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The recent times have been a mixed bag for legal developments in dalit rights. While the Supreme Court sought to dilute the protections in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 last year in a much criticised judgment in Subhash Kashinath Mahajan v. State of Maharashtra [(2018)6SCC454], the Parliament enacted the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities), 2018 to reinstate the diluted protections in the Act, in the form of not granting anticipatory bail or having preliminary enquiry before registering a complaint under the Act.

Jammu and Kashmir has got a political governor after five decades. Former Bihar governor Satya Pal Malik, who has a socialist background, has taken over the reins of the state last week. The last time Kashmir had a political governor was when Karan Singh became the state’s first Governor (1965-67). Earlier governors had either been bureaucrats like Jagmohan, G S Saxena, and Vohra, or former Army officers like K V Krishna Rao and S K Sinha.

Reports that point out that BJP would lose around 100 seats but eventually emerge as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha after the 2019 elections may sound soothing to the ears of the leaders of the party and its rank and file, but this prospect is understood to have unnerved both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. They fear that this could encourage the dissidents within the party to press for a change in leadership.

The Congress leadership has finally announced the panel for preparing the manifesto of the Party for fighting the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. The content of the GOP’s manifesto is of crucial importance to the grassroots cadres of the Party since these will be the campaign points and at the base level, the party workers will be facing the BJP’s massive election machinery by articulating the programme and promises mentioned in the manifesto.

Kerala might have witnessed this August the heaviest-ever rainfall since 1924 causing a disastrous flood killing over 300 people, rendering thousands homeless and destroying crops in nearly one million hectares of land, but experts assessing the causes behind the calamity and its impact substantially blame the local authorities and people for the flood intensity and nature of destruction. For long, the people and the administration in the hilly state, where the Western Ghats meet the Arabian Sea through several patches of land, forests, rivers and canals, had ignored or brushed aside the growing illegal quarrying, mining, waste dumping to choke canals, repurposing of forests and high-rise building constructions. And, now, the Keralites and the country are paying a heavy price of this partly man-made flood, financial cost of which has been roughly estimated at a staggering Rs.20,000 crore.

Indian Railways recorded all time high Operating Ratio of
111.51 per cent during the first four months of the current financial year ending July 30, 2018. This means the railways spent rupees 111.51 to earn rupees one hundred during the period, making the behemoth public transporter financially most unviable. This reflects shortfall in the estimated passenger and freight traffic targets with higher outgo of working expenditure including pension payout.

It had been planned to be a lavish celebration on the Pnyx hill next to the Acropolis in Athens where the citizenry would hold popular assemblies in the ancient democratic period.

Tiny Mizoram (area 23,000 sq. kms, population 11 lakh) is the last outpost of the Congress in the North-East. State Assembly elections are due in Mizoram by the year end. In the last Assembly elections held in 2013, the Congress won 34 of the 40 seats, the Mizo National Front (MNF) got 5 while the Mizo People’s Conference got only one. Going by the past result, the Congress dominates the state’s politics. Its main opponent, the MNF, is a very distant second.

In parts of the world where extreme principles of Shariah justice are practised, an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth are still the norm. People have been blinded for hurting their victims in the eye and hands chopped off to ensure retribution of crimes committed with hands. But even in these societies, limbs are not cut off for the fear that they could be used for criminal activities. Of course, female genital mutilation is prevalent in many societies, supposedly to ensure ‘acceptable’ sexual behaviour by girls and women. But otherwise, the extreme punishments are meted out after the crimes have been committed.

What will be the scenario like if the general elections are held today—nine months before schedule? If the Opposition unites against the BJP and Narendra Modi, then it will be a battle between UPA and NDA, seeing a return of coalition governments, according to a recent poll survey.