THE haughty BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra had to eat a humble pie before the Bombay High Court last month. The government had to withdraw its order cancelling all admissions to pre-primary classes made as per the entry point dictum of the RTE Act. On July 24, the Additional Government Pleader had to state before the high court bench that the state had withdrawn the Government Resolution (GR), dated April 30, and went on to table the new GR of July 23 issued in its place.

THE BJP led government is steeped in corruption within one year of its governance. We are making efforts to launch a broad movement against the BJP government’s corruption, said Prakash Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, at a seminar conducted by the Party in Guntur. He called upon the Left and democratic forces to unite for this.

Modi government has doled out false assurances to the public and upon assuming power it failed to implement any of its main assurances. Moreover, it is doing away with welfare schemes and is attacking the common man, Karat explained.

POLITICAL activists, who are part of a peaceful demonstration that the government declares as unlawful, may soon find themselves as part of a massive database that the government wishes to construct. The database, called the ‘National DNA Data Bank’ will contain the DNA profiles for a range of Indian citizens and ostensibly will be used to tackle crime and to trace or identify people for various reasons. You are likely to be part of the database if you are in minor violation of the Motor Vehicle Act.

LADY Justice is depicted as blindfolded, but is she blind and without any bias? Not always. A recent empirical study of convicts on death row confirms the fact that the capital punishment in India is reserved for the poor and the marginalised. While the poor get gallows, the rich mostly escape. According to a study, three-fourths of those given death penalty in the past one-and-a-half decades belonged to the backward classes and religious minorities.

THE mind numbing atrocities perpetrated on dalits in different parts of India have been continuing unabated. The main reason for this is the stranglehold of wealthy `high castes’ of our society in rural and urban areas. The protection they get from the ruling classes and the administration is another important factor. The failure of the redressal mechanism is a very crucial reason in the emboldening of the upper caste mafia.