BJP's heavy losses in the UP and Bihar Lok Sabha by-polls; Xi Jinping’s carefully-scripted power grab in China; and more

[View this email in your browser]( Top Story [The BJP's Heavy Losses in the UP and Bihar Lok Sabha By-Polls Have National Significance]( Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta [With the SP-BSP alliance paying off in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in UP and two RJD wins in Bihar, the results appear to be as much a mandate against the BJP’s communal agenda as an indictment of its inability to deliver on the promise of development.]( [Stephen Hawking, the Cosmic Bard]( Vasudevan Mukunth ['A Brief History of Time' was a remarkable piece of science communication – but it also demonstrated to its readers that the universe possessed a unique aesthetic grammar and that Stephen Hawking understood it.]( [Jurisprudence of Arrest: Is India a Police State?]( Bishwajit Bhattacharyya [That anyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty has found eloquent expression in India’s constitution. Yet the state disregards these rights with impunity and gets away with it.]( [India Doesn't Have an Independent Voice at International Space Fora – That's Bad]( Narayan Prasad [A dearth of Indian representation in space policy-making bodies needs to be addressed soon to ensure that the Indian voice is heard.]( [At What Cost Is Hyderabad Police Pushing to Make the City ‘Beggar-Free’?]( Sriram Karri [The police has even launched a scheme asking people to give information on beggars, if any, on the streets for an award.]( [What Does It Mean to Be Alive in the Human Epoch?]( C.P. Rajendran [Climate change is not simply a technological challenge as the Paris Agreement would imply; it embodies the question of how one would go about developing a rational and equitable society.]( [No Surprises in Xi Jinping’s Carefully-Scripted Power Grab in China]( Manoj Joshi [What the amendments to the Constitution by the National People's Congress have done is to tighten the Communist Party's grip over the governmental system in a seemingly legal fashion.]( [Karl Marx: The Passing of a Colossus]( Anjan Basu [The world has not changed in quite the way Marx had hoped. But the way we look at it changed with him.]( Copyright © 2018 The Wire, All rights reserved. You're getting this email because you recently subscribed to receive email digests from The Wire via our website. Our mailing address is: The Wire 13, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg Gole MarketNew Delhi 110001 India [Add us to your address book](//thewire.us11.list-manage.com/vcard?u=6b988b13445248b1268a308f2&id=4808224841) Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](