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Congress remaining out of power in the state for last 15 years, is now adopted the strategy of “do or die”. The Congress party, which has been consistently sluggish, has been appearing to be very energetic from the last few months. In this regime, Congress has organized a mega road show in Bhopal. Congress national president Mr. Rahul Gandhi joined the Congress Sankalp Yatra and dialogue with party workers in Bhopal to formally launch the election campaign for upcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh. With the slogan of “Waqt hai badlav ka” (it’s time for change) on every banner & poster, the Congress party is trying to overcome internal dispute and change the state leadership.

Conjectures are making rounds in the political circles about Amit Shah and Narendra Modi salvaging the electoral prospect of their party and ensuring its return to power after the 2019 general elections. The assumption is that they will manage to carry the urban middle class voters with the economic gains of the NDA government. Observers, however, articulate disquiet about the deteriorating state of the economy in recent months. They feel this will leave a deep scar on the economic face of the government.

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

President of India has appointed Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the 46th Chief Justice of India, and he would assume office on 3rd October, 2018, a day after the current Chief Justice Dipak Mishra retires. The prelude to any new Chief Justice being sworn in is often a period of great excitement in the court corridors, with the lawyers feverishly speculating about the tenure of the new CJ, how he/she (till now only ‘he’) would run the Court administration, looking into the previous judgments to discern his/her views on certain issues, and hoping that some long pending judicial reforms would be undertaken.

Everybody is talking of whether or not Congress and the rest of the Opposition made a mistake not accepting the invitation to attend the RSS meet. But ask about the timing of the meet, why now? Therein, probably, lies a story, or maybe two. One of them linked to the Opposition’s decision to spurn the invite.

Waiting for Modi’s promised ‘Good Days’ is now like waiting for Godot. The Human Development Index 2018 released recently by UNDP shows that India lagged far behind the majority of countries in health, education, and gender development despite its being the fastest growing economy of the world. ‘Good days’ have remained elusive for the majority of Indians because the major share of national income growth is going to sectors other than human development. The rich are the main beneficiary of the economic policies while the common people continue to suffer.

Chun chun ke nikaloonga (we’ll throw them out one by one). This was BJP president Amit Shah’s dire warning to the ghuspetiyas or the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They should be killed like kira, makaura (insects), threatened a BJP leader of Telangana, Raja Singh. Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav’s prescription for them was “detection, deletion (of names) and deportation”.

“If a girl is dressed decently, a boy will not look at her in the wrong way.” That was Manoharlal Khattar before he took charge as Haryana Chief Minister in October 2014. “If you want freedom, why don't they just roam around naked? Freedom has to be limited. These short clothes are western influences. Our country's tradition asks girls to dress decently.”

Okay, here’s the deal Franco. You step down for the time being and we deal with the nun. The spotlight is on you and our mission is to spread the light in Punjab. Evangelism in Punjab has stuck where it started 200 years ago with the first English-medium school in Ludhiana in 1835. You’re in Jalandhar and how far is Jalandhar from Ludhiana? Vatican has its duty cut out for Mulakkal and who better than you to know that. It was your Guru Nanak Dev Varsity days which qualified you to become Bishop of Jalandhar. Got it?

The joke going around social media is that an economic reporter wanted to interview finance minister Arun Jaitley. But Jaitley said he would talk only on cricket. The reporter, happy that he got at last a chance to ask Jaitley some questions if he should start with batting or bowling. Jaitley said start with toss. The peeved reporter asked why toss, Jaitley immediately said that is the only time Indian rupee goes up.