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The Covid pandemic in India reached a landmark on July 5 when India became the third country, after the United States and Brazil, with the largest number of Covid cases in the world. It is no coincidence that the top three countries in this regard are being run by rightwing authoritarian leaders. India at present is also registering the highest number of cases per day along with these two countries. Currently, a hundred thousand (one lakh) cases are being added every four to five days. The death toll, which is understated, has crossed 20,000.

HAVANA: While the United States tries to disqualify Cuba’s international medical cooperation, the list of brigades sent by the island to fight COVID-19 in different latitudes of the planet grows.

Either history will impinge some wise and learned thinking behind the Supreme Court’s current jurisprudence or it will term it as an absurd phase. Recent instances (see here and here) point heavily towards the latter but for the sake of our learned and wise apex court of the country, let’s assume, as Vasudev Devadasan states, that the court knows what it’s doing. That would mean, the court knows that rule of law is under threat in the country, which would lead the Supreme Court’s current jurisprudence to be in line with Andras Jakab’s suggestion on what the courts should do in such times; that courts should engage in self-restraint and not practice activism when rule of law is under threat in a country. Many would infer that the silence of the court is in line with these suggestions. Below, I argue why that is misplaced and this phase is, in fact, just absurd.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front(LDF) Government has been badly battered by the political storm unleashed by the biggest gold smuggling case Kerala has witnessed in its history.

Most wanted gangster Vikas Dubey may have been arrested from the Mahakali temple at Ujjain but the manner in which he killed eight police officials in Bikru village in Kanpur exposed the nexus between politicians, police and criminals.

One year has passed since the sad demise of Shameem Faizee, a versatile and valuable Comrade and colleague.

Integrity and credibility of the media has degenerated to such an extent that now the police, not the judiciary, will issue its diktat and seek clarification who has given it the right and m whether it enjoys the privilege guaranteed by the constitution to criticise the government and question its action.

If your train’s on the wrong track, every station you come to is the wrong station
-- Dernard Malamud

If one looks at the functioning of Indian democracy today, one is shocked to see complete erosion of democratic institutions to the detriment of Constitutional democracy and public interest. To begin with, Election Commission of India (ECI), created under Article 324 of the Constitution of India read with two laws, the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951 respectively, a plethora of rules and regulations and a Model Code of Conduct, all with a reservoir of unbridled power to conduct fair and free elections in the country, has been degraded by an authoritarian fascist NDA Union Government so much so that people have lost faith in its efficacy as a credible institution of the very foundation of democracy as conceived and envisioned by the founding fathers of the Constitution.

The lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh runs and spreads both ways. Yep, those are the words that should be used when discussing and commenting on criminals, both active and dormant hoodlums, in this hugest state of the Indian Union. Uttar Pradesh itself is a sprawling stretch of real estate and home to what’s called the ‘Ganga-Yamuna Tehzeeb.’ Well, this ‘tehzeeb’ also includes a counter-culture of thuggery and violent criminal takeovers – confiscation of life and of wealth, including the honest hard-earned earnings of common people, who sometimes didn’t even get to know they were about to be upended!