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BERLIN: A week ago I walked over to Berlin’s central square, Alexanderplatz (nick-named “Alex”) to join in observing International Women’s Day. Berlin, alone among Germany’s 16 states, declared it a paid holiday, compensating for the fact that the city-state has fewer religious holidays than all the others. A third of the city was once part of the German Democratic Republic, which always marked the day; that may also have contributed to the decision. This was its first year.

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

In another high voltage hearing, the Supreme Court reserved its order on the issue of preliminary objections raised by the Central Government in the Rafale review proceedings. After the Supreme Court gave its verdict in December, 2018 dismissing the writ petitions filed by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan seeking an independent investigation into the Rafale deal, citing lack of jurisdiction, much water has flown. In fact, the Supreme Court’s decision itself was full of incorrect facts and wrong information, especially when it noted that the Rafale pricing was allegedly published in the CAG report, which was shared with the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (‘PAC’). This was immediately caught as a lie, and the Government was forced to file a clarification in the Supreme Court that there was ‘typo’ and the CAG was looking into the issue.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and BSP supremo Mayawati, who herself is a strong aspirant for the post of prime minister, has lately been critical of the Congress party. The grand old party has already been left out of the Grand Alliance of Uttar Pradesh comprising BSP, Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal. Although, both BSP and SP left the two traditional boroughs of the Gandhi family — Amethi and Raebareli — to the Congress party. Mayawati has earlier cited Congress party's inability to transfer its votes to the allies as the reason for the party’s not being included in the Grand Alliance.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor faces a 10-year anti-incumbency in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, which sent him twice to Parliament, once as a raw politician with only a clutch of books and a long stint in the United Nations to talk about. His lack of command in Malayalam was thought as a handicap, but the Thiruvananthapuram electorate found his fresh looks and UN record a departure worthy of reward. 2014, he repeated the feat without breaking a sweat.

“Bernie! Bernie!” the crowd chanted in Council Bluffs, Iowa on the campaign trail last week. But Bernie Sanders demurred. “It ain’t Bernie, it’s you. It’s not me, it is us.” The crowd responded with a new chant: “Not me, us! Not me, us!”

Mexico is celebrating the first 100 days of its cuarta transformación, or “fourth transformation.” The reference is to earlier major revolutions in Mexico: Independence from Spain, secular reforms under President Benito Juárez, the Mexican Revolution of 1910, and now the current transformation after the removal of the corrupt regimes of the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) and PAN (Partido Acción Nacional), the self-described conservative party.

The Opposition Is Failing Itself. None can deny; even the seasoned opposition politicians would confess that have failed to use the opportunity. Post Balakot massacre the fact cannot be denied that the entire opposition meekly surrendered to the power-hungry Modi-Shah pair.

Mamata Banerjee stole a march over her rivals by announcing her list of candidates for Lok Sabha within two days (March 14) of the Election Commission announcing the poll schedule. And the very next day, Central paramilitary forces arrived in the State and were deployed in the districts. Their presence was heartily welcomed by the opposition – BJP, Congress and CPI-M, while the TMC questioned the rationale behind their early deployment.. Whether their imposing omnipresence in the State will strike terror in some sections of the electorate while gladden the hearts of some others, is a moot question.

As Congress general-secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s boat glides down the Ganga, landlubbers Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav are looking at the crowds lined up on the banks of the river and getting nervous, not sure which way the current is flowing. “Don’t impose on us your presence and we do not want your largesse,” they both parrot. When was it that a politician, even a debut politician, take to a boat to test political waters? The three–front elections in Uttar Pradesh is going three different directions and when two of them meet mid-stream, it’s creating more than waves.