Express daily briefing: Valmiki Basti five years on; Bapu’s life was dotted with music; and more

Mahatma Gandhi once said: “To make life musical means to make it one with God, to merge it in Him.” His connection with the seven notes of the musical scale remained significant. Just like the one with the dream of a free India.

Valmiki Basti five years on: ‘Swachh Bharat has improved colony, not our lives’

Five years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wielded a broom on October 2 in New Delhi’s Valmiki Basti to realise Gandhi’s dream of a clean India by 2019, when the country was to celebrate his 150th birth anniversary. This week, Kajol Rustagi went back to the place where Gandhi stayed from April 1, 1946, to June 10, 1947, to see what has changed in the five years since.

In these uncertain times, the ideas Bapu stood for need a resurrection in our films

The first full-scale movie made on Mahatma Gandhi was Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982), where the most iconic of Indians was played by an Englishman. There were several subsequent desi cinematic iterations of the Mahatma. But today, India is a different country. Gandhi is dangerously on the verge of becoming a cipher again.

Opinion: Windows before walls

Gandhiji has shown us what we can and must know in terms of satyagraha, sarvodaya, swaraj, or swadeshi, and also the limitations of these ideas. It is up to us, not him, to find out what we do not know about these ideas and how to take these ideas forward in action, writes Ela Bhatt.

144 minors were detained, J&K admits to top court

The Juvenile Justice Committee of Jammu and Kashmir High Court told the Supreme Court that 144 juveniles were arrested — mostly preventive detentions — in the state since Article 370 was scrapped and that 142 of them have already been released. Denying charges of illegal detention, the panel said the remaining two children were still in juvenile homes.

In one Jharkhand dist, 53 booked in cow slaughter cases in 6 yrs, all acquitted

In Jharkhand’s Khunti district, at least 53 people booked on charges of cow slaughter, or intent to slaughter cows under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act have been acquitted since 2018. While some acquittals came after courts observed that the alleged cow meat seized was not sent to the FSL, in others, witnesses never appeared before court. Abhishek Angad reports

‘Maverick, expert on legal issues’: Meet mystery man behind conflict of interest crisis in BCCI

A little-known cricket official from Indore and a life member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, media-shy businessman Sanjeev Gupta has kept the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators and Ethics Officer on their toes. He has so far sent close to 400 emails highlighting cases of non-compliance within the BCCI and its affiliated units, reports Devendra Pandey.

And finally…

As India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, we track the events planned across the country. Follow our live blog through the day for the latest.