THE All India Lawyers Union, in a statement issued on December 22, has strongly condemned the draconian measures by the central government in authorising ten central agencies to intercept and monitor all data contained in any computer.

AS we reach the end of 2018, it will go down as the year in which the all-round failure of the Modi government on the economic front and the consequent burdens on the people became glaringly evident; the year also sharply brought out the cronyism and corruption of the regime; it also exposed the disruptive agenda of the Hindutva forces in seeking to subvert the constitution and the fundamental rights of citizens. 

IN a press conference held on December 17, at Delhi, to brief the decisions of the two days Central Committee meeting of the CPI(M), Sitaram Yechury, general secretary, said the effort and the initiative is to change the narrative of the political discourse for the ensuing parliamentary elections from “Hindu-Musalmaan” to “Kisan-Naujawan”.   He said the last 4.5 years of Modi rule has completely exposed the hollowness of his promises and the danger that his communal politics.

THE Supreme Court Judgement by a three-member Bench on the Rafale Deal has become controversial even before the ink on the judgement has dried. Indeed, accepting notes in sealed covers, acceptance of governments arguments at face value, puts the court’s reputation at risk.

THE recently concluded UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland (COP24) was held to prepare a rulebook for the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The decisions adopted marked the further consolidation of the hold of the developed countries. The US is very much in the driver's seat in the negotiations along with the EU and others despite its announced withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and its public differences on climate action in forums such as the G-8. They are clearly designed to reinforce the inequitable and discriminatory aspects of the Agreement.