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Our people are observing the Republic Dayat a time when the very basic ideological and theoretical concepts the Constitution of India propounded on January 26, 1950 by adopting the basic document of building a secular democratic society, are not only under threat but the Narendra Modi government during its tenure has did everything possible to destroy it. We are observing the Republic Day at a time when within a few months the people have to deliver verdict on the performance of this government and elect a new government. We are really at a cross-road.

If Narendra Modi could not be become Prime Minister, irrespective of his dismal record, for the second time, there will be chaos in the country. Such observations have been made by middle rung BJP leaders without realizing the consequences of such irresponsible statements. Some Congress leaders interpret this remark as a first step towards dictatorship, saying this may mean Modi will remain PM for his lifetime. Days of speculation, in worst days of instability, when it was feared that India was heading towards autocracy, were over long ago. The democracy has come to stay in India, Modi or no Modi.

The coordination between Trump administration officials in Washington and the Venezuelan opposition in Caracas couldn’t have been more obvious. On Tuesday evening, the night before mass protests called by opposition leader and National Assembly head Juan Guaidó were expected in Venezuela, Vice President Mike Pence suddenly released a video pledging support for overthrowing elected President Nicolas Maduro. Pence called him “a dictator with no legitimate power.”

The Punjab government through a public notice given in the newspapers has invited expression of interest from private NGOs, doctors or others for providing services in the government hospitals and running of health institutions situated in difficult areas. This has drawn sharp reaction from various sections in the state, including medical organizations, civil society groups and political parties. Such a decision by the Punjab government to hand over hospitals under its care to the private sector will have serious detrimental impact on health services in the state. It will escalate the cost of treatment and increase the out of pocket expenditure on health. Public health spending by the government in the state is already very low. The state has more of a curative-oriented healthcare. Public spending on preventive healthcare is only around 8 percent compared to the recommendation of the National Health Policy document 2017, which says that more than two-thirds of the resources should be allocated for primary care. Therefore, because of obvious reasons of lack of proper nutrition, lack of clean drinking water supply and sewerage facilities and absence of proper housing, poor households have to bear the catastrophic expenditure on healthcare.

China is now in fashion in the global circuit. The Davos Man, as the elite and the glitterati of the world are referred to, is only chattering about China and what is happening there.

At last, Brexit heads for reality on March 29, amidst big haggling for benefits over two years. A new dawn will break over UK’s sovereignty. It will prop up a new dynamism in India-UK economic relations. Emerging as a new single market, UK portends for a new important economic partner for India.

In an unprecedentedly bizarre way, the Union NDA Government has spent more than 56 percent of the cumulative funds allocated for the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save Girl Child Educate Girl Child) scheme, launched with big fanfare by the Prime Minister in 2014-’15, on paid advertisement and publicity . The scheme intends to correct the skewed child sex-ratio to ensure parity between men and women and other issues of empowerment of women. A major portion of money was allocated to paid advertising in both print and electronic media, i.e., visual publicity, including hoardings, promoting the Prime Minister as the messiah for all round development and prosperity of women, whereas the Minister for Woman and Child Development was nowhere in the picture, which bodes ill for Indian democracy.

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

The issue of the operation of dance bars in Maharashtra has been in the news again, wherein the Supreme Court struck down some of the conditions of license to run dance bars as arbitrary and violative of the fundamental freedom of trade guaranteed under Articles 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. It may be noted that in 2005, the Maharashtra Government introduced Sections 33A and 33B, vide the Bombay Police Amendment Act, in the Bombay Police Act, 1951, which prohibited any kind of dance performance in an eating house, permit room or beer bar, subject to the exception in Section 33B if the dance performances was held in a theatre, or a members only restricted club. This was held to be unconstitutional by the Bombay High Court for being vague, arbitrary and violating the right to carry on business, which was then affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2013 in State of Maharahtra & Anr. V. Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association (2013) 8 SCC 519.

India’s electoral democracy is a spectacle. A political circus. What goes on under the big-top is quite literally a display worth the presentation: A visually striking performance, decibel-rich. Parade. Pageant, Extravaganza! Amidst all this, a five-year-long display of barely concealed hate spewed on Social Media. It’s not just bots and trolls in the hire of political parties who vomit virtual bile, but also fast and Facebook ‘friends’; divorced and deserted 'handles'.