No permission

Western Uttar Pradesh keeps returning to the headlines for all the wrong reasons. With Assembly polls round the corner, the administration of Muzaffarnagar district - the epicentre of communal riots ahead of the 2014 general elections - decided not to grant permission to a gathering of top Union Cabinet ministers to inaugurate a "Farmers' Fair". Those in the know say the district administration feared that with local polls approaching, the presence of some ministers might vitiate the already charged communal atmosphere. There is no official confirmation of this conjecture, though.