THE gang rape and murder of a 27-year old woman, a veterinary doctor, on the outskirts of Hyderabad has once again starkly highlighted the violence women are facing in their everyday lives.  The bestiality and cruelty of the crime has evoked outrage and protests all over the country.

That this is not an isolated event becomes clear when we see similar horrific crimes committed in the days preceding and after the Hyderabad incident. 

IF there was any further proof needed about the toxic nature of electoral bonds, it has been provided by the revelation that both the Reserve Bank of India and the Election Commission had strongly objected to the proposal. 

The Huffington Post has carried reports based on RTI queries that set out the objections raised by the RBI and the Election Commission and how the government summarily rejected their views and even lied about the Election Commission’s comments in Parliament.

THE news of the hacking of WhatsApp accounts of various activists, journalists and politicians in India through the use of the Pegasus spyware owned by an Israeli company NSO is disturbing and condemnable. The government of India has to explain how this hacking and breach of privacy had occurred and who was responsible.  While the government has not come out with any explanations, more facts that point at government complicity in the hacking and surveillance have now become public.

THE Modi government has taken the outrageous step of sending a group of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to visit Kashmir on the eve of its being formally reconstituted as two centrally-administered union territories. 

DAY in and day out, Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders are declaring that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) has to be prepared for the whole country.  It is widely assumed by the public and even political parties that an NRC for the whole of India is being contemplated, when actually the NRC process has already been announced.