Can anyone figure out what’s happening in J’s disproportionate assets case? Laymen and lawmen alike are clueless in this slushy, sinister and inscrutable legal quagmire. Sadly, the judiciary has itself to blame for getting tied up in knots in public. Continue Reading
The sensational special court judgement in Jayalalithaa wealth case is a watershed. But it is the post-verdict scenario that stumps our senses. The reactions and arguments that are on parade since then raise more questions than the verdict itself does. Continue Reading
We have known Governments to be in the dock. Or on the mat, to use another manner of speech. But on the run? Honest, Honourable MSingh’s regime now has that rare distinction. Chased by an army of activists, an activist judiciary, an aggrieved army, alert auditors, agitated masses, an articulate middle class and an alarmist media, the Government of India has turned out to be the first fugitive. And it is also running from itself, knowing full well its own dark shadows will follow it to the finish. Continue Reading
The spectrum scam is not just about A.Raja. To believe that he could have single-handedly caused a loss of Rs175 lakh crores is to overstate his capacity and calculating abilities. Nor is this a system failure: On the contrary, the system that includes various ministries, departments, official watchdogs like CAG and the judiciary has actually worked. Continue Reading
‘Kashmir on the boil again’, is an all too familiar headline of late. But I object – not to the fact that Kashmir is boiling, but to the word ‘again’. For has Kashmir ever been cool, if you see what I mean? Even when other burning issues like say, IPL or CWG or a superhero’s latest release were boiling on the frontpages, Kashmir was simmering on the back burner. So what’s surprising beyond, maybe, knowing where in boiling Kashmir have new blisters arisen? Continue Reading
More than a fortnight has passed since a High Court judge made a startling accusation in open court that he was being pressurised by a central minister over phone to grant bail to a father-son duo in a criminal case. And a week has passed since the explosive issue was given a quiet burial. The outrage lasted just a week. Continue Reading
Law schools are where the guardians and dispensers of justice are created and nurtured. They are then released into the legal mainstream as lawyers and judges to lord over and guard a key pillar of our democracy, namely, judiciary. Continue Reading
Welcome to the centenary celebrations of State-sponsored communal politics. It was in 1906 that the Morely-Minto Reforms injected into the Indian polity the poison of separate electorates and reservation of seats for Muslims, which eventually led to the partition of the country in 1947. Continue Reading