The Constitution will survive another 600 years The first draft of India’s Constitution was prepared by the Constituent Assembly sixty years ago. As India heads into the second decade of the 21st Century, globalisation, the spread of terrorism, rapid economic growth and the winners and losers it has produced, and the individual’s liberty pose the…
“The Constitution is evolving constantly” As we near completion of sixty years of formation of the Indian Republic, it is crucial to review the workings of the Indian Constitution and analyse how the definitions, principles and guidelines enshrined in the Constitution have evolved in the present context. Former Attorney General for India Ashok H. Desai…
Three warnings from history on the perils of popularity In November 1937, an extraordinary essay titled, ‘The Rashtrapati’, appeared in a respected Calcutta journal. Written under the pseudonym Chanakya, it soon became known that the author was, in fact, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had just led the Congress to victory in elections in a majority of…
“Tis the season for chest-thumping. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is unquestionably on top of the heap. But what a heap it is. Over the past couple of weeks, quite a bit of nasty triumphalism has been on display. Such eruptions need a trigger, and a handy one was provided by the departing remarks of…
(Chaitanya Kalbag has been a journalist, editor and manager for over 33 years. In his most recent assignment as Editor in Chief of Hindustan Times, India’s second-largest English newspaper, Kalbag headed a team of more than 700 journalists across eight editions. He was responsible for reinforcing professional standards and embedding strong standards of accountability and…
Can momentum towards holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha, state assemblies be achieved in one fell swoop? The momentum towards holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies is growing, but can this be achieved in one fell swoop? If it is done in stages, it may take until 2024 at least to…
Poorly paid, snowed under by a huge backlog of pending cases, buffeted by the government’s attempts to manipulate judicial processes and appointments, our judiciary has not been able to preserve its independence. At the same time, our Constitution has been considerably tampered with by the legislature. What are the causes of this state of ,…
19 July 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, July 19, Reuter – Philippine officials said on Tuesday that It was up to President Corazon Aquino to interpret an anti-nuclear constitutional clause that could affect the future of the two main U.S. bases in the country. A joint executive-legislative panel set up by…
All private secretaries to Union ministers are equal, but S.R. Bhatia is more equal. Bhatia is the private secretary to Prakash Chand Sethi, the Union home minister, and currently he is at the centre of a storm that is battering at the doors of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the Central Secretariat Service…
Although it is a blasphemous thought, it has cropped up in many a legal mind during the last few weeks: if bets were placed on the Supreme Court’s decisions, only a very shrewd bookie would emerge victorious. So unpredictable have the thought-processes of the nation’s highest court become. A three-judge bench consisting of Chief Justice…