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Category: Context (general situation in India)

Poor Medical Care for Prisoners Explains Why Number of Custodial Deaths Is Only Rising

Poor Medical Care for Prisoners Explains Why Number of Custodial Deaths Is Only Rising


Drawing by Arun Ferreire

The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha

In 2018, 1,845 people died while incarcerated. That’s the highest number India has seen so far.
Mumbai: “I would see this one prison inmate being brought to the hospital every day for an entire week, and each time turned away. The escort police would invariably walk in around 2:30-3 pm, over an hour after the OPD (out-patient department) hours, and no doctor would be available to treat patients then. The inmate went untreated for over a week,” recalls a young doctor at Maharashtra’s state-run JJ hospital.
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All the Times the Supreme Court Turned a Nelson’s Eye to Injustice

All the Times the Supreme Court Turned a Nelson’s Eye to Injustice

Drawing by Arun Ferreira

The Wire / by Markandey Katju and Janhvi Prakash

It must be regrettably said that the judiciary has largely surrendered before the political executive.
The words ‘Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting’, from the Bible (Daniel:5:27), were used by Sir Winston Churchill in 1938 to criticise Neville Chamberlain, the then British prime minister, for signing the shameful Munich Pact with Hitler. The same words could aptly be used for the Indian Supreme Court too, for its recent dismal, distressing, disheartening and discomfiting performances in repeatedly failing to protect the fundamental rights of the Indian people – which is its sacred and solemn duty under the constitution.
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Bombay High Court: 2019 Highlights

Bombay High Court: 2019 Highlights

Live Law / by Nitish Kashyap

Like every year, the Bombay High Court in 2019 witnessed a flurry of fresh PILs and petitions filed and pronounced orders/judgements in plenty of old cases. Here is a look at the some of the most significant judgements/orders of the Bombay High Court in the past year.
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Historians’ silence on Bhima Koregaon allowed BJP to brand it as ‘urban Naxalism’

Historians’ silence on Bhima Koregaon allowed BJP to brand it as ‘urban Naxalism’

The Print / by Dilip Mandal

Mainstream Indian historiography has a problem dealing with the battle of Bhima Koregaon. It doesn’t fit into the narrative of Hindu nationalism or the classic anti-colonialism frame. This historical dilemma is the reason why it is easy for the BJP and the Narendra Modi government to dub an anti-caste battle commemoration as the handiwork of ‘Urban Naxals’ and dangerous.
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CAA-NRC-NPR Modi and Shah’s trishul against people: Brinda Karat

CAA-NRC-NPR Modi and Shah’s trishul against people: Brinda Karat

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

Addressing the 12th conclave of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) at Byculla, Karat accused the Centre of undermining the Constitution and dividing the people in name of caste, creed and religion to serve its “devious larger agenda of (setting up) a theocratic state”. …
“The basic principle of a secular country must be separation of religion from politics… Even today, men and women who fought for the rights of the oppressed and marginalised, like (activist) Sudha Bharadwaj, are in jail in the name of being urban naxals. The state government should withdraw all (Elgaar Parishad) cases,” she added.
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6 Legislations Passed in 2019 That Are A Blot On India’s Democracy

6 Legislations Passed in 2019 That Are A Blot On India’s Democracy

Pic: Pawanjot Kaur, Nov 2019, ‘Mela Ghadari Babian Da’/ The Wire

Feminsm India / by Maduli Thaosen

The BJP Government, within the first few months of its re-election, passed several legislations that are detrimental to Indian constitutional values and federal structure. India’s democracy has only weakened since the BJP’s coming to power, as they’ve relentlessly worked to consolidate power, weaken regional autonomy, and suppress dissent.
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The widening fissure in India’s rule of law

The widening fissure in India’s rule of law

The Hindu / by Gautam Bhatia

Last month, the news website Scroll revealed that more than 10,000 people in the Khunti district of Jharkhand had been chargesheeted by the police for sedition. These people are overwhelmingly Adivasis. Then, in early December, a judicial probe completed a seven-year long investigation, finding that a so-called encounter of “Maoists” in Chhattisgarh by security forces, in 2012, had been a “fake encounter” all along. The people killed had not been Maoists, but innocent villagers.
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The Response to the Hyderabad rape spotlights India’s dangerous turn

The Response to the Hyderabad rape spotlights India’s dangerous turn

The Washington Post / by Kavita Krishnan

… The same propagandists that celebrate lynchings and custodial killings as “justice” and profile Muslims as “rapists” and “love jihadis” also call feminists “anti-nationals” and proponents of “free sex.” Feminist lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, who helped indigenous people in central India fight legal battles against custodial rapes and killings by police and paramilitary, is currently in jail after pro-government TV channels and police ran a campaign branding her an “urban Naxal,” or agent of left-wing militants.
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Demolishing Human Rights in India

Demolishing Human Rights in India

Sabrang India / by Fr Cedric Prakash

This past year from December 2018, had two significant 70th anniversaries: first, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948) and then, of the promulgation of the Constitution of India (November 26, 2019). It is quite certain that the makers of the Indian Constitution took inspiration from the UDHR. Strangely enough, as if on cue, everything possible is done by the powers that control the destiny of the nation, to demolish human rights and the values enshrined in the Constitution!
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