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Over the last few years, the issue of independence of judiciary in India has been in constant public domain and for good reasons, particularly after the landmark press conference of the four senior-most judges on 12th January, 2018, who decried the executive interference in judiciary. Ironically, one of the judges in the four judges’ press conference was the current Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, under whose watch, the edifice of the independent and impartial judiciary has almost crumbled. Before I get into the recent developments, let us first understand what is the meaning of independence of judiciary.

India was a founding member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 1919. It has been a permanent member of its governing body since 1922. At the time of ILO’s centenary, India, the world’s largest democracy, has not ratified two of its core conventions—Convention 89 on Freedom of Association and Right to Organise of 1948 and Convention 98 on Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining of 1949. This, despite Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru making a solemn promise at the Fourth Asian Regional Conference of ILO in India on 13 November 1957 that as one of its 44 founding members India would fully honour the labour standards set by the ILO.

India needs a new culture of opposition politics. In a democracy, opposition is supposed to play the role of a corrective role in the conduct of governance. ‘Corrective’ implies that it has to constructively intervene to correct the course. But unfortunately, opposition now means blind opposition to whatever the government or the ruling party does. Opposition now means a certain antagonism bordering on hatred.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

Union NDA Government in the Ministry of Railways has planned to privatize railways in a big way to the detriment of the larger public interests in anticipation of the Dedicated Freight Corridors between Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata being commissioned by December 2021 and 90 per cent ofthe existing high density routs on these corridors being freed from freight traffic and released for additional passenger traffic for starting high speed luxury trains to mop up more passenger traffic. Accordingly, bid documents are being worked out for global tenders. Besides, some other routes across the country will be opened to private train services including sub-urban rail services in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad. Government has also allocated about rupees 1300 crore for upgrading the existing Mumbai-Delhi and Kolkata-Delhi tracks to 160 kilometre per hour speed.

Democrats on September 23 indicated a move towards impeaching US President Donald Trump, after he admitted to phoning Ukrainan President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss former vice president Joe Biden and his son in July.

India, like many middle-income countries, is committed to providing Universal Health Coverage and has made significant progress through the Ayushman Bharat (AB) programme, targeting the bottom 40 per cent of the population. Under the AB programme, as of September 2019, the government has allocated Rs 6000 crore, generated 10 crore e-cards, and has empanelled 18,000 hospitals across India.

While Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the dalit outfit has been consistently losing its political relevance, the charisma of dalit messiah Mayawati, the BSP supremo, has been witnessing a steep decline. With the changing times and shifting economic priorities and compulsions, the BSP has also undergone complete transformation. Under the stewardship of Kanshi Ram, BSP represented the aspiration of exploited and oppressed dalits, but during last two decades it has become a political instrument to serve the interest of the creamy layer, the neo-bourgeoise, of dalits.

The Election Commission has sounded the poll bugle for the two BJP ruled states — Maharashtra and Haryana — which will go for elections on October 21. The BJP is not only eying a big comeback but also with a much bigger margin. The saffron party is poised to win both the states mainly because of the disarray in the opposition ranks.

The world in which we live is finite. It does not possess infinite, everlasting resources. And it is fast approaching the point of no return as we face imminent climate catastrophe. If we are to save humanity and protect the world for future generations, we have to radically change the way we live—immediately.