Films Division cartoon from 1972, ‘Tree of Unity’. I wonder what the 2026 version would look like? Perhaps the man with the axe would cut the tree for his businessman friends and then do Hindu-Muslim? H/t @sandeepd_adhikrut

In February this year, a young man from Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur district came forward with a startling claim: applications bearing his forged signature had been submitted to the local booth-level officer (BLO) seeking the deletion of 26 individuals from his constituency's electoral roll, reports @omar7rashid. Alarmingly, Nandlal Nishad could not read and write, and relied on his thumbprint rather than a written signature. Nandlal's complaint prompted serious questions about the overall integrity of the special intensive revision (SIR) conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI), with the Samajwadi Party (SP) using his case as an example to allege the poll body's connivance with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It said the ECI had fraudulently deleted names of opposition voters – specifically voters belonging to Muslim, Dalit and other marginalised communities. How many more such cases from state after state do we need before the apex court will conclude that electoral manipulation is being resorted to by the ruling establishment and its Deep State on a monumental scale ? m.thewire.in/article/rights/… via @thewire_In