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Beginning on February 7, Haitians have been in the streets protesting against corruption, high prices, shortages, inflation, and power outages. Demonstrators are demanding that President Jovenel Moïse, in power since January 2017, resign. Moïse blames the disturbances on “armed groups and drug traffickers” and is calling for negotiation.

HUMAN Rights Watch (HRW) in its 104-page report unveiled the horrors of cow vigilantism in India. The report reflected the impact of the so-called cow protection through vigilantism, on the society, rural economy and on the forthcoming national elections.

In the light of colonialist historiography on Indian history, especially the medieval period (700 – 1800 CE), Indians became accustomed to view their medieval past in communal colors increasingly from the second half of the 19th Century. This colonialist view of Indian history found its way into both the nationalist and communal historiography which flourished in India during the first half of the 20th Century – a period characterized by the rise of mass anti-imperialist nationalism and popular inter-communal conflict.

If there is a single demand that commonly figured in the recent protests of the Central and State government employees, public sector workers in defence production, telecom, railways and banks as well by some workers in the private sector, it is the scrapping of the New Pension Scheme (NPS).

A week has passed since the suicide bomber attack on the CRPF convoy at Pulwama on February 14 resulting in the tragic death of more than 40 jawans. For more than seven days, the grieved Indians are expressing their heartfelt condolences to the families of the killed jawans and there has been an outpouring of emotions from every section of the population for those who have laid down their lives for protecting the security of our country. This is the time when the political parties, irrespective of their ideological differences have to close ranks and unite for protecting the integrity and security of our great nation. The opposition parties including the leading party the Congress have shown full solidarity with the government at the centre in meeting the situation and take appropriate action in national interests.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sailing is smooth for the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the Muslim-dominated Malappuram district, a bastion of the Congress ally, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

Calamity after Conservative calamity brings home just what difficulty the Tories’ Thatcherite administration is in. On February 14, the Tories suffered their 10th parliamentary defeat on Brexit. So commonplace have government defeats become that many hardly bat an eyelid. Government defeats are the new norm. The Prime Minister is increasingly trapped by the hard-line European Research Group of Conservative MPs, who seem to be at the forefront of her mind much more than the public good.

Nearly 800 million of 1.3 billion Indian people still live in the over six lakh villages. If there has to be meaningful and inclusive economic development these villages have to become sustainable with adequate jobs and check urban migration. Studies suggest that villages can develop only if densification happens so as to reap the benefit of economies of scale. This densification happened in planned way in United States and in India, it is unplanned leading to haphazard growth.

Indian judiciary is facing a huge backlog of cases. Combined pendency of cases in the Supreme Court of India and all the 24 High Courts across the country have increased from 3.93 million on December 31, 2015 to 4.3 million on January 31, 2019. Cases, during the period, have come down marginally by 3.8 per cent in the Supreme Court, while in the High Courts backlog of cases went up by 9.7 per cent (375,402). Allahabad High Court tops the list of pending cases with 726,000 cases followed by Rajasthan High Court with 449, 000 pending cases. In the subordinate district and sub-divisional courts, 29.7 million cases are pending, according to the National Judicial Grid. Two civil cases have been pending since 1951.

BHOPAL: Answers given by the Ministers on the floor of the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha have created highly embarrassing situation both for the state Government and the state Congress. The position was so much embarrassing that senior leader and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh had to publicly rebuke the concerned Ministers.