THE more the prime minister and his government seek to brush off questions regarding the Rafale deal, the more they are getting embroiled in the quagmire of the murky deal. Ever since Prime Minister Modi went to Paris in April 2015 and announced the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter planes, instead of the earlier agreement to buy 126 planes, the deal has been enveloped by a veil of secrecy and controversy.However, some facts became self-evident.

THE United States has declared war against the legitimate government of Venezuela headed by President Nicolas Maduro.This is the meaning of the brazen act of interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela with the Trump administration announcing the recognition of a rightwing opposition leader, Juan Guaido, as the interim president.  Alongside this illegal act came also the call to the Venezuelan armed forces to withdraw support to the lawfully elected president. That Guaido declared himself as the interim president on January 23, which was immediately endorsed by the United States, show

THE Delhi police has submitted a chargesheet in court against Kanhaiya Kumar, former president of the JNU Students Union and nine others on charges of sedition.  This has come nearly three years after the police arrested Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a cooked up case regarding alleged anti-national slogans raised during a demonstration on the campus.It is the vindictive attitude of the BJP government that led the police to invoke the charge of sedition (Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code) – a law made by the British colonial rulers to use it as a weapon against the leaders of the freedom

ON new year’s day, January 1, Kerala witnessed a historic and unique event.  Over 5.5 million (55 lakh) women came together to make a Vanitha Mathil (Women’s Wall) which covered 620 kilometers from the northern tip in Kasargode to the southern tip at Thiruvananthapuram.The women who assembled in this massive wall took a pledge to uphold renaissance values, gender equality and to not allow Kerala to become a lunatic asylum.  Women from all walks of life, from different religious communities and age groups flocked to the national highway which traverses the whole of the state to make

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 scope of judicial review was whether a) the defence procedures laid down were violated in the Rafale deal, and b) whether the Indian people have a right to know the price of defence deals.