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Over three years ago, in March 2018, Bikram Singh Majithia, former Shiromani Akali Dal minister and brother-in-law of its party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, had made headlines for extracting a public apology from Aam Admi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, whom he had taken to court for accusing him of drug trafficking. Today, he is back on the front pages of newspapers in election-bound Punjab with police issuing a lookout against him after booking him under Narcotic Drugs Act.

One outlier media in the republic is broadcasting its intent—turn the cash and gold haul from the innards of perfume manufacturer Piyush Jain’s Kanpur-Kannauj homes into a poll plank for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections; for, it is by far the best current issue to battle it out for the right to rule. It is ‘Alibaba and the 40 Thieves’ and slave-girl Morgiana to the rescue.

Chief Justice NV Ramana’s ‘Vijayawada speech’ in the form of Sri Lavu Venkateswarlu Endowment Lecture has been noted for his exposition of how popular majority is being used these days to embark on arbitrary actions by the government. Of course, the CJI was speaking in general terms, but it is obvious that his indignation has been caused by the prevailing situation in which the Modi government’s actions have been called into question one after another. He was particularly harsh at the tendency to denounce judicial review of executive actions as judicial overreach, which has been a hallmark of the Modi dispensation.
But CJI Ramana also raised some other challenges his predecessor not too long ago had to face in the chequered history of Indian judiciary. Chief among these is about domain expertise, which courts in an earlier era did not have to contend with. The rapid development of science and technology has seen how judges fall short in terms of expertise to deal with newer and newer problems. The new world of internet is, in fact, an ocean of unknown quantities, with problems such as dark web, identify theft, fraudulent online transactions, defamatory content, hate speech etc.

The Election Commission of India is what? Can’t be a caged parrot. That is the CBI! The Enforcement Directorate is to ‘harass’ the Opposition. A la the Income Tax Department. Ask Akhilesh Yadav. He will see red, having set his red cap on becoming 2nd time CM of UP—that is, if the IT Department will let him.

During a discussion in the Constituent Assembly on June 16, 1949 on Article 289 of the draft Constitution (the corresponding Article of the Indian Constitution is Article 324) on the Election Commission, Dr B.R. Ambedkar admitted that there is nothing “to provide against nomination of an unfit person to the post of the Chief Election Commissioner or the other Election Commissioner.” He was candid enough to concede that “there is no provision in the Constitution to prevent either a fool or knave or a person who is likely to be under the thumb of the Executive”. He proceeded further to say that, “I do want to confess that this is a very important question and it has given me a great deal of headache and I have no doubt about it that it is going to give this House a great deal of headache.”

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has done it once again. For the fourth time in a row, the State has topped a ranking of States on health indicators. The ‘health index’ is part of a report prepared by the NITI Aayog, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and the World Bank.

What does the crystal ball say about the year 2022? As we enter the new year, it is time to look ahead and gaze at the future. Of course, much can happen, which is unexpected and unknown. The year will be one of the multiple pivots: Economic, environmental, political, social, and personal. In short, 2022 will be challenging politically while the economy and Covid are unpredictable.

In West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may have touched rock bottom in terms of its electoral performance in the just concluded Kolkata Municipal polls. Yet some people take Dilip Ghosh, national vice-president, are declaring that in the next round of state-wide civic elections, the BJP would do much better, for reasons that do not exactly flatter him.

The Congress would have a very legitimate grievance against the government if former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s name was not mentioned in any civilian function to mark the 50th anniversary of India’s historic victory over Pakistan in 1971. But since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was attending the National War Memorial on December 16 to honour our defence forces for their role in securing independent India’s most decisive military victory, leading to the formation of Bangladesh, possibly the failure to mention Indira Gandhi’s name in connection with Vijay Diwas was not deliberate.

LUCKNOW: Priyanka Gandhi and her Congress party have succeeded in setting up women empowerment as prominent agenda for the assembly polls.