TDS deducted under section 194N, have deferred income-tax on ESOPs, or own assets (including financial interests in any entity) outside India.

Who can file ITR-4?

The ITR-4 form for the financial year 2024-25 (assessment year 2025-26) is available for individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs), and firms (excluding LLPs) who are residents of India.
To be eligible, their total income should not exceed Rs 50 lakh. They must also have income from business or profession, calculated under sections 44AD, 44ADA, or 44AE of the Income Tax Act.
Additionally, if they have long-term capital gains from the sale of listed equity shares or equity mutual funds under section 112A, up to Rs 1.25 lakh, they can use this form to file their tax returns.
However, ITR-4 cannot be used by individuals who are directors in a company, have invested in unlisted equity shares, or have deferred income-tax on ESOPs. Additionally, those with agricultural income exceeding Rs 5,000 or assets (including financial interest in any entity) located outside India are not eligible to file using ITR-4.