Mainstream Weekly

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• COMCASA and the Historic Fight for Peace

  7 October 2018

  by Archishman Raju and Meghna Chandra
  The External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently concluded two-plus-two talks with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis resulting in the signing of the COMCASA (Communications, Compatibility, Security Agreement). This agreement will allow the two countries to share intelligence in real-time. This is one of the three “foundational agreements” that the US signs with other (…)

• More Problems Ahead

  7 October 2018

  by Hemant Varshney and Bhavesh Yadav
  Introduction
  A five-judge Constitution Bench on September 27 decriminalised the 158-year-old law of adultery in Joseph Shine v. Union of India. The impugned law was mentioned under Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code 1860. The main contention of the petitioner was that since the law treats woman as chattel, therefore, the law is in violation of equality mentioned as Fundamental Right under Part III of the Constitution.
  It is beyond any shadow of (…)

• An Unhealthy Judgement

  7 October 2018

  COMMUNICATION
  By striking down IPC Section 497 as unconstitutional and declaring adultery as no offence recently on September 27, 2018, the Supreme Court will set in a highly undesirable trend in the society. The society is already tottering and withdrawal of the fear of law will give licence to amorous relationship in India. This will lead to more domestic violence, family feud, crime and break-ups. Are we going back to the wild primitive society? A law cannot be divorced of moral (…)

• Statement of Five Petitioners to the Supreme Court on Activists’ Arrest

  7 October 2018

  The following is the press statement of five eminent persons on the arrest and subsequent house confinement of five activists.
  We approached the Supreme Court when five well-known lawyers, journalists and civil rights activists were arrested across the country on August 28 and charged with abetting acts of terror under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
  Our intention was to draw the attention of the judiciary to what we believe is a case of gross misuse of the state’s (…)

• Statement by Gautam Navlakha

  7 October 2018

  The following is the press statement by human rights activist Gautam Navlakha after being freed of house arrest by the Delhi High Court on October 1, 2018. He was arrested with four other activists on August 28 and subsequently placed under house confinement by the Supreme Court. This is, according to Navlakha, the ‘Statement of an Urban Naxal’.
  I wish to thank the majority and dissenting Justices of the Supreme Court for their judgment, which allowed us four weeks to seek relief in this (…)

• Nationalist Discourse: Hundred Years of Sociology in India

  7 October 2018, by Samit Kar

  One hundred years have passed since the inception of the Department of Sociology in Bombay University. Here Sociology began to be taught and studied for the first time in India at the University level. Patrick Geddes (October 2, 1854-April 17, 1932), a distinguished Scottish Biologist, Sociologist, Geographer, Philanthropist and Town Planner, took the major initiative to establish the Department.
  Geddes turned his attention to Sociology after an attack of blindness while working in Mexico. (…)

• People’s Mobilisation on Land Reforms deserves Wide Support

  7 October 2018, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  Keeping in view the extremely important role of land reforms for reducing rural poverty and ensuring sustainable food security to the most vulnerable sections, there is clearly a need for strong government action on this front but this responsibility has been completely neglected by the government in recent times. Even though the ground level action has to be taken by the State Government but a clear and strong land reform policy at the national level and policy guidelines (…)

• Aadhaar Verdict: Justice Chandrachud’s “Landmark Dissent”

  7 October 2018

  by Arup Sen
  The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court delivered its Aadhaar verdict on September 26, 2018. Reportedly, while the four judges out of a five-justice Bench broadly upheld the Aadhaar project and its constitutional validity, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud categorically recorded his voice of dissent. He observed: “The passing of Aadhaar Act as money bill is a fraud on the Constitution.” He further observed: “Constitutional guarantees cannot be compromised by vicissitudes of (…)

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  BJP Chief’s Diabolical Move

  29 September 2018, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  BJP President Amit Shah is at it again. After his most objectionable speech at a party rally in Jaipur on September 11 (wherein he mocked at a prime victim of the Sangh Parivar’s lynch-mob, Mohmmad Akhlaq, and those who returned their awards as a token of protest against the secular democratic ideals of our Constitution) he raised the issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh at a Purvanchal Mahakumbh of the ruling party in the Capital on September 23 and used therein certain (…)

• Aadhaar Judgment — A First Impression

  29 September 2018, by S G Vombatkere

  The September 26, 2018 judgment [”Judg-ment” hereinafter] of the five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court of India (SCI) on the batch of 27 petitions clubbed under “Puttaswamy”, challen-ging the UIDAI’s Aadhaar scheme on various grounds runs to 1448 pages.
  This first impression is necessarily based upon a cursory reading of the document and the words spoken in Court by the judges, as reported in the electronic media. The Judgment is split into three “parts”, namely, a judgment jointly by (…)