View Articles

The apex court has held that morality under the Constitution is not public morality or the morality of the multitude. Constitutional morality aims for a pluralistic and inclusive society; that even a minuscule part of society may aspire and prefer different things. In the context of LGBTQ+ rights, social morality itself recognizes the rights of sexual minorities to assert and pursue their preferences.

This month ten years ago was one of the defining moments of modern day capitalism – In September 2008 the storied investment bank of United States Lehman Brothers went under. The liquidation of Lehman Brothers, virtually the icon of modern day American capitalism, rang the bell for the global financial melt-down.

Those who have read or heard of the ‘Nun and the Bus Driver’ joke will know it is impossible to get a nun to “lie down in bed” with anyone unless it’s with God ‘himself’. Now, we know those who claim proximity to god, like bishops of the Catholic Church, take advantage of the nun’s weakness for God to get her between bed-sheets.

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

The events in the Saxon city of Chemnitz recently were truly frightening. The sight of Nazi-tattooed thugs growling threats as they stormed through the city center, chasing and beating up presumed “foreigners,” journalists or any other perceived foes, invoked memories of Charlottesville a year ago – or Germany in the 1930’s. Stretched-arm Hitler salutes from the base of the large bronze bust of Karl Marx in Chemnitz added bitter irony.

Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar caused a flutter early this month when he remarked that the former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s efforts to clean up the mess in the country’s banking system to prune the gargantuan non-performing assets (read loans) or what is ubiquitously known by the acronym NPAs were responsible for the slowdown of the economy.

Concerns loom large on China’s backdoor entry through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is feared to be propitious of a Chinese trade trap after Trump entered into a shocking trade war against China. Currently, India is susceptible to Chinese dumping of goods, which caused a big trade deficit for India. The major reason for India’s perpetual global trade deficit is China’s dumping of goods. In 2017-18, China alone accounted for 39 percent of India’s global trade deficit.

BHOPAL: Opposition to the SC and ST Act has created insurmountable difficulties to the ruling party BJP in Madhya Pradesh to the extent that it is hampering its poll eve campaign. How much nervous BJP is can be gauged by the fact that the party has cancelled the proposed tour of party president Amit Shah, who was scheduled to undertake a whirlwind tour of Gwalior and Chambal divisions.

“Finally!” “Relieved!” “Long Overdue!” these were the reactions from the members of the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and inter-sex), after the historic judgment of the Supreme Court of India in Navtej Johar & Ors. vs. Union of India [Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 76 of 2016]. On 6th September, 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the archaic law of Section 377, Indian Penal Code, 1860 (‘IPC’), which criminalised certain sexual acts between consenting adults. It heralded an end of an almost two decade long legal struggle against the law that had effectively made an entire community of people ‘second class citizens’ in their own country.

Since the election in 1980 of Ronald Reagan and especially with the subsequent consolidation of control over the Republican Party by right-wing extremism, the main challenge for the progressive and socialist movement has been to build a broad democratic coalition to defeat this threat to living standards, democratic rights, peace and the environment.