Tag: current affairs – India

Constitutional principles go for a toss in the criminal law of search and seizure

Seizing electronic devices in the absence of proportionality checks violates the right against self-incrimination Soutik Banerjee On 6 December 2023, in the hearing of a petition filed by the Foundation of Media Professionals, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju told the Supreme Court that the central government will issue “some guidelines” for the seizure of electronic… Read More Constitutional principles go for a toss in the criminal law of search and seizure

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Pratap Bhanu Mehta on abrogation of Article 370: Has SC established a dangerous precedent for federalism?

No one expected the abrogation to be reversed. But SC’s judgment lacks the reassurance that it has the integrity to uphold the Indian Constitution, in whose name it speaks, in full measure The judgment of the Supreme Court, upholding the abrogation of Article 370, is a massive legal victory for the Narendra Modi government’s approach to Jammu and… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta on abrogation of Article 370: Has SC established a dangerous precedent for federalism?

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University Grants Commission aiding the cult of personality

‘Selfie-points’ in universities: What purpose do they serve? Bharat Bhushan The selfie is no longer dismissed by behavioural analysts as symptomatic of self-obsession or narcissism. Experts believe that selfies are also a way to connect and communicate with others. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for example, was a serious serial selfie-taker with world leaders during his… Read More University Grants Commission aiding the cult of personality

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Sikhs are the proverbial bone stuck in the RSS’s gullet

HARTOSH SINGH BAL The transformation of the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Sikhs embodies the problems the community faces in a climate where the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s worldview prevails in the country. The story begins with a photo the Bharatiya Janata Party would once display with great pride, of a turbaned Modi disguised as… Read More Sikhs are the proverbial bone stuck in the RSS’s gullet

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Drowning Voices

How legal frameworks are being used to throttle free speech and the media…The dangerous beauty of this framework is that each bill touches upon only certain key aspects that may be crucial for freedom of speech, but, together, they constitute a gargantuan web that is difficult to escape. ANANT NATH On 10 November 2023, the… Read More Drowning Voices

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‘Jail crushes you slowly’: Kashmiri journalist reflects on prison ordeal

Fahad Shah, whose case was a symbol of harassment of region’s media, says he has different outlook after months behind bars Aakash Hassan During his more than 600 days behind bars, Fahad Shah, a Kashmiri journalist, had begun to lose hope that he would ever see freedom again. It was in February last year that… Read More ‘Jail crushes you slowly’: Kashmiri journalist reflects on prison ordeal

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Has the fallout from the Pannun incident really been capped? Brazen overreach backfires for India

Bharat Bhushan The indictment by US agencies of Indian criminal Nikhil Gupta for plotting the murder of Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on behalf of an Indian government agent may cause the unravelling of a macho narrative being prepared for the general election of 2024. The unfortunate events may have emerged from the virile foreign… Read More Has the fallout from the Pannun incident really been capped? Brazen overreach backfires for India

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India’s reckless cowboys

Bharat Bhushan The United States has clearly put the squeeze on the Narendra Modi government with the filing of an indictment in New York of murder-for-hire charges against Indian national Nikhil Gupta (a.k.a. Nick). He is accused of participating in a foiled plot to assassinate a US citizen in New York City, widely believed to be Sikh separatist… Read More India’s reckless cowboys

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