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

The BJP seems to have gone back to focus on its Hindutva card in the midst of the current Lok Sabha polls, shifting its gear from development. The two themes are still running parallel but the Hindutva has become more focused after the two phases of the current polls. This is evident from the fact that the party had taken a conscious decision to field the high profile Sadhvi Pragya Thakur in Bhopal against the former Congress chief minister Digvijay Singh. From the BJP’s point of view, Pragya Thakur’s candidacy serves two purposes – first a direct confrontation with a formidable Congress leader Digvijay Singh and second it will have resonance not only in Madhya Pradesh but also in the neighbouring states including Maharashtra. Though the names of two former chief ministers Uma Bharti and Shivraj Singh Chouhan were doing the round for the Bhopal seat the party chose the Sadhvi presumably at the behest of the RSS. The Sangh Parivar is said to have sent messages to sadhus to mobilize electoral support for the BJP in the current polls. Some time back the Sadhus have criticized the Modi government for not building the ram temple in Ayodhya.

This Lok Sabha election has become a Kurukshetra for middle class and rural poor. This election will decide whether India is an inclusive culture or is the exclusive society. Though Narendra Modi uses the term rural poor and poverty but not in the inclusive sense. He is fully devoted to the exclusive society and is the champion of majoritarianism. It is only for getting the votes of the rural people that he maintains the façade of being sensitive to the poor’s need and committed follower of inclusive culture.

Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is all over the media describing her torture at the hands of Hemant Karkare while in ATS custody with the defence that she’s sanyasi and a “sanyasi in bhagwa never lies”. The Bharatiya Janata Party named her candidate from Lok Sabha constituency Bhopal against Congress leader Digvijay Singh who they say is “original politician” who coined “Hindu terror”.

Now that the opening phases of the 2019 elections are over and the vague shape of the new government at the centre is already boxed into the voting machines, it might be time to recall the future shape of policies as promised by the two main formations.

It appears major apprehensions about the NDA-proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB 2018) are not restricted to political parties in India alone. The proposed legislation might have a regional impact, beyond India’s borders. In recent times, several Hindu organisations in Bangladesh have staged protests and conveyed their fears about the chain of events the CAB might unleash, to Indian diplomatic circles.

A spectre is haunting India, the spectre of multiple curses. It isn’t only Sadhvi Pragya Thakur’s malevolent death-wish for her police prosecutor, Hemant Karkare, which is the BJP’s only expression of malignity towards its enemies, there have been countless occasions when vile abuses have been hurled by the party’s followers against its critics.

It may be a bad news in the midst of the ongoing parliamentary election season that the country’s second largest airline by traffic share, Jet Airways, having some 18,000 employees on board, should collapse and get grounded last week. Jet employees, including pilots, working without salaries since January, are now suddenly jobless. Notwithstanding the fact that the situation has caused a big embarrassment for the Modi government at this crucial election period, the administration could do little to make Jet airborne anytime soon as the airline has failed to pay even the aircraft lease dues. Both the airline and the government are under fire from ordinary passengers who advance-booked their tickets with Jet Airways for cheaper travel and now find little hope to recover the money from the airline. Their travel plans have gone for a six. They are knocking at the doors of the civil aviation and finance ministries and the industry regulator.

Outgoing External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke last on the Balakot air-strikes when going by protocol she should have been the first. February 26, the wee hours at which the Mirage 2000 strikes took place, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale got the right to announce the IAF accomplishment. No politician foreign minister of any country would have let go an opportunity such as this, but knowing how Prime Minister Narendra Modi functions, especially in his role of ‘Super External Affairs Minister’ of India, which took him to more countries than any other Prime Minister in the history of independent India, it was no surprise Gokhale got to speak over Sushma.

HD Devegowda and Mulayam Singh Yadav. Both are getting on in age. But time and tide don’t stop the brave. And the grateful! Both have political oats enough to stay on course. Add to the duo, young Varun Gandhi and the trio’s admission to the ‘Circle of Gratitude’ is established. All three “owe” to politicians and they are not unwilling to pay back, with gratitude!