The government has defended its twin decisions to revoke operative portions of Article 370 of the Constitution and dividing Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories as “internal policy” that warrant no international comment. While the Prime Minister’s moves have a domestic basis, their manner, or “Modi’s vivendi” as it …
Read More »Great expectations
Ending commercial surrogacy will not be possible without regulating ART clinics It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that surrogacy needs to be regulated by law. There is no argument about whether an issue such as surrogacy fraught with bioethical issues aplenty requires regulation: it does. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, …
Read More »Open clash at CPP meeting
The simmering inner party differences erupted into an open clash between the supporters and opponents of Mrs. Gandhi at the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting this evening [August 6]. The meeting, called to hear appeals from the Prime Minister and the Congress President to vote for Mr. Sanjiva Reddi in the …
Read More »Open obsession
An ingrained gun culture and patchy regulations set off hate crimes in the U.S. Two American cities, El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, more than 2,500 kilometres apart, witnessed lethal shootings resulting in mass fatalities over the past weekend, with at least 31 people dead, many injured, and a nation …
Read More »The bus to better transport
Buses need an image makeover and cities need several thousand of them, of good quality The great cities of the world use one guiding principle in planning services for residents and visitors: working with finite space. In big cities, new roads are not possible, and no new land is available. …
Read More »The hard realities of India’s fast-track courts
Many of them are understaffed and under-resourced Fast-track courts are in the limelight yet again. Smriti Irani, Minister for Women and Child Development, informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has proposed to set up 1,023 fast-track courts to clear the cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences …
Read More »The pitch for a second term
The Trump strategy seems to focus on internal progress and in pursuit of peace abroad in unconventional ways Today, there is expectation that U.S. President Donald Trump will not only complete his term but also win a second term in 2020. But not so long ago, the demand to impeach …
Read More »Kashmir has been cut to the quick
The Centre is riding roughshod over Kashmiri public opinion already beset with disaffection In the face of a massive security build-up in Kashmir at the close of July, a seasoned journalist conjectured, “This is just the right time when militants and their masters in Rawalpindi could do with a terror …
Read More »The new facts on the ground for Kashmir
India cannot claim the moral high ground any more that it has kept the State’s integrity intact Without going into the moral and legal arguments for or against the scrapping of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and the decision to reorganise the State into two Union Territories (UTs), …
Read More »Bill on Bank nationalisation
The Lok Sabha to-night [August 4, New Delhi] passed the Banks Nationalisation Bill sitting three extra hours in the day to vote the remaining 21 of its 27 clauses and the three schedules and to give a final third reading to a measure that has been described as a personal …
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