A DELEGATION from the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) met the minister of minority affairs, Mukthar Abbas Naqvi on January 5.They submitted a memorandum seeking the removal of certain provisions contained in the guidelines issued by the Haj Committee of India that virtually bar persons with disabilities from undertaking the Haj pilgrimage.The minister assured that he would issue an advisory to the Haj Committee of India to review the guidelines and “bring it in conformity” with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

THE National Alliance of Journalists and Delhi Union of Journalists, in a statement issued on January 8, have jointly condemned the registering of an FIR against Tribune reporter Rachna Khaira and her sources for her expose of leaks in the Aadhar system. We believe the reporter should be commended for investigating and bringing to light the easy access that touts and hackers have to the UIDAI’s allegedly impenetrable data site and its availability for as little as Rs 500 to anyone who wants it.

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a statement issued on January 10, has denounced the government’s move in registering FIR against the journalist of Tribune, Rachna Khaira and her sources for exposing the leakage-prone systemic fault in Aadhar administration.

 A FACT-FINDING team under the banner of Bhumi Adhikar Andolan visited Bharatpur, Alwar, Rajsamand and Udaipur in Rajasthan on January 6-7, 2018 to look into the increasing incidents of lynching and attacks in the name of gau-raksha, encounter killings, deliberate communal polarisation and attacks on Muslims in the state.

THE Special Court judge Saini in his judgements running into thousands of pages on the 2G spectrum issue, seems to believe that let alone criminality, there was nothing wrong with the procedures that A Raja and his cronies adopted. His world, in which the allotment of 2G licenses or spectrum occurred, appears to be in a parallel universe from that in which the Controller of Auditor General (CAG), the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court operated. All of them found A Raja and his close associates guilty of arbitrary changing of rules to help certain favoured companies.