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It was unusual for attorney general K K Venugopal the other day to remind the Supreme Court, though gently, that no matter what orders the court might pass, parliament has the powers to neutralise these.

India’s politicians have shifted focus from the east and the south to the north. Even as the country battles the devastating second wave of Covid-19 infections, both political activity and political competition have intensified in states going to polls early next year. And nowhere is this battle most intense, and arguably most crucial for the future of Indian politics and democracy, than in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Another sure sign of turning tide for the NaMo regime is sudden return of the judicial system to assume its role assigned in the frame of Indian constitution. The severe critical remarks against the use and misuse of normal but precautionary legal provisions by the law and order wing to impose its repressive regime and thus deny justice in several instances indicate that the judiciary not only returned to its assigned role but also took over several functions of the executive. The turning tide also exposed failure of the third wing the legislature to perform.

NDA Union Government has issued strict gag orders prohibiting pensioners, both newly retired and older ones, from communicating in the media, writing books, participating in public discourses sharing their domain experiences without prior permission of the government, failing which their pension can be withheld or withdrawn. Fascist’s usual plank always is national security and public order. This covers ostensibly retirees from security and intelligence but its ambit sweeps all India services like IAS, IPS and all other Central Civil Services as there is interchangeability of officials from deputy secretary level and higher grade from one wing of the government to the other on periodic deputation notwithstanding specialized service cadres for different organisations of the government.

Mexico is going to the polls on next Sunday June 6 to elect its 500 members of the chamber of deputies, the outcome of which will decide whether the present centre left President Lopez Obrador, known by his initials AMLO, will be able to go ahead with his proposed reforms to transform the economy of the covid-ravaged country in favour of the poor. AMLO was elected President in 2018 and this midterm election is a sort of mandate on his three years of performance.

As the world is passing through serious crisis of COVID Pandemic, at present Vaccination seems to be the only answer to put a break to it. The process has to be carried out simultaneously at the global level if we have to achieve an early end to Pandemic. This is important because in this highly interconnected world movement of people from one to other country cannot be stopped for very long. Whereas the developed countries have been able to vaccinate substantial number of their population, most of the developing countries are finding it hard to procure the vaccines in required numbers. The affluent countries booked the vaccines much early. Under the circumstances several developing countries including India are unable to get the vaccines now from the companies in other countries.

Every person in the ruling BJP knows of soreness that exists in relations between the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Aditya Nath Yogi though most do not know the Cause of sore relationship bordering to an intense dislike for each other.

LUCKNOW: BJP and RSS leadership is busy with damage control exercise for Uttar Pradesh in order to achieve Mission 2022. Realising that it could be tough challenge for BJP to retain UP especially after debacle in West Bengal, BJP high command sent senior leaders to Lucknow to have reality check in view of forthcoming assembly polls.

There will be a very slow jobs recovery with very high inequality risk from now onward until at least 2023 end, if employment and social trend in the first half of 2021 is of any indication. Though the global employment recovery is projected to accelerate in the second half of 2021 as per the latest assessment of the International Labour Organization (ILO), their projection heavily depends on the condition if there will be no worsening in the overall pandemic situation.

India is facing an acute vaccine shortage. The impression that generally prevails is that this shortage is because while production capacity is slow to increase there has been a sudden spurt in vaccine demand since vaccination is now open for the 18-44group in addition to the original 45+group. This impression however is erroneous: while more people no doubt are now eligible for vaccination, there has been a sharp and mystifying drop in the absolute number of vaccinations in the month of May not just compared to the previous month but also compared to the country’s production capacity for vaccines. The excess demand for vaccines thus arises not just from the demand side, as generally presumed, but also from the supply side. This is utterly baffling; and the government has not provided comprehensive data on production, and stock-holding, to clear the mystery.