Category: Top

When the India Today Group hosted the India Today Conclave 2026 this week, one particular name in the speaker lineup instantly set off a firestorm: Laura Loomer. The American commentator, closely associated with the political orbit of Donald Trump and the broader MAGA ecosystem, is hardly an unknown quantity. Loomer has built her reputation on incendiary rhetoric and provocation. What made her invitation particularly controversial, however, was not merely her politics but her long record of racist remarks targeting Indians and Indian-origin individuals. Once Loomer herself posted on X that she was heading to India to speak at the conclave, Indians quickly dug into her past posts. Screenshots began circulating widely. In those posts, Loomer had described Indians as “third-world invaders,” mocked India’s sanitation practices, and questioned the intellectual abilities of Indians. In another notorious episode, she launched a tirade against Indian-American technologist Sriram Krishnan after he was appointed Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House, questioning why immigrants should occupy influential positions in the United States. She had also previously mocked the Indian heritage of Kamala Harris with a crude “curry” jibe that triggered widespread outrage. Beyond anti-India rhetoric, Loomer has also courted controversy for promoting conspiracy theories around the September 11 attacks and spreading misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even Republican Senator Thom Tillis once dismissed her as a “crazy conspiracy theorist.” Given this background, the immediate question that dominated social media was obvious: why would a leading Indian media platform invite someone who had repeatedly insulted India and Indians? The backlash was swift and intense. Social media users circulated screenshots of Loomer’s old posts mocking Indian sanitation practices, calling Indians “third-world invaders,” and ridiculing Indian immigrants as supposedly “high-skilled workers” from a country lacking basic infrastructure. Critics described the invitation as astonishing and self-defeating, arguing that providing a prestigious stage to someone with a documented history of anti-India rhetoric risked legitimising exactly the kind of hate speech Indian media houses frequently claim to oppose. But then came the twist. During the conclave session, senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai confronted Loomer over her past remarks. He cited several of her controversial tweets and asked whether she regretted them. “Your remarks are brazenly racist and Islamophobic,” Rajdeep said during his interaction with Loomer.  “Your remarks are brazenly racist and Islamaphopic”: India Today’s @sardesairajdeep hits out at Trump […]

A case of the gang rape and murder of a Class 10 student has come to light in Pattishital village of Saran district, Bihar. In this case, the victim’s mother has accused five youths from the same village, one of whom has already been arrested by the police. It is alleged that the five men gang-raped the girl and then threw her into a well, leading to her death. The incident has also triggered a narrative war on social media because the victim belonged to an upper-caste Rajput family, while the accused belonged to the Mahadalit (Paswan) community. Police are facing allegations that the swift action expected in such a serious case has not been taken, as not all the accused have been arrested, even three days after the incident. The victim’s family and eyewitnesses have made serious claims, but the police are reportedly reluctant to accept these accounts at this stage. Here is a detailed look at what each side is claiming and the questions being raised about the police response. What did the victim’s mother say in her complaint? The victim’s mother filed a complaint at the Derni police station. In the complaint, she said: “My daughter often used to go to our old house to collect belongings. On Wednesday (March 11, 2026), she went there at around 3:00 pm. During that time, five people who were already lying in wait gang-raped her and dragged her to a well and threw her into it, which caused her death.” Five people have been named as accused in the case: Sachin Kumar Manjhi, Yuvraj Manjhi, Chandan Manjhi, Ajay Manjhi and Vikas Manjhi. The complaint also states that Vikas Manjhi had earlier tried to enter the house and attempted to rape the girl. He allegedly abused the family and threatened them, saying that he would enter the house and kill everyone. According to the complaint, when the family opposed him earlier, Vikas had warned that the consequences would be very bad. The mother alleges that he eventually carried out the threat on March 11, 2026. She further stated that after committing the crime, the accused abused the family and said that they could buy the police, administration and courts, and that no one would be able to harm them. The victim’s mother has also accused the police of inaction, claiming that the police came to the spot but left without taking proper action. What did an eyewitness claim? According to a report by Dainik Bhaskar, an eyewitness said that the girl was shouting loudly for help during the incident. Hearing her screams, nearby residents and family members rushed toward the spot. Her mother and elder sister were among the first to run there. However, before they could reach, the accused allegedly covered the girl’s mouth and forcibly dragged her out of the house by her legs. The eyewitness claimed that the accused then took the girl to a well located about 10 meters away and pushed her into it. After committing the crime, they fled toward nearby fields. The eyewitness also said that the main accused had previously harassed and threatened the girl multiple times. According to the eyewitness, after pushing the girl into the well, the main accused even posted a WhatsApp status lip-syncing to a Bhojpuri song with the line: “Rani hum bana lehab tohara ke dulhaniya… agar koi bola to ghar mein ghuskar sabko maar daalenge” (“I will make you my bride… if anyone speaks, I will enter the house and kill everyone”). Police have not yet confirmed the gang rape claim. In a statement released on social media, Saran Police did not mention rape or gang rape. The police said that one accused, Yuvraj Manjhi, has been arrested. According to the police statement, information was received about the suspicious death of a minor girl, after which the police reached the spot and initiated action. The SP and SDPO visited the location, and an FSL team collected evidence from the scene. Police said that raids are being conducted to arrest the other accused. डेरनी थानान्तर्गत नाबालिग की सदिगध मृत्यु घटना का त्वरित उद्भेदन, 01 अभियुक्त को किया गया गिरफ्तार।#BiharPolice #BiharHomeDept #SaranPolice #HaiTaiyarHum @BiharHomeDept @bihar_police @SaranPolice pic.twitter.com/zCd5mIkOM7 — SARAN POLICE […]

Hoarders and black-marketers are not only fanning the rumours of an LPG shortage but also creating an artificial shortage of the domestic and commercial cooking gas across the country. Feeding on the fears of India’s fuel supply being disrupted due to the ongoing conflict in West Asia and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, these […]

On March 14, it was reported that the two Indian flagged LPG-loaded tankers, Shivalik and Nandadevi, have crossed the Strait of Hormuz after PM Modi’s conversation with Iranian Masoud Pezeshkian on March 12.  Indian LPG Tanker Shivalik in the gulf of Oman, and had moved from Ras Laffan, Qatar. https://t.co/sr1ElWXTxc pic.twitter.com/4RXcZHD2Yj — Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) March […]

A new report analysing online discourse in the United States has claimed that Anti-Indian rhetoric and anti-Indian attacks against Indians and Indian-origin individuals went up sharply on the social media platform X. Particularly in 2025, during the heated debates in the United States surrounding immigration and the H-1 B visa programme.  The Network Contagion Research Institute […]

On February 28, 2026, the world awoke to a profoundly transformed geopolitical reality. The joint US-Israeli bombings on Tehran, which culminated in the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, not only decapitated the Iranian political and religious establishment but also sparked a sweeping, uncontrollable inferno over West Asia. Today, exactly two weeks into what […]

The global energy market has been shaken by a rapid geopolitical escalation in West Asia, disrupting one of the world’s most vital energy chokepoints. On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel conducted combined airstrikes against Iran, which is known as Operation Epic Fury. The strikes led to the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah […]

Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav had a meeting with Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, which lasted approximately one hour, in Lucknow on 12th March (Thursday). Afterwards, Akhilesh Yadav addressed the media and expressed that it was an honour for him to receive the blessings of the religious figure. He declared that the period of fraudulent saints in […]

The ongoing war in the Middle East has raised concerns about the availability of fossil fuel, and several countries are already facing a shortage of fuel like petrol, diesel and LPG. In India, while there is no shortage of most petrochemical items, there have been some shortages of LPG. The government has decided to restrict the […]

There have been many Islamic terror attacks targeting Jewish people in the West, particularly in the US, since the Israel-Palestine war broke out in October 2023. However, there has been a fresh wave of Islamic terror attacks in the US amidst the ongoing conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran. Michigan synagogue, Old Dominion University, to […]