A SPATE of rapes of minors in the recent past has led to an eruption of rage, disgust and anguish all over the country. The details of some of these crimes – the Surat rape and murder of an 11 year old, the rape and murder of a 9 year old whose mutilated body was found in Haryana, for example – are still to be revealed but the Unnao rape of a 17 year old who has named a BJP MLA as the perpetrator, the killing of her father for which the UP police and the MLA’s brother have been held guilty and sent to jail and the unimaginably brutal rape and murder of an 8 year old child in Jammu have st
THE three-tier panchayat elections in West Bengal is becoming a farcical exercise due to the unprecedented and shameful attack by the ruling Trinamul Congress to throttle the democratic process at the outset itself. One has heard of rigging elections by capturing booths, but this is the first time the elections are sought to be rigged by capturing the administrative offices where nominations are filed.
IT is five weeks since the Tripura election results were declared following which the BJP-IPFT state government was formed. From the evening of March 3, when the results were announced, a spate of attacks on CPI(M) and Left parties offices, houses of supporters and trade union offices began. Since then, there has been no respite in the attacks by the BJP-RSS gangs.
THE bandh call given by various dalit organisations on April 2 evoked a militant response from dalits all across North India and places like Gujarat and Odisha. The protest was meant to be against the Supreme Court judgment which had diluted certain provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
THE expectation that the Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh would maintain the rule of law in the state has been futile. All doubts regarding this were completely dispelled by the recent announcement by the chief minister that he has initiated action to take back 131 cases that had been filed during the vicious and bloody communal carnage witnessed in Muzaffarnagar and neighbouring districts in 2013. These include 12 cases of murder, many cases of attempt to murder, dacoity and other heinous crimes. All the accused belong to the Hindu community and include ministers, MLAs, MPs
THE BJP has suffered a shock defeat in the two by-elections to the Lok Sabha seats of Gorakhpur and Phulpur. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, these two seats were won by Yogi Adityanath, now chief minister and Keshav Prasad Maurya, now deputy chief minister with a margin of over 3 lakh votes each. This time around the seats were won by Samajwadi Party candidates who were supported by its arch rival, the BSP.
THE long march by kisans from Nashik to Mumbai has been a historic success. The march by 25,000 kisans began in Nashik on March 6 and traversed nearly 200 kms before arriving at Mumbai on March 12. The numbers kept swelling and by the time Mumbai gathering took place, there were 50,000 people in the march.
THE Tripura assembly election has delivered an unexpected verdict. The BJP-IPFT alliance has won a two-third majority of the seats polling 50.5 per cent (BJP- 43 per cent and IPFT 7.5 per cent).
The Left Front which had been in office for the past 25 years and had won five successive elections since 1993 got only 16 seats though it polled 45 per cent of the vote.
THE Modi government’s policy towards Pakistan has reached a dead end. Having called off the dialogue with Pakistan in August 2015, the government has steadfastly maintained that there can be no talks till terrorism stops. The surgical strikes across the Line of Control in September 2016 were touted to be India’s firm response to cross border terrorism. The then defence minister Manohar Parrikar claimed that after continuous ceasefire violations for the past few years, this was the only befitting reply.
