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 (…)

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 (…)

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 (…)

The following is the speech of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the Second Memorial Lecture in honour of the late CPI General Secratary, A.B. Bardhan, on “Defence of Secularism and Constitution” at the Constitution Club, New Delhi on September 25, 2018.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am grateful to you for inviting me to deliver the Second Memorial Lecture in honour of Shri A.B. Bardhan. I had the privilege of knowing Shri Bardhan for a long time. Though he and I belonged to different (…)

by Sharad Rajimwale
Mahatma Gandhi devoted his entire life waging a relentless fight against segregationist policies and practices and the rule of divisive politics. In a world where politics thrives on efforts to create differences among people of various castes, religions and creeds, and fomenting hatred in their hearts for other fellow beings, his life and work acquire greater significance as the eloquent example of how it is possible to remove the social and cultural barriers by (…)

Francois Hollande—he good man, Tells it like it is, Causing among the hypocrites Ripples, pop, and fizz.
The shard of truth holds its edge Against the battering rams Of power, pelf, and dissembling, And the awesomeness of names.
“Men, little men,” wrote the bard, “Dressed in a little brief authority,”— How they crash when the time is ripe, Like ragdolls of ignominy.
Hollande merely does his bit, To clean up the drain; It is the people who must now Sift clouding chaff from grain. (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
On October 2 this year India is celebrating the hundred and twentyfifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The Government of India has set up a special committee studded with VIPs of different denominations and is chalking out an extensive programme of functions which will spread over a whole year.
The Congress party is holding a meeting of its highest organ, the Working Committee, the very same week at Belgaum, at the border of Karnataka and Maharashtra—this again (…)

I know I am one among the forty crores of people
I have heard the announcement: the auspicious hour
Of my life has come and all cowardly thoughts
have melted away,
There is festival in my blood, please hold my
hand, Gandhiji,
We have fought, died and taken a vow here
We’ll wade through their dead bodies and
reach the invincible kingdom
Came flood, came death, came the storm of war
Great Famine left its signature on every road,
Every moment I was afraid the whole (…)

Soldiers drunk with the pride of physical strength loot shops and are not even ashamed to take liberties with women. The administration is powerless in the war time to prevent such happenings. The army fulfils their primary need, and they wink the eyes at their misdeeds...
Hence arise questions which a sister sends me: ‘(i) If a soldier commits an assault on a woman, can she be said to have lost her virtue? (2) Is such a woman to be condemned and ostracised by the society? (3) What should (…)

by D.M. Diwakar
I. Introduction
The stage is all set to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi with great fanfare on October 2, 2019. It is a pleasant moment for a proud nation to pay sincere gratitude and tributes to the Father of the Nation. This is also an occasion to remember his ideals, vision, philosophy, programmes and actions, a moment for an introspection to review critically the journey that we have made so far and pledge ourselves with commitments and determination (…)