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When THE PEOPLE gathered at Jantar Mantar this Monday, fasting and chanting and holding copies of the Indian Constitution above their heads to demand that a Union minister answer for a leaked examination that had upended a generation, the Government of India had a tidy explanation for why they were blocked, detained and brutally beaten up: they had no ‘permission’, and that the gathering was unauthorized.

The spectacle in central Delhi this week carried a significance far beyond the barricades, detentions and blows captured on mobile-phone cameras. The first confrontation unfolded during the Cockroach Janta Party’s march from Jantar Mantar towards Parliament, while Tuesday brought another coercive police response when Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other Congress leaders staged a sit-in near the prime minister’s residence. Together, the images presented the uncomfortable optics of a state treating political dissent as a security threat rather than a democratic warning.

After the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi was removed by force from the sit-in protest site near the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence on July 21, the opposition has further hardened their stance on examination irregularities and “brutality unleashed on students”. Earlier, they have been demanding discussion in the Parliament, but on Wednesday they disrupted the proceedings in both the Houses of Parliament demanding resignation of Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan before any discussion.

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protesters near Parliament, faced on Monday barricades, lathicharge, tear gas. Security forces fired tear gas and resorted to lathi charges after protesters breached barricades and marched towards Parliament. Chaos gripped central Delhi, triggering traffic disruptions, metro restrictions and a police crackdown to disperse demonstrators. Chaotic scenes erupted across central Delhi on Monday as security forces fired tear gas shells, resorted to lathi charges and deployed anti-riot vehicles after protesters participating in the Cockroach Janata Party's (CJP) 'Chalo Sansad' march attempted to breach security barricades in the high-security zone surrounding Parliament.

LUCKNOW: The manner in which the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party national President Akhilesh Yadav were detained by the police for their protest in support of the ongoing students agitation has boosted the morale of leaders and workers of their parties in Uttar Pradesh before crucial state Assembly elections scheduled early next year.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UDF Government has suffered a serious legal setback with the Supreme Court liberating the Kerala Wakf Board from the supervision of a State official. The order clearly indicates that it can judicially intervene in case of “egregious” interference in a statutory body’s day-to-day management.

World trade in general was in tumult last year, thanks principally to the US introducing a series of highly punishing tariffs targeting one country after another which naturally invited retribution by affected countries. Thankfully, the tariff war didn’t cause any major changes to “seaborne cement and clinker trading routes or supply sourcing in 2025.” Whatever changes happened in trade flows were more due to geopolitical disturbances and “domestic supply and demand dynamics.” Global import and export trade flows of clinker and cement totalled around 230m tonnes last year in which the share of seaborne trade was in the range of 150m tonnes to 170m tonnes.

Currently a sit-in is going on in front of the Jauhar University in Rampur. Azam Khan, the member of Samajwadi Party, who is in jail at present, is the chairman of the trust running the University. Students sit in to oppose the Notice of Rampur Development authority which has asked for 38 of the forty buildings of the University to be demolished. This will tantamount to the closure of the university.

NEW YORK: The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) recently adopted a new platform entitled “Workers Deserve More.” Normally, the only people who notice the platforms adopted by socialist organizations are their own members and members of rival socialist organizations. But not this time.

Both Houses – Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha – of the Parliament of India adjourned for the second day of the Monsoon Session on July 21 amid protests by the opposition seeking discussion on the police “brutality unleashed” on students during their “March to Parliament” on July 20. The March was led by Cockroach Janata Party, which was blocked by barricades erected by the Delhi Police, which later resorted to canning and tear gassed the protestors in which over 60 students were injured. Police said that 118 police officials were also sustained injuries while 70 protestors were detained.