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The protection for individual freedom from arbitrary and unreasonable exercise of power, and authority of the State was sought to be secured by the Constitutional command that “no personal shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law”. Any person who commits a legal offence is imprisoned as per the law. Her liberty is curtailed by the State as a form of punishment in accordance with law, and to get her liberty restored, she has to apply for bail in a court of law. However, there is a rampant increase in the number of cases where prisoners’ release after bail is delayed owing to several factors.

Suicide by Dr Archna Sharma, a senior Gynaecologist of Dausa in Rajasthan has shaken the medical fraternity. A patient is reported to have died during a procedure after which the attendants reportedly under the patronage of a BJP leader created ruckus. The police instead of controlling the mob registered a case of murder against the doctor U/s 302 IPC. Perturbed over this, the doctor committed suicide. Police role in this case is highly condemnable and demands of registering case of abetment to suicide against the concerned police officials. A doctor is more than a healer. She/He is not just adding to the economic development but also addressing the emotional part of the patient and the family. Her/his loss cannot be counted in terms of money. With the death of a doctor thousands of patients get devoid of sympathy and empathy they were getting from a trusted person. Loss of Dr. Archna Sharma has to be viewed in this context.

The Narendra Modi government may be elated at the ever increasing GST collections in recent months with the revival of the economy. A record GST collections of Rs 1.42 lakh crore in March this year is good and it also indicates that more and more industries and traders are getting into the tax net besides gradual shrinking of grey market and tax evasion by business.

So there have been questions raised about the “actions and inactions of the CBI, regarding its credibility in some cases.” But even the Supreme Court of India cannot do much on its own on this serious institution required to run the country. All that CJI NV Ramana can do is recommend, ask whosoever it concerns to “set up a statutory, independent institution” and bring under one roof all the caged birds!

Three months from now will prove crucial for the workforce in India, since the Modi government is expecting to be fully prepared for implementation of the four controversial labour codes in the country by June end or beginning of July. This is precisely the period available for the workforce under the joint leadership of the 10 Central Trade Unions (CTUs) to scale up their agitation to the next level against the move which could prove the final battle between the Centre and CTUs, the outcome of which would alter the fate of entire workforce in the country.

Last week, Union house minister Amit Shah introduced a brand new bill within the Lok Sabha to unify the three municipal bodies of Delhi (MCDs). Whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says that the bill was brought to rid the MCD of its perennial monetary disaster, the contents of the bill and the circumstances through which it was drafted and tabled in Parliament, in a tearing hurry, are a reason behind concern. They spell the death of democracy in Delhi’s native bodies.

The proposed rupee-rouble trade for oil will be a key ingredient, along with Russian insistence on rouble payments from European gas customers, in Putin’s sanctions-busting programme. The Biden administration has obviously seen the implications of an India-Russia oil deal and it is no surprise, therefore, that Washington is trying to put pressure on New Delhi and yet without pushing things too hard as it is well aware of the limited scope of US pressure in this regard.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this month the European Union unveiled plans to slash Russian gas imports by two-thirds over the next year and to cease all fossil fuel imports from the country “well before” 2030. Officials acknowledged that to meet such ambitious targets, the EU will initially depend largely on imports of the more carbon-intensive liquefied natural gas and domestic coal power production — leading the Financial Times to ask, “Will the Ukraine war derail the green energy transition?”

A straightforward message emerged from this week’s meeting in the Negev desert of the foreign ministers of four Arab countries, Israel and the United States: Israel is key to the security of Gulf autocracies and continued US engagement in the Middle East.

History is always a series of justice for one and the injustice for the other. It is the way evolution moves. Finding new ways amidst the darkest clouds, leaving them behind and move on. The days of March 28 and 29 were the similar days in the year of 2022 when once again no less than twenty crore workers were on the streets all over the country with similarly oppressed people to raise their voice against the injustices committed against them. They were from factories, small units, also farm workers from agrarian sector, in the rural areas, they were from anganwadi and other scheme workers. In the 29 states in the country there were those where the strike was complete. The message was clear, thus far and no further.