UPSC; POLITY; PRALAY; IRON AGE, ANCIENT HISTORY; COMPETITIVE POPULISM; SOCIAL MEDIA; [PRELIMS 2025; MAINS 2025]

1.   RIGHT TO PRIVACY & RIGHT TO DISSENT 

• core values of the Constitution founder in a deep ethical and moral crisis, vs. trapped as we are in reductionist, mechanical readings of the constitutional value of personal liberty and human dignity. 
• right to personal liberty, which is a core constituent of an idea of justice.
•  Reinstating dissent as constitutional ethic The Supreme Court of India reinstated Justice S. Fazl Ali’s dissenting opinion in A.K. Gopalan vs State of Madras, unanimously in Puttaswamy vs Union of India(2017), a case about the fundamental right to privacy.
•  The preventive detention of the communist leader, A.K. Gopalan, by the government of independent India and the Supreme Court’s majority ruling on constitutional interpretation in that case, in the inaugural year of the Constitution, (1950), have now been effectively declared as a judicial wrong. 
• The resurrection of this dissent (which, in effect, upheld Gopalan’s right to political dissent) and two later ones (all three on the question of personal liberty), saw the majority judgments truncating liberty as being flawed from the standpoint of constitutional ethics. 
• Within a broader framing of justice, the technicalities of the interpretation of a fundamental right were seen as inseparable from the centrality of personal liberty to constitutional ethics.
•  It can scarcely be forgotten that Article 21 (the right to life and personal liberty) is ‘designed to assure the dignity of the individual as a most cherished human value which ensures the means of full development and evolution of a human being’ (Justice R.F. Nariman in Puttaswamy, paragraph 42).
•  How and on what basis might we piece together memories that render the Constitution ‘workable’, ‘flexible’ and ‘strong’ (in the words of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar)? How may we discover pathways through which the Preamble lights up ways to ‘hold the country together’ at a time when the dominant political discourse reduces and degrades politics to the fractured banality of shards — such as the ‘tukde tukde’ narratives? 
•  Preventive detention, arbitrary arrests, denial of fair trial through the impunity that is guaranteed statutorily in anti-terror laws, and democidal-domicidal violence enact ‘rituals of humiliation’ — to use Sunder Boopalan’s words — and impose indescribable wrongs on conscientious resisters in India today. 
• I posit a juxtaposition that is instructive — there is the case of A.K. Gopalan (1950) challenging the inauguration of constitutional contradictions and being detained at one end, and Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Gul•sha Fatima and several other anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) resisters in prison (2025) challenging the CAA 2019 and living with bulldozers, dispossessions and the partisan prison complex, at the other end. 
•  By 2017, when the Puttaswamy judgment came, preventive detention and prolonged custody without bail had proliferated under the aegis of constitutional courts; there was an escalation in arrests and the prolonged detention of dissenters under the spiralling list of laws (State and central) that, by now, authorised detention and custody with scant regulations. 
• Over the years, the process has become the punishment. We witness young and spirited dissenters who courageously challenged the CAA 2019, now trapped in the talons of anti-terror laws. 
• There is an impenetrable opacity of procedure and an endless deferment of decisions on the vital issue of personal liberty.
•  Dissent is criminalised even while dissent is reinstated; this is the deep paradox of our times that courts must reflect on in the 75th year of the Constitution. 
•  A.K. Gopalan and today’s resisters In his memoir, In the Cause of the People: Reminiscences (1973), A.K. Gopalan gives us a fine-grained account of his imprisonment along with several others ‘by Indians’, and of the numerous trials he faced and the petitions he filed to secure liberty from British courts and Indian courts thereafter, but to no avail. 
• Deciding to celebrate Independence day in jail on August 15, 1947, he led a small procession in jail and hoisted the national flag. He was arrested for this ‘crime’ on a treason charge for stirring enmity against the emperor under Section 124A, and produced before the ADM Calicut in independent India (p.274). He filed affadavits and wrote letters to the court ‘as a matter of course’ and was unwilling to ‘remain quiescent’. 
• Gopalan himself argued in another writ petition filed in Madras, in a hearing that saw large crowds: ‘
• The court set me free on the last day of the hearing. I was re-arrested after release at the door of the court and escorted once more to Cuddalore jail. I filed another writ petition which was heard two days after my re-arrest. The court released me again. The judges specially ordered the police not to touch me. The police did not dare to disregard this injunction. I had been imprisoned in December 1947 and released in 1951. Four years in jail!’ This account has a familiar contemporary ring to it. 
• The anti-CAA resisters have spent roughly four years in custody, but the difference is that the courts have not yet moved with a sense of urgency to set them free. 
• The Preventive Detention Act, 1950, belonged to free India’s ‘rule of law’ regime. K.G. Kannabiran, while reflecting on the travails of civil libertarian lawyers and their petitioners in courts over five decades, observed that the Gopalan judgment “is our own. 
• It is the first ‘Indian-made foreign judgement’” which upheld an Indian-made colonial law. To this, 75 years later, we have now added more Indian-made colonial laws. 
• But will the courts hold the Puttaswamy view of dissent and dignity in place and extend their reach as constitutional values that further the cause of personal liberty as the ultimate expression of justice under the Constitution? 
•  No room for retrospective regret The case of the 16 arrests made in the Bhima Koregaon case (writers, intellectuals, cultural activists, poets, performers, teachers), the 19 arrests made in the Delhi riots case of anti-CAA protesters (most of them community leaders and student leaders and activists, of whom 17 are Muslim), and the anticipation of violence, arrest and domicide as a ‘clear and present danger’ confronted especially by Muslims who dare to challenge unlawful state action, must make us pause.
•  They call for a slew of interventions by constitutional courts in the exercise of ‘creative constitutionalism’ (to use Professor Upendra Baxi’s phrase) in the cause of the right to personal liberty as justice. 
• This is needed so that India does not end up waiting ‘another seven decades and four generations’ to discover that we were again on the wrong side of the Constitution.
•  Or that we understood and worked the Constitution in its seventh decade in ways that negated its ethical spirit, instead of upholding and furthering the idea of justice embedded within.

2. Foundational values, the journey of the Indian state

• Q- On the 75th anniversary of the coming into effect of the Constitution of India, it is imperative to evaluate the journey of the Indian state from the perspective of its foundational values before we plan the course ahead. 
• After nearly three years of debate and deliberation, the Constituent Assembly of the newly independent India adopted its founding document, the Constitution of India. 
• Two months thereafter, the Republic officially came into force with the Constitution being given effect to. 
• When Dr. B.R. Ambedkar delivered the closing address to the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949, he characterised the complex challenges ahead.
•  He anxiously wondered whether Indians would place “the country above their creed”. 
•  Today, we realise that the words from the closing address carry meaningful lessons for the next 75 years and propel us to guard the Constitution. 
•  Many of the constitutional issues that have been keenly debated in recent times have been around the interpretation of India’s federal structure. 
•  Tussles between State governments and some of the State Governors have made their way to the Supreme Court of India. 
• Pitched battles are being fought within and outside Parliament on the issue of simultaneous elections.
•  The neglect of ‘regional languages’ such as Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi and so on is being argued from the vanguard of multilinguistic equality and State autonomy. 
• Fiscal federalism has been a major sticking point for States that are suffering under the dual regime of the Finance Commission and the Goods and Services Tax Act. 
• The next delimitation exercise, which will determine the democratic future of India, is set to result in a showdown between the Union and States that have controlled their population.
•  It is strange that given how integral federalism has been to the constitutional discourse over the last 50 years or so, the word ‘federal’ is nowhere to be found in the text of the Constitution.
•  Criticism of the Constitution in the early days, and one that was well anticipated by Dr. Ambedkar, was that the document is anti-federal and tilts the balance in favour of the Union.
•  Addressing this complaint while speaking in 1949, Dr. Ambedkar explained that the ‘Centre and the States are co-equal’ in matters of legislative and executive authority. 
• He clarified to the Constituent Assembly that the overriding powers for the Union are only placed “to be used in an emergency”. 
• As such, the regular conduct of democratic business in India is within a federal framework and not to be mistaken for a unitary one. 
• On this count, constitutional courts have confirmed the proposition by ear-marking federalism to be a part of the basic structure of the Constitution, beginning with the judgment in S.R. Bommai vs Union of India(1994) and continuing to the Government of NCT of Delhi vs Union of India(2024).
•  An unequal democracy Another question of contemporary interest is on whether and how India has matured over the 75 years, into a social democracy that is guided by the constitutional values of liberty, equality and fraternity. 
• The argument put forth by many critics of the government is that it has become a police state. The offence of sedition along with stringent special statutes such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act supplement this position.
•  Similarly, whether the country has been able to achieve a degree of equality among various cohorts, and whether it is truly democratic are questions that merit introspection. 
•  With tremendous foresight, Dr. Ambedkar explained that the country must strive to remove social and economic inequality before they become a threat to democracy itself. 
• He went on to underline the importance of fraternity for the fledgling republic. 
• Terming the idea of an Indian nation as a delusion, Dr. Ambedkar asked how people divided into several thousands of castes can be a nation. 
• ds Seventy-five years hence, can we fairly claim to have fostered fraternal feelings through social and political movements? Have we succeeded to some degree in neutralising the significance of caste in determining merit and success in society?
•  The answers must be in the negative. 
• But, that does not necessarily imply that the Constitution has failed. 
• It is an indication of how much farther the country must travel. The need for constitutional guardians Of late, there has been some noise about revamping the Constitution, as the accusation is that it has evolved from an European colonial perspective. 
• It has become a common trope among the social right to suggest replacement of the present-day Constitution with an ‘Indic’ constitutional document drawing from Hindu dharmicconcepts — there can be no greater insult to the combined intellect of the Constituent Assembly than this.
•  There can be no greater disservice than this to the three years of the Constituent Assembly and the 75 years of nation-building that have made India what it is today.
•  Rather than reinventing the wheel of the Constitution, the country must respond to Dr. Ambedkar’s calls to defend our democratic principles and preserve the Constitution. 
• For it is not the document that makes the nation but the people who are called to govern. 
•  What is required today is clear-headed guidance on the future of our constitutional philosophy.
•  In Plato’s Republic, he argues the case for a class of guardians who are philosopher-kings. 
• India today needs guardians who can place the country above their creed more than ever: they need to be guardians in the form of judges, bureaucrats, politicians, activists, journalists and citizens.
•  Only then can we truly aspire to fulfil the promise of the Constitution

3.Archaeologists must look for more iron-specific sites in south India

• he Iron Age in India has been a subject of fascinationand discussion.
•  In the rest of the world, the Iron Age succeeded the Copper-Bronze Age or bridged the gap between the Bronze Age and the Early Historic period. 
• But the situation in India is di•erent: when the region north of the Vindhyas belonged to the pre-iron Chalcolithic or Copper Age, the south, with over 3,000 sites, was associated with iron.
•  Many ar chaeologists have, generally and conservatively, placed the Iron Age to be inthe second millenni um BCE. Given this backdrop, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s recent statement,that the origin of iron in the State could be traced to the ffirst quarter of the fourth millennium BCE, is significant as this pushes the antiquity of iron furth er. After excavations in the mid-Ganga Valley of Uttar Pradesh about 25 years ago, early evidence of iron technology was dated to 1800 BCE. But now, the work in Sivagalai in Tamil Nadu, which was carried out between 2019 and 2022, has made authorities attribute the introduction of iron in the country to the early part of the fourth millennium BCE, even though the period of 2500 BCE-3000 BCE is taken as a mid-range value. This forms the highlight of a study by the State Depart ment of Archaeology (TNSDA),titled “Antiquity of Iron: Recent radiometric dates from Tamil Na du”. The TNSDA had the scientific dating results of its study validated by renowned institutions such as the Beta Analytic laboratory in the U.S. Mr. Stalin’s observation was made keeping the findings in mind. Early this month, he announced a $1-million prize scheme for deciphering the script of the Indus Valley Civilisation. 
•  The work by the TNSDA should spur new thinking with regard to the strategies to be adopt ed by archaeologists who are working on the Iron Age of India. 
• They may have to look for more iron-specific sites than copper-cum-iron sites, which will save time, energy and resources. 
• Even though the Tamil Nadu government supports re search projects on a wide range of themes in other States, the TNSDA has its constraints with regard to territorial jurisdiction. 
• This underscores the need for complementing Tamil Nadu’s efforts with those of other southern States. 
• The Archaeological Survey of India should take the initiative of bringing the entire southern region under a common fold and enabling well-designed and coordinated work. 
• After all, the idea is to share available resources and expertise in the country to arrive at more reliable findings. 
• At a time when certain forces are increasingly using history and culture as powerful instruments to pursue their political agenda, credible and concrete evidence on the antiquity of the country will naturally put to rest any claim based on baseless assumptions.  

4. Competitive populism The BJP is promising Delhi’s voters what it had earlier dismissed as AAP’s culture

• As campaigning intensifies for the Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled for February 5, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress are raining promises of welfare schemes on every section of voters. 
• The BJP, which was critical of the ruling AAP’s unrestrained populism as “revdi”, or a freebie culture, has not only promised that the schemes that are already in place in Delhi will continuebut has also promised more. 
• The sum of ₹2,100 that AAP has promised to women every month has seen the BJP and the Congress offer ing ₹2,500 instead. 
• In thespeeches of Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, there is an attempt to instil fear in the electorate that if they vote for the BJP, the free electricity, water, health care and education available to the poorwould stop.
•  He is also promising to extend the gravy train to the middle class; morespeci•cally to sec tions of society such as dhobis, pujaris, residents’ welfare associations and autorickshaw drivers.
•  But he has also made a public admission that three guarantees, namely,cleaning the Yamuna river, ensuring that Delhi’s roads meet European standards and providing 24X7 clean drinking wa ter to all, have not been fulfilled, and that if reelected, will have the AAP government focus on the issue of unemployment. 
•  The BJP’s campaign has centredaround the promise of a double-engine government if it is elected to govern the National Capital Territory. 
• It is also making an all-out e•ort to tarnish AAP’s claim of incorruptibility. Allegations of corrup tion in the allotment of liquor licences and the ex orbitant amount of public money that was spent on the official residence of Mr. Kejriwal are the BJP’s talking points. 
• The AAP government has not tabled 14 reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General in the Delhi Assembly that the BJP and the Congress say highlightproof of AAP’scorrup tion. 
• The BJP has promised to put out these re ports in the public domain and constitute a probe. 
• The central pitch of the Congress, which has seen its Chief Ministers, current and former, from other States campaigning for it,is that Con gress governments have been more efficient and prompt in delivering welfare schemes.
•  The Congress is also trying to invoke the past, highlighting the infrastructure development in Delhi that was carried out under formerChief Minister Sheila Dikshit. 
• The party has sensed that the late leader still evokes some nostalgia in the Delhi electorate.
•  The party has criticised Mr. Kejriwal’s silence on the demand for a caste census. 
• The BJP is fielding Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathas his appeal may influence migrant voters from U.P. and Bihar, now the fastest growing voters’ segment in Delhi.

5. Pralay, India’s first quasi-ballistic missile, to be showcased at Republic Day parade

•  The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is set to showcase “Pralay”, an indigenous short-range quasi-ballistic missile, at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on Sunday. 
•  for the Army and the Air Force, Pralay is the •rst ballistic missile in In dia’s arsenal for conven tional strikes. 
• The Army’s Battle Surveillance System “Sanjay” will also be part of the parade.
•  With a range of 400 kilo metres, Pralay adds to the BrahMos and Parahar missiles already in the inventory, giving the Indian military an option for stand-off missile strikes across the border. 
• It is meant for deployment along both the Line of Control (LoC) and the Line of Actual Control (LAC). 
•  The development trials of Pralay are over and it is now complete, offcials said, noting that the Defence Ministry had already accorded the Acceptance of Necessity for its induction. 
• The system features a twin launcher configuration mounted on an Ashok Leyland 12x12 high-mobili ty vehicle as seen during the ongoing rehearsals for the Republic Day parade. 
•  In 2023, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) ap proved procurement of the Pralay tactical ballistic missiles with a range of 400 km and Nirbhay long-range subsonic land attack cruise missiles with a range of 1,000 km, both of which will give a long-range conventional strike option for the Indian military. 
• Put together, a few hundred missiles were approved for procurement by the DAC. A new derivative of Nirbhay, which has been under development foover a decade now, has been •ight-tested recently and trials are under way.

6. Need to tackle the issue of ‘social media pollution’, says CEC

•  Observing that social media platforms were not blocking or labelling easily detectable fakes, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Fri day said that there was a need for a Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to curb “social media polution” just like in case of air pollution. “If we have environ mental pollution outside, equally serious social media pollution we have in side. It needs anti-pollution measures,” Mr. Kumar said in his valedictory address at an international conference of election management bodies of 13 countries. 
•  He said “Delhi Declaration 2025”, reflecting collective commitment to uphold principles of free, fair, and inclusive elections, was adopted. 
•  Asserting that social media companies need to introspect before it is “too late”, Mr. Kumar said, “Let the social media platforms not be clouded by the shadows of fake, unverified and misleading narratives, disruptive by design.” 
•  He said that algorithms were designed in a way that repeatedly presented content aligned with existing views, reinforcing a perspective without exposing the person to the other side of the argument. 
• Algorithms can prevent that, especially in case of detectable fakes,

7.  FISCAL HEALTH INDEX by NITI AAYOg

• Odisha tops NITI fiscal health index, 
• Chhattisgarh next best Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Keralawere the worst-performing States, as per the NITI Aayog report, 
• while Maharashtra, U.P., Telangana, M.P., Karnataka were in ‘front-runners’ category

• Mineral-rich Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Goa, and Jharkhand have emerged as top-performing ‘achievers’ among the States listed in NITI Aayog’s first Fiscal Health Index (FHI) report released on Friday. 
•  The report titled “Fiscal Health Index 2025” ranked States for 2022-23, covering 18 major States that drive the Indian economy in terms of their contribution to India’s GDP, demography, total public expenditure, revenues, and overall fiscal stability. 
•  According to the report, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Kerala were the worst-performing States in the Fiscal Health Index (FHI), each facing significant fiscal challenges, and listed under “aspirational” category. 
•  The report aims to evolve an understanding of the fiscal health of States and it has listed Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka under the “front-runners” category. 
•  Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajas than, and Haryana were classified as performers. 
•  As per the report, released by 16th Finance Commission Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Odisha excelled in fiscal health, with the highest overall index score of 67.8. Referring to top five achiever States, NITI Aayog said these States have high er capital outlay of up to 4% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), effective mobilisation of non-tax revenue, are revenue surplus, and have low interest payments which is up to 7% of revenue receipts. 
•  The government think tank said the front-runner States reported high total developmental expenditure up to 73%, witnessed consistent growth in own tax revenue, had balanced fiscal management and improved debt sustainability with debt-to-GSDP ratio of 24%. 
•  The report noted that the aspirational States of Kerala, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab are struggling to meet the fiscal and revenue deficit targets, have low revenue mobilisation, witnessing a growing debt burden with debt sustainability a concern in these States. 
•  As per the report, Odisha tops the debt index (99.0) and debt sustainability (64.0) rankings with better than average scores under quality of expenditure and revenue mobilisation. 
• Odisha has maintained low fiscal deficits, a good debt profile, and an above average capital out lay/GSDP ratio. 
•  While Kerala and Punjab struggle with low quality of expenditure and debt sustainability, the report said, West Bengal faces revenue mobilisation and debt index issues.
•  Andhra Pradesh has high fiscal deficit and Haryana has a poor debt profile, it said. 
•  According to the report, Odisha, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh scored the highest average FHI score for 2014-15 to 2021-22 period. 
• The data used to calculate the Fiscal Health Index were sourced from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

8.Study finds link between smartphone use and mental health of adolescents

•  A survey of over 10,000 adolescents (13-17 years) in the United States and India has revealed that mental well-being is closely linked with earlier age of initiation of mobile phones, and could decline significantly with each younger year of age. 
•  The report, titled “The Youth Mind: Rising Aggression and Anger”, by Sapien Labs documented the responses of 10,475 Internet enabled adolescents across India and the U.S. in 2024.
•  Although numerous factors have traditionally been identified as drivers of poor mental health, one key change in the younger generations is the arrival of smartphones, which were introduced in 2008, coinciding with the onset of rising mental health problems. 
•  The report highlighted key trends, with a particular focus on rising feelings of aggression, anger, irritability, and hallucinations in this age group. 
• The decline in mind health is characterised not only by sadness and anxiety but also by new symptoms, including unwanted thoughts and a sense of being detached from reality. 
• Highlighting the differences between the American and Indian cohorts, Tara Thiagarajan, neuroscientist with Sapien Labs, said the pace of deterioration of mental well-being is slower in India. “While the overall decline in mental well-being in younger ages is strongly present for males and females in the U.S., it is only present for females in India and not in males (where only select aspects deteriorated, while others improved). Even for females, it (the overall decline in mental well-being) is not as steep in India,” Dr. Thiagarajan said. 
•  “On the other hand, both adolescent males and females in India have worse mental well-being on the whole, than their counterparts in the U.S. 
•  While aggression, anger and hallucinations are consistently related to the age of smartphone initiation for both U.S. and Indian females, for girls in India, getting their phones very young is more likely to result in increased sleep and health problems as adults,
•  Merits of ed-tech In an attempt to address this, there is a growing debate on the merits of educational technology (ed tech) in the elementary and middle school years. 
•  “One of the possible soluions is also to provide restricted access to phones for teenagers using apps, which lock in parental controls regarding apps teens can access, while allowing them to access a school portal or messaging

9. U.P. temple gets FCRA nod without request

•  The Union Home Ministry has granted registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 to the famous Banke Bihari temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Vrindavan, enabling it to receive donations from foreign countries for “religious” activity. 
•  The temple’s priests, however, said they had never applied for the registration. 
•  The temple committee is locked in a legal battle with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the State over the control of the temple’s affairs and funds. 
• The committee includes the State government’s nominees. 
•  The Banke Bihari temple is presently owned and managed by a hereditary community of Sevayat Goswami priests, Saraswat Brahmins, and the descendants of Swami Haridas, who built the temple over 550 years ago. Sources in the State go vernment said the temple’s funds currently stand at about ₹480 crore, apart from gold and other valuables.    
• On Friday, the Ministry granted the FCRA registra tion to the ‘Thakur Shri Bankey Bihari Ji Maharaj Temple’ at Vrindavan under the “Religious (Hindu)” category. 
•  Registration under the FCRA, 2010 is mandatory for non-government organisations (NGOs) and as sociations to receive foreign funds. Speaking to The Hindu, Ashok Goswami, one of the temple priests, said he had no idea about the application for the FCRA licence, and said that, for the past several years, the temple had been receiving donations from devotees living in foreign countries. 
• “Our temple is run through a committee which is formed by the Civil Judge, Junior Division. Apart from the Goswamis, like us, who own the temple property, we have many outsiders in the committee. 
• I cannot comment on who applied for the FCRA licence. But none of the priests applied for it,” he said. Mr. Goswami also said that the temple receives three types of funding — firstly, devotees contribute directly to the priests; secondly, do nations arrive via cheques or other digital payments; and thirdly, contributions are made to donation boxes kept in the temple. 
• “This looks like a conspiracy to bring the temple under another controversy,” Mr. Goswami alleged. Members of the Goswami community have petitioned the Allahabad High Court against the State’s proposal to build around the temple a corridor akin to the Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor to facilitate a smooth darshan for devotees. The State has submitted in the court that a corridor was necessary after two devotees suffocated to death due to overcrowding inside the temple on the occasion of Janmashtami in 2022. 
• The court, in past hearings, had asked the State to not meddle with the affairs of the temple, including with its funds, but allowed it to proceed with the corridor project. 
• The matter is sub judice. Gopi Goswami, another priest, also alleged a conspiracy. “
• They never asked us whether we want an FCRA [registration] or not. 
• One day, there will some random illegal deposit in this account and the government will hold us accountable for it. 
• We will question the temple management committee formed by the Civil Judge to tell us why this was needed and why they applied for it without consulting us,