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Under the BJP rule, labour issues are also increasingly becoming human rights issues. Is it conceivable that the Indian state in the 21st century could go back exactly a hundred years to usher an industrial relations scenario based on the principles of British Common Law of the colonial times? That appears to be case with the way the BJP government in Maharashtra is going about.

The cat is finally out of the bag. The French Government did not agree to give any sovereign guarantee to the Rafale deal and its offer of a Letter of Comfort(LoC) does not in any way help in meeting the obligations of the French company Dassault to its manufacturing programme for India. The admission by the Attorney General of the centre K K Venugopal at the hearing of the Supreme Court on November 14 gives a lie to the main component of any credible Inter Government Agreement.

Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha election result is all set to spring up surprises, though most of the poll surveys have predicted that BJP will eventually emerge as the largest political party in the state but may not cross the half-way mark — 45 seats out of 90 in the assembly. The state, according to them, is heading towards a hung assembly. However, even the smallest swing in the percentage of valid votes polled in favour or against a political party may drastically change the situation, and the heavy voter turnout 76.28 per cent in the first phase of election against the average of 73 percent during 2000-20014, that too in the naxal dominated areas, is indicative of a swing.

BJP governments in states and Centre is now busy in renaming cities, towns, railway stations etc. Gurgaon is renamed as Gurugram, supposed to be dedicated to Dronacharya, a cruel Acharya who insisted that Ekalavya must cut his thumb and offer as Guru Dakshina thus exposing his pro-Khshatriya anti-Tribal mentality. Anyway that is another story. Mughal Sarai Railway Station is renamed as Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction. Allahabad is renamed as Prayag Raj. Faizabad district is renamed as Ayodhya. Faizabad and Ayodhya are two separate towns, within 10 kms distance. Yogi Adityanath announced that an airport will be constructed at Ayodhya in the name of Lord Rama and a hospital will be built in the name of King Dasharatha. Many more names are now in discussion. Why all this new drama, why RSS and BJP are in hurry? Why BJP is trying to take India back to thousands of years, to the imagined glory of fictional Ramraj?

Though much more will be revealed in the coming days about the dirty game that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the crony capitalist Anil Ambani have played in finalising the Rafale deal, whatever has come to light so far is enough to outright cancel the deal. It is the biggest corruption scam in which about Rs. 30,000 crore of the public money has been assured to Anil Ambani for doing nothing.

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

The controversy around the entry to Sabarimala temple refuses to die down. Parallel proceedings are going on in the Supreme Court and in the Kerala High Court. On 13th November, 2018, the Supreme Court heard the slew of review petitions filed against its very own judgment allowing entry of women into the temple, delivered on 28th September, 2018 (the Indian Young Lawyers Association & Ors. vs. Union of India & Anr.), and listed them for hearing in the open court in January, 2019. Importantly, the Court clarified that there was no stay on the original judgment. Meanwhile, many petitions are presently pending in the Kerala High Court, with both sides agitating against each other on the implementation of the Supreme Court order.

With the rejection of Central Government’s proposal to amend the Railway Protection Force Act by the States and Union Territories to provide for a single unified command and control system on Indian Railways, the Union Government is now contemplating to integrate the Central Police Forces together with the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for single security command and control on the railways to provide for a better coordinated and effective security for rail passengers and goods services. In such scenario, RPF may lose its integrity as a dedicated Force to protect railway properties and services.

The Supreme Court lined up the Vice Air Chief before it Wednesday to get a hang on Rafale and the controversy hovering over the fighter purchase by the Modi government. Asked ‘why the Rafale?’ IAF Vice Chief of Air Staff Anil Khosla told CJI Ranjan Gogoi it had to do with “stealth technology”; something that should have struck a chord because of all the stealth embedded in the purchase of Rafale.

That sense of déjà vu. Tuck it in the front pocket. What else? Ask, is there a streak of sadism in the Supreme Court? Can it explain “hearing of 49 review petitions in open court on January 22, 2019” while making it “clear there is no stay on the judgment of September 28, 2018”? Why, in the face of the oncoming invading horde, insist that the fort gates remain open?