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Two judgments of great significance delivered by the Bombay High Court in the last three years indicate a trend of understanding the Code of Criminal Procedure (‘CrPC’) as per the Constitutional framework of “due process of law” in Article 21 of the Constitution. This is a welcome trend, since the right to life is one of the most precious of all rights granted by the Constitution, which ought to inform the interpretation of all laws in India.

The spate of violence that erupted across the country, in which two persons lost their lives in Ranchi on Friday is an ugly blot on the fabric of inclusive India. It ought to not have occurred in the first place. This has provided wide space of manoeuvring by the Hindutva forces who were forced to bite dust in the wake of Muslim world rising in protest against the insinuation to Prophet by the BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.

Lopping off anybody’s head in the best of Islamist traditions isn’t for India. And no amount of rioting can change that. But frustration has to spill. And so it did. High up in the sky, above Bengaluru, a grotesquely strung up Nupur Sharma effigy, hanging from an overhead cable, pointing an accusing finger at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Government of India.

The alterations taking place in the natural world are becoming patently obvious to all of us. Erratic weather patterns, rising sea levels and melting glaciers due to climate change are reshaping societies across the globe, and this holds true for India too. Global warming induced by human activity is predicted to be around 1.0°C over pre-industrial levels, with a likely range of 0.8°C to 1.2°C. If current trends continue, global warming will likely hit 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052.

The possibilities of persistent inflation seem to be looming large and a resultant contraction in demand primarily because of a cost-of-living squeeze is going to impact the growth rate, the forecast of which undergoes a downward revision in recent rounds by most rating agencies. The Russia-Ukraine war and the consequent rise in fuel and food prices are not going to cool down soon. Prices of food, metals, fertilizers and edible oil are on the rise at a global level driven by supply bottlenecks created by the war. Ukraine and Russia together account for 12 per cent of traded calories, 28 per cent of traded wheat and 75 percent of sunflower oil supplied across the world.

Adam Smith and David Ricardo had been haunted by the idea of capitalism ending up in a “stationary state”, by which they meant a stable state of zero growth. Marx used the term “simple reproduction” to describe such a state, where there is no net addition to production capacity and the economy just reproduces itself at the same level period after period. The Indian economy appears headed for such a state.

It starts with “Dear Congresspersons…” and doesn’t stop till the last vestiges of the Congress party’s confidence in the Gandhi family haven't been ridden to the ground, the Gandhis painted in mud colours. Who were the people behind this exercise is still not apparent to the eye, but what’s being spoken isn’t in the usual sweet tones used for the Gandhi family.

The rise in cases of COVID-19 infection in India now is the sharpest this year which may be an early warning for the fourth wave. Daily infection count in the last 24 hours has touched the figure 7,584, as per the official information available in the morning of June 10, which is the highest daily surge in 93 days, though the death count is still low at 24. It was nearly 41 per cent jump in daily cases. Fresh surge was recorded in several parts of the country, and hence putting off guard against infection will be equivalent to inviting the fourth wave of the pandemic in the country.

Union Government in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has floated a new draft IT rules on its websites to elicit public and users’ opinion/consultation before it is finalized for notification shortly. The new draft rules following the first Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics) Rules were notified in February 2021 as part of government’s continuing control over social media to check free flow of information and to make India a full surveillance state where users will be required to use such information as the fascist government may desire, putting an end to diversity of information/opinion and critical thinking, a hallmark of democratic norms.

Jammu and Kashmir is once again at the centre of a raging political debate. In the past few weeks, several targeted killings of non-Kashmiris and Kashmiri Pundits have rocked the nation’s conscience. News reports suggest that Kashmiri Pundits are desperate to leave the valley while the government machinery is trying to prevent them from what appears to be the final exodus. Social media is flooded with desperate comments that talk about the deteriorating situation in Kashmir on the one hand and The Kashmir Files movie and similar topics on the other. No one seems to know whom to blame for the apparent anarchy in the Union Territory.