Our government shows a benign mask to the world behind which its fangs are bared against its own citizens, observes Aakar Patel.
Varsity security personnel, who yesterday stopped entry of three Kerala MPs and social activist Teesta Setalvad into the campus, on Friday prevented Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav and others from entering the campus.
The court said that the petitioner can approach a higher court for further investigation in the case.
'Laws have been used in a way to serve the needs of the current regime and its authoritarian ideology.'
Sibal also said the present dispensation wants an 'Opposition-mukt Bharat' not just a 'Congress-mukt Bharat'.
'Through this one step, and more steps that follow, log judte jayenge (more people will come together); I'm sure of that.'
CJI Lalit concurred with the minority view of Justice S Ravindra Bhat who held the EWS quota as "unconstitutional" for excluding poor among SCs, STs and OBCs.
Two worthies were overheard mulling recent political developments
Modi denies the charges and was exonerated in an Indian Supreme Court inquiry in 2012.
'If you were to say today that the government should appoint judges to the high courts and Supreme Court, then I think that even those few good judges that we are getting today we would not get them.'
A special court on Tuesday granted bail to home ministry official Anand Joshi, who was arrested for allegedly issuing Foreign Contribution Regulation Act notices arbitrarily to several NGOs.
'The government is using the Intelligence Bureau to go after NGOs.' 'It is not only the NDA, the UPA also didn't like NGOs.' 'NGOs predominantly work with the poor. So, when you cancel an NGO, the affected are the poor, the Dalits, the tribals, the street children and the marginalised.'
As opposition parties targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party over the police action on the campus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah spoke to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and asked him to address the issue at the earliest.
A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Deepak Gupta said the matter will be heard on November 19, as the court has not gone through the petition in detail.
A seven-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, elaborating on the issues weighing on its mind, said "all that we wanted to know was that appeal for votes in the name of religion, means whose religion? Is it the religion of candidates or religion of agent or religion of the third party (seeking votes) or religion of voters or that of all of them?"
Scholars and students have cautioned that the proposed divisive and discriminatory changes would harm the country.
'Our civil society here is vibrant, and courageous, although it is beaten up and beaten down, repeatedly.'
'The fact that all the charges against my son are baseless and concocted, in itself, gives me all the hope.'
'Politicians want pliable policemen who would carry out their orders, right or wrong, lawful or illegal.'
'Modiji did not say anything so that there was no influence. He endured all this silently'
An SIT officer probing the murder case said the investigation is in final stage and a chargesheet will be filed in two months.
The various meat bans across the country are an attempt to attack civil liberties, says civil rights activist Kavita Srivastava.
Speaking to reporters in Thane, Pawar accused the Narendra Modi government of failing to fulfil any of the promises made by it since 2014 including bringing 'acche din, connecting villages through the internet, and providing toilets, water, and power to every household'.
We're behaving like frogs in warm water. We swim around untroubled, cooled by our faith in Indian liberal democracy. We are blind to the bubbles popping around us, the bubbles warning of fundamental changes, says Mihir S Sharma.
The apex court is hearing its two-decade-old 'Hindutva' judgement for an authoritative pronouncement on electoral law categorising misuse of religion for electoral gains as "corrupt practice".
The writers, artistes, thinkers and academics had gathered for a "resistance" meet (Pratirodh) against what they described as "attack on reason, democracy and composite culture".
Of the 24 convicted, 11 have been convicted for murder and 13 for other charges.
For the past, blame the Congress. For the present, blame the Congress. For everything, blame the Congress. But for your future, vote BJP.
'Modi wants to go down in history not necessarily as India's first overtly Hindu RSS pracharak prime minister, but as a world statesman who built the idea of India as a great nation.'
'Since Modi is walking a tightrope between two worlds -- one of the saffron brotherhood and the other of the proposed smart cities and bullet trains -- it is understandable why he is averse to scrutiny lest he loses his balance by tilting too heavily on one side or the other. But, why has Sonia Gandhi acquired the reputation of a sphinx,' asks Amulya Ganguli.
'To suggest that activists -- and that too 'five star activists' -- are driving the courts, is to betray an ignorance of the functioning of the legal system of the most gross kind,' says Senior Advocate and former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising.
Religion or caste is a key part of India's political discourse, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday and asked whether seeking of votes on that basis would amount to "corrupt practice" under the election law.
The court said it has decided to award imprisonment for life without any time frame to the 11, who have been convicted for murder, while requesting the state not to use its power to remit the sentence after 14 years of imprisonment.
An accused D G Vanzara gets bail months after Modi emerges as PM and hails it is as a return of 'Achche Din' while the blind-folded lady justice, almost mocks the rest of us, by suggesting that nobody is guilty for the cold blooded killing of Ishrat Jahan, Kauser Bi and the 2,000 odd innocent people in Gujarat, says Shehzad Poonawala.
Social activist Teesta Setalvad, who has been fighting for the victims of Gulberg Society, said they will study the judgement in depth and appeal in a higher court.
A journalist must perform various roles, be passionate yet detached, feels Gopalkrishna Gandhi
'If the State does want to come after you, in India, it can do pretty much anything. And often it isn't as though the orders are coming from the President or prime minister, no, the systems have been built in a way -- or we have allowed them to be built in a way -- that almost encourages crushing of liberties.'
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