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A day after the Kerala assembly passed a resolution against leasing Thiruvananthapuram international airport to a firm promoted by industrialist Gautam Adani, as many as 12 trade unions came out in support of the Kerala government and lashed out at Modi government for leasing out profit-making airports to a private firm. Significantly, the RSS affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) also supported the resolution of the CTUs critical of the NDA government’s policies.

The draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification 2020 proposed by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change dilutes further the EIA Notification 2006 that is being currently followed. The proposed changes in the name of easing of doing business relax further and totally overhaul the environmental clearance system to benefit large corporations and MNCs. Many of the proposed clauses in the present draft on environmental clearances are anti-democratic as that are sans public consultation and also seriously affect the livelihoods of people, especially tribal communities dependent on eco system.

Are we pushed back to Macaulay days? Thomas Babington Macaulay was the person who wrote the script for British education policy, a legislative act, passed in 1835, by the British Parliament to educate the Indian masses. The ruling East India Company wanted to promote a slave culture, deprived of right to express, and assert against the injustices. Objective was to promote office assistants to look after their business for which was imperative some knowledge about European culture and language. There was also little knowledge of science, basically Newtonian, history was simply a chronology, divided on communal lines, thus a step to destroy our composite culture and also to deprive us of our past, present and thus, future.

The conviction of senior lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, of criminal contempt of court by a three-member bench of the Supreme Court has lowered the image of the institution. It shows the highest court of the land in a bad light as being intolerant of criticism and using the contempt law to punish dissent.

The Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was targeted for severe criticism as his chosen unique model that delivered a less of economic development but accelerated growth of corruption. He did not adopt the capitalism to provide all opportunities to few in the top class and also communism to put the state chain on life of all. He gave a dominant role to the public sector in real terms to his government. He did not abolish the existing units in private sector but put restriction of the mandatory license to expand or innovate or enter in new fields. The growth of corruption was also a clear indication of growth of economy as there cannot be corruption in stagnant economy. The Nehruvian economic model brought in growth of twenty monopoly units encompassing eighty per cent of Indian economy.

I strongly disagree with the Supreme Court’s contempt case and judgment against Prashant Bhushan. I have been a signatory on a letter protesting this; many citizens, leading lawyers, and retired judges have also opposed it. The nation’s respect for Prashant has gone up, and in the same proportion, the respect for the Supreme Court has gone down.

Joe McCarthy would fit right in at this year’s Republican National Convention. Denouncing communists—both real and, more often than not, imaginary—was the bread and butter for the 1950s red-baiting senator from Wisconsin. At the dawn of the Cold War, the bogeyman of the Soviet Union was the stick used to beat back a strong labor movement and a growing left in the United States. Today, Trump and the GOP are trying the same trick. History repeats. But as the granddaddy of communism, Karl Marx, might say, if McCarthyism was the tragedy, then the anti-socialist antics of the Republicans are surely the farce.

It is disturbing to see that after the May 16th 2020 announcement made by the Finance Minister to corporatise the Ordnance Factory Board, many articles are being written/sponsored by vested interests justifying the decision of the Government without critically analyzing its serious implications on the National Security and Defence Preparedness of the country. These articles are written either by self styled Defence experts or by retired Senior Army officers who are generally on the pay roll of the Private Companies connected with Defence manufacturing.

The false alarm that created panic in the Congress and even forced the leadership to the extent of apprehending a vertical split is the clear manifestation of utter lack of trust and vibrant communication among the leaders. It is for Rahul Gandhi to reply why this situation cropped up and the electronic media sensationalised it by attributing that he has accused the leaders who wrote the letter complaining about the drift in the party of colluding with the BJP.

Justice Arun Mishra, who headed the bench that heard the contempt of court case against Prashant Bhushan, and sought an unconditional apology from the activist lawyer, has apparently been using contempt of court as a tool to discipline ‘offenders’ whenever provoked.