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Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Colombian President Ivan Duque, at their meeting in Bogota on September 20, talked about “managing the COVID-19 response … narco traffickers … and President] Maduro’s illegitimate regime,” according to the State Department. Sources said that the talks centred more on how to remove President Maduro from his position and install a puppet regime.

LUCKNOW: Opposition leaders have realised the potential of unemployment issue which could play an important role in forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The jittery government acknowledged its failure to address the plight of migrant workers during COVID 19. The labour code included special provisions for protection and social welfare benefits to the migrant workers in Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. It is not the first time that law was enacted to protect them. In 1979, it launched Inter-State Migrant Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) act in 1979. But, it seems the law was conveniently forgotten.

At a time when several central agencies are pursuing, in tandem with a number of television channels, the allegations of drug abuse by film stars, it might be expected that the same eagerness to unearth the truth would also be displayed by the official organizations and TV stations in nailing politicians who are facing criminal charges.

Bringing three important agriculture-related bills in Parliament at one go and getting them passed in less than a week’s time without any serious debate or special scrutiny are most unusual, if not unprecedented. On the face of it, the bills seek to double farmers’ income which the ruling BJP promised before the last Lok Sabha election. They also seek to conditionally contain retail prices of key agri products. Here lies the apprehension of both big and small farmers. Consumers are not convinced. Farmers fear a gradual extinction of the Mandis and the minimum support price (MSP) system. To prove the opposition perception wrong, the government took a highly unusual step by announcing increases in MSP of six Ravi crops — by two to six percent — months ahead of the schedule.

One can have a romantic view of something in which one visualizes everything wonderful in waiting. However, in reality things unfold differently. The centre has brought out several laws from its belly to reform the labour and the farm. These will solve the existing problems is a romantic view. The reality is that the recipes will make a deadly cocktail. We have examples of demonetization of November 2016 and lockdown of March 2020. Our romancing Prime Minister Narendra Modi had very romantic views about his decisions, but romanticizing could not help preventing disastrous consequences.

The opposition parties has been criticising the Modi government for its obsession to avoid negative news on Covid-19. But more than the parties, particularly Rahul Gandhi, trying to score brownie points, the issue has now attracted attention of global professional entities as well.

The Indian Parliament is quickly moving from being the custodian of the dignity of legislation to being a site for the acclamation of authoritarianism. Admittedly, Parliament has had an uneven history, sometimes rising to its democratic mandate; at other times, debasing itself. But if the events of the last few days are any guide, the Indian temple of democracy will continue to be ground into the dust. It is important to understand two contexts that frame the current crisis.

When the U.S. Supreme Court opens its new term on the first Monday in October, the symbol of its most important looming development will not be an individual case but an empty chair draped in black.

COVID-19 brought up a plethora of problems within society, some which surfaced with the onset of this pandemic. India’s rising number of infections, the growth rate of cases, inadequate health system, hunger crisis, the border conflict with China, our contracting economy, the future of students, suicides, the case involving Rhea Chakraborty and the sudden death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput are just a few of them.