Editorials

India rejected the United Nations statement that its repatriation of seven Rohingya men violated the UN principle of “refoulement” or “forcibly deporting people to a place they could be persecuted,” saying that the men, who were handed over to Myanmar officials at the border on Thursday, had gone voluntarily. “Upon …

The Swachh Bharat Mission needs a broader vision of what constitutes cleanliness India’s Swachh Bharat Mission is receiving global praise for attempting to close the sanitation gap of nearly 60% of the rural population not having access to a toilet at home in 2014. The NDA government invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s …

Brazil votes this week in an election charged by an anti-establishment campaign The campaign for Sunday’s elections in Brazil is beset by an anti-establishment mood, as in several democracies. Legislators at the state and national levels are being elected, but it is the contest for the President’s post that has …

The government’s revised guidelines for conducting exams for persons with disabilities are unfair and regressive In an 1850 report, Samuel Gridley Howe, popularly considered the ‘father of the American blind’, emphatically wrote: “The blind as a class, are inferior to other persons in mental power and ability.” It is dismaying …

The progression from poor to bourgeois to elite is a welcome evolution in nation-building — the apex court missed it As citizens, we expect two certainties from any verdict on public policy by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court. One, it must hold whether the underlying principle(s) is/are consistent …

We need a clean environment for human empowerment Yesterday, the United Nations honoured me with the Champions of the Earth Award. While I was extremely humbled at receiving this honour, I do feel that this award is not for an individual. Instead, it is recognition of the Indian culture and …

Abolition of untouchability in all its forms, including scavenging, remains an unrealised constitutional right “The issue of the rights of sweepers and scavengers has never entered the mainstream legal consciousness in the country,” wrote Upendra Baxi in Law and Poverty: Critical Essays . “Nor have the Bar and the Bench, …

‘Sanctions may have a detrimental impact on the health and lives of Iranians’ The UN’s top court ordered the U.S. on Wednesday to lift sanctions on humanitarian goods for Iran in a stunning setback for U.S. President Donald Trump. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague handed Iran …

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the validity of the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act of 2017 for levy and collection of tax on inter-State supply of goods or services or both by the Centre. The court also upheld the legality of the Goods and Services Tax …

Mr. C.B.N. Pelly, Deputy Inspector-General of Police who, I am told, came to Madura soon after the shocking occurrence of the 27th evening, and Mr. G.F. Paddison, the District Magistrate, have been for the past few days making departmental enquiries, jointly and independently, into the circumstances under which the Police …