March 14: Must-read stories

Price makes farmers ask government to take land

Around 100 farmers have veered off the beaten track in Bengal and urged the state government to acquire their land for widening a national highway. The silver bullet: a prospective price far higher than the market rate. The highway is NH81, which connects the Northeast to the rest of the country through Bengal and Bihar, reports The Telegraph.

Another Dalit student commits suicide, this time from JNU

A 27-year-old student Dalit student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Krish Rajini, allegedly committed suicide on Monday at his friend’s place in Munirka Vihar. According to reports, Rajini was suffering from depression. In his last Facebook post on 10 March, Rajini bemoaned the “denial of equality” to the “marginals”, reports The Quint.

As Dubai prepares to change tax laws, Indians scramble to hide undeclared wealth

Many Indians hope to mask their wealth behind financial structures and special arrangements with professional service providers before January 2018 when the United Arab Emirates (UAE) begins to share information with India on bank accounts, reports The Economic Times.

Muslims in UP assembly down to 5.9%, from 17.1% in 2012

With the 2017 UP assembly elections, Muslim representation in India’s most populous state has plummeted from 17.2% in 2012 to 5.9%. This is equivalent to Muslim representation about a quarter of a century ago in 1993, following the Babri Masjid riots of 1992, when it dropped to 5.9%, according to an IndiaSpend analysis.

Turkey bans Dutch ambassador as diplomatic crisis escalates

Turkey has suspended high-level political contacts with the Netherlands and threatened to re-evaluate a key deal to halt the flow of migrants to Europe in a dramatic escalation of its diplomatic row with EU member states, reports The Guardian.