India Today

India Today is the leading news magazine and most widely read publication in India. The magazine’s leadership is unquestioned, so much so that India Today is what Indian journalism is judged by, for its integrity and ability to bring unbiased and incisive perspective to arguably the most dynamic, yet perplexing, region in the world. Breaking news and shaping opinion, it is now a household name and the flagship brand of India’s leading multidimensional media group. Additionally, the weekly brings with it a range supplements like Women, Home, Aspire, Spice and Simply which focus on style, health, education, fashion, etc. and Indian cities.

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

India Today

A DIPLOMATIC OFF-RAMP • The American crackdown on gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s syndicate reframes the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a dispute that had strained New Delhi-Ottawa ties for nearly three years

INDIA MAKES A BIG PACIFIC PIVOT • Modi’s visits to Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand puncture the notion that India is estranged from its extended neighbourhood

ON GRANDFATHER DUTY

DIABETES TREATMENT A SHOT A WEEK OPTION

REFORMING MINORITY EDUCATION • Uttarakhand abolishes its madrasa board—all minority-run education institutions will now be mainstreamed under a new state authority

Flight Time for Pilot? • The state unit chief’s post is up for grabs—but the inheritor-in-waiting is not the only contender now

ENCOUNTERING THE QUESTION AGAIN • A police encounter killing of a rape-murder accused has Bengal in a heated political and public debate. Is ‘quick justice’ the antidote to heinous crime? Is it legal?

YOGI’S SAFFRON TOUR DE FORCE • Besieged by the Ayodhya row ahead of polls, the CM dares the SP on Hindutva in an all-out kinetic war—covering key bases in a whirlwind trip

A NEET Twist • Proxy candidates at exam centres prove the ‘solver’ mafia is intact—and gaming biometrics

FOOD POLICE HAS PLATE FULL • H-FAST—a crack food hygiene inspection team run by cops—spreads its dragnet around Hyderabad’s famed eateries. Its findings are quite unappetising

SATLUJ THE WHOLE TRUTH • AS THE BANNED FILM SHINES A LIGHT ON THE EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS IN PUNJAB AFTER OPERATION BLUESTAR, A DEEP DIVE INTO THE DARK DECADE WHEN THE BLOODY MILITANCY WAS BRUTALLY CRUSHED

Four Faces of Loss

A Mother’s 32-Year Wait • Sukhwant Kaur lost her son, husband and father in the space of a month in 1992

MAN BEHIND THE MARTYR • From student agitator and Sikh nationalist to investigator of Punjab’s missing—and, after his custodial murder, the progenitor of a continuing political legacy

Murder in a Courtroom • Hans Raj Kaushik’s killing in open court shook the judiciary. His family’s trauma endures

THE BULLET LIVES ON • The 1989 militant attack on an RSS meeting in Moga killed 30 people, spread panic among Hindus

PUNJAB’S DECADE OF DARKNESS • Operation Bluestar in June 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination later that year on October 31, followed by the anti-Sikh massacres, created a powerful sense of grievance, which fed militant recruitment. What followed was a decade in which separatist terrorism, collapsing civil authority and a ruthless counterinsurgency claimed thousands of lives. The highlights:

“MY FILM HAS UNITED PUNJAB, NOT INCITED VIOLENCE”

POLITICAL FLASHPOINT • The film has turned Punjab’s contested past into an electoral issue for the assembly polls early next year

THE BIG SKILLING ILLUSION • A DECADE AFTER ITS LAUNCH TO BRIDGE INDIA’S SKILLS GAP, THE PRADHAN MANTRI KAUSHAL VIKAS YOJANA IS UNDER SCRUTINY BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES AFTER A CAG REPORT FLAGGED SYSTEMIC LAPSES AND THE WIDE GAP BETWEEN TARGETS AND OUTCOMES

WHAT THE CAG FOUND...