Indian State shuts off mobile internet to stop rumours fuelling riots

detained after getting half a million followers at a rally - whose going to organise a Justin Bieber concert in India?

the voting age for.... forthcoming elections is 25

World's biggest democracy still working at that 'universal suffrage' thing? The age of majority in India is 18.

I'd just like to point out that Ahmedabad is not the capital of Gujarat. Gandhinagar is the capital of Gujarat, Ahmedabad is like a twin city to it. Rest all seems legit.

Positive discrimination

"22 year-old Hardik Patel is a member of the Patidar caste, a group that has been campaigning for classification as “other backward class” (OBC). Such status results in positive discrimination towards a group to promote its economic development."

Here in the U.S. it's called Affirmative (actually preferential) Action. Odd how Socialists seem to believe that the answer to unequal outcomes is government mandated discrimination. And just like here, India is finding out that this policy can never really succeed, so it must be contantly tweaked for "fairness."

Bureaucrats love the extra power, the recipients of the "positive" discrimination love the bennies, and the implied perpetrators (the bulk of the people) get shafted. What's not to love?

One delicious detail is the so-called creamy layer resting on top of each downtrodden caste. Those are the ones who are actually doing fairly well, so they get excluded from bennie consideration. I suppose that's to maintain the "backward" nature of the intended positive discrimination recipients group. Nice.

voting age in India is 18 not 25

There is a factual error .. Voting age in India is 18 .. Marriageable age for Males is 21, for females 18 .. perhaps what you are incorrectly referring to is the age to contest in elections .. which is 25 years.. However, anyone who is 18 years of age can register themselves (if not automatically registered) and vote in the next election :-)