After hailing India’s achievements in 75 years of Independence, I am today ashamed of being an Indian. We all know that the quality of justice in India can be unpredictable, and how sometimes evil triumphs and innocents languish in jail. But are we so numbed by injustice that we are losing our capacity to feel […]
Bilkis case: Those who deserve noose should not be garlanded Read More »
India’s 75 years of Independence are replete with major achievements but failures too. Compared with several other developing countries, India falls short of a first division on most counts but merits a high second division. I am proud that a country as diverse as India, with 22 national languages and multiple regions, religions and ethnicities
Not a first division but a high second: The hits & misses in our 75-year journey Read More »
Chief Justice N V Ramana has, astonishingly, waded into the controversy of political parties promising endless freebies that could plunge countries into disaster. He says political parties do not want to curb such excesses, so a specialised body should tackle the problem. Sorry, subsidies lie squarely in the province of politics, not the judiciary or
A fundamental problem of democracies: What constitutes good and bad freebies? Read More »
Last week, I congratulated the Supreme Court in the Mohammed Zubair case for castigating police misuse of procedures to penalise free speech. Alas, its verdict upholding the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) will encourage the very harassment it had criticised a week earlier. “Bail is a rule, jail is an exception” is a fundamental
SC’s verdict on PMLA encourages harassment it had criticised Read More »
India is currently the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Hurrah. But the combined fiscal deficit of the Centre and states exceeds 10% of GDP, horrendously high by international standards. High fiscal deficits can spur high growth for some time, but then end in bankruptcy. India itself broke out of the Hindu Growth Rate of 3.5% in
A global recession will pose enormous fiscal challenges. India must be prepared Read More »
Democracies prize free speech and criticism of public figures. Even false criticism of public figures does not qualify as slander in the US and other countries unless accompanied by malice. This can be irksome to politicians. Former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa slapped 213 defamation suits against political opponents in the five years up to
Netas should not go overboard on defamation suits Read More »
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