Editor's Pick: what's happening in Hathras?

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

The Hathras gang rape continues to build as a political issue. On Thursday, senior Trinamool Congress leaders were prevented from visiting the victim's family by the police. This comes a day after Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi were arrested while on their way to the village. Civil society protests are also building up in Delhi and other cities.

The gang rape of a Dalit girl by four upper caste men in U.P.'s Hathras and her subsequent death has again put the focus on gender violence and caste discrimination in the State. It also picks holes in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's argument that the law-and-order situation in U.P. has become much better under his BJP government. The opposition Congress and TMC are now using the issue to target Adityanath, one of the rising faces in the BJP. The role of caste in the crime has brought Dalit political forces like Bhim Army also into the picture.

Politics aside, the horrendous nature of the crime is driving civil society protests across the country. In his Ground Zero report from Hathras, Anuj Kumar details the gender and caste violence that is a staple in the victim's village. The report indicates that economic betterment has not insulated the Valmiki family from the violence perpetrated by the Thakurs, the caste of the four accused in the gang rape. It is this mix of politics, the horrendous nature of the crime, and the larger story that it tells of India's current social structures that makes this story important.