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A day before senior Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjan Gogoi spoke about the need for ‘noisy judges and independent journalists’, describing them as democracy’s first line of defence, a bench of the apex court made noise over Taj Mahal. It was not clear whether the noise was of he same type that Justice Gogoi, in line to become the next Chief Justice of India, had referred to. But it was some unseemly noise.

The Supreme Court is rightly concerned over the “apathy” of the Centre and the U.P. government towards preserving the Taj Mahal. It gave an ultimatum to the government--- either restore the pristine beauty of the Taj or demolish it. The apex court has been monitoring preservation of the world heritage site for 31 years and has passed a slew of orders from time to time for preservation of the monument. But the court’s efforts seem to be futile with the Taj being damaged by rising pollution level. The monument is becoming green and blue in patches which is attributed to rising pollution and poor maintenance.

The Trump administration has imposed a fresh sanction on Iran and issued a peremptory diktat to “all Asian countries”, including India, to bring down Iranian oil imports to ‘zero’ by November 4. This is nothing but imposing sanctions on Iran unilaterally. It is illegal because only the United Nations has the authority to impose sanctions. But The US had imposed similar sanctions earlier also, totally ignoring the UN. No doubt, Trump thinks he can get away with his sanction this time also. He believes few countries in the world will dare defy the diktat of the mighty US and its mightier President.

On Sunday July 8, there was brief elation on the Brazilian left as it appeared as if former President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, known to all as just “Lula,” would be released on a writ of habeas corpus from a prison in Curitiba where he has been serving a 12-year sentence on shaky charges of corruption and money laundering. However, with minutes to go until the ex-president’s release, another judge countermanded the order, leading to a bizarre war of dueling judges. As of press time, Lula remains in jail.

BHOPAL: MP Congress president Kamal Nath has a certain mastery over the art of fighting elections. Barring once, he never tasted defeat in the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency, which he holds since 1980. Nath is now using his expertise to gear up the state Congress in a systematic manner to face the electoral battle. He has constituted several committees and assigned them jobs. On July 11 he formally inaugurated the newly constituted working committee and held a meeting of the committee.

Nitish Kumar’s election strategist Prashant Kishore’s Mumbai mission failed to make Lalu Prasad forgive his ‘younger brother’ for his betrayal and embrace him once more. As the political emissary of Nitish, his election strategist was flown to Mumbai with the task of assuaging Lalu’s feeling and to make him pardon his boss. But it was a curt and impolite reply that awaited him. Without mincing words Lalu sent him back to Patna with the message that Nitish should first denounce the NDA, then only any talk could be held.

BJP's master strategist Mr Amit Shah has seemingly laid the groundwork for an effective entry for his party in Tamil Nadu into the impending electoral games, during his visit to Chennai on July 10. The immediate goal for the BJP President is to make up in the South, to some extent, for the expected losses in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in some of Northern and Western states.

Police and related law enforcing agencies have been alerted nationwide to intensify monitoring of social media contents of Whats App, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all other electronic communications to contain growing hate crimes in India.

The “dominant religion” in the Congress is not ‘Hinduism’. Cannot be Islam either. That leaves Christianity. And there are no symbols of that Abrahamic religion in the Congress. If at all the Congress is ‘cross’, it’s with those who beat their 56” Hindutva chest and could in 2019, if they win the general elections one more time, turn India into a “Hindu Pakistan.”

The Trump administration’s declaration of a trade war with China has implications for that country’s latest round of ambitious economic reforms as well as for global economic development generally. China refuses to be bullied by Trump’s imposition of $34 billion in tariffs and the threat to impose $500 billion more. China has swiftly retaliated with its own $34 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods.