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The sedition law is once again under fire. This is not for the first time that the sedition law is in the proverbial eye of the storm. The legal history of independent India shows that the sedition law (that is, Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code), owing to its colonial provenance, vague definition, draconian nature of the punishment, and lack of procedural safeguards has been a cause célèbre. Given this, the Law Commission of India, in its 2018 consultation paper on sedition even noted that it is time to re-think or repeal section 124A.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no mistaking it. It is the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) which calls the shots in the United Democratic Front (UDF). The Front may be led by the Congress. But when it comes to taking decisions on crucial matters, it is the IUML which has the last word. Congress leaders may deny it. But that is the stark reality.

Jesuit priest-cum-tribal rights activist, 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy’s death in a Mumbai hospital while still in judicial custody led to an outpouring of grief, with even rightwing media afraid they might step on toes if they cast wide the mildest of opprobrium. It was funny reading their reluctant praise of the much-reviled ‘Urban Naxal’.

The condition of the jobless people in India was already precarious before the COVID-19 struck the country and lockdown was announced on March 24, 2020. It has been worsening since then. Unemployment rate remains high and prospects of regaining lost jobs or getting new one is low causing deterioration in mental health of the jobless to such an extent that they are committing suicides. Incidents of suicides are more frequently appearing in media indicating that Modi government’s programmes are failing to mitigate the unemployment crisis.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor not agreeing to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Pegasus spyware scandal has come as a rude shock. According to him the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology headed by him will “do its duty” and the subject is “already on the mandate of my committee”.

It seems nothing can stand between Indians and their love of gold, not even the Covid pandemic, which has turned life upside down. It is as though they were waiting for the Covid restrictions to ease before hopped back to their favourite gold and jewellery shops.

There are three possible scenarios, but in each, India needs to boost oxygen supplies and focus on vulnerable geographies.

New Delhi: "They are a team we need to be careful of" said captain Manpreet Singh as India takes on New Zealand in their opening Pool "A" Olympic hockey fixture on Saturday.

New Delhi: Four Indians — Apurvi Chandela and Elavenil Valarivan in Women’s 10M Air Rifle followed by will launch Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma follow in Men’s 10M Air Pistol events- will launch country's shooting campaign at Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.

At the launch of his six volume collected works, Dr Manmohan Singh remembered his days as finance minister. He had observed, he was not only an “accidental prime minister”, as some people had written, but he was “an accidental finance minister as well.”