Ashwani Kumar: Lakhimpur Kheri Tells Us It's Time to Rescue a Democracy in Retreat / Bharat Bhushan - Lakhimpur: A threat to both BJP and farmers' leaders
This is a moment of reckoning for a nation scarred. The unspeakable tragedy in Lakhimpur Kheri has wounded the nation’s sensitivity to its core. The 30-second video vividly depicting the gruesome murder of innocent citizens by a bunch of goons sheltered by ‘netas‘ drunk on power has once again exposed the fault-lines of our politics and a constitutional democracy in decline. The absolute imperative of resisting the perversion of democracy and trade of power must begin with an unreserved acceptance of the truth that we are a faltering democracy, for more reasons than one.
A troubling scenario of debilitated institutions of democracy, absence of ‘empathetic pluralism’, rise of muscular nationalism, the questionable ideological integrity of political parties, assault on first principles of the republic and accentuation of social and economic inequities and so on, point to a dwindling democracy and conditions of a ‘flailing state’. A dysfunctional parliament in which laws are passed without debate and the unconscionable rigour of an anti-defection law which fetters the freedom of elected representatives to articulate the voice of their conscience as also the views of their electors’ question parliament’s legitimacy as the highest forum of Indian democracy.
Despite its inspiring jurisprudence on human rights, the role of higher judiciary as custodian of the constitutional principle is suspect. Failure of superior courts in noticing a blurring distinction between lawful prosecution and malicious persecution, particularly in cases involving political leaders, questions the resilience of our judicial system and its willingness to lean in defense of our liberties, reputation, and dignity.
The Supreme Court’s response in cases relating to custodial torture, the Rohingya, the Bhima Koregaon arrested, Shaheen Bagh, Father Stan Swamy, JNU protests, sedition, and violation of the federal principle, etc., has been disappointing and has diminished its preeminent role as the designated arbiter of constitutional rights. Recent observations of the court questioning the famers’ right to protest against farm laws while the matter is sub-judice, is seen as negation of the fundamental right to peaceful protest….
https://thewire.in/rights/lakhimpur-kheri-tells-us-its-time-to-rescue-a-democracy-in-retreat
Bharat Bhushan - Lakhimpur: A threat to both BJP and farmers' leaders
The Lakhimpur-Kheri incident, in which four protesting farmers were deliberately run over by an SUV, has shaken India to the bone. It is snow-balling into an adverse event for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in Uttar Pradesh and the Centre. Its fallout could also destabilise the current leadership of the farmers' movement…
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/lakhimpur-a-threat-to-both-bjp-and-farmers-leaders-1038223.html
मुझे पूरी उम्मीद है कि आप अपनी बारी आने से पहले बोलेंगे- डॉ.आनंद तेलतुंबड़े
Avay
Shukla: IT'S TIME TO BE OUTRAGED , MY LORDS.
Father
Stan Swamy: I’d rather suffer, possibly die if things go on as it is
WANTED:
Immediate Justice in the Bhima-Koregaon Conspiracy. By Cedric Prakash
Colin Gonsalves: Refusal of bail to Sudha Bharadwaj
is based on inadmissible evidence
Pratap Bhanu Mehta - The biggest casualty in the Alok Verma affair has
been the SC’s authority
RSS and Modi brazenly intimidating the Supreme Court
Prem Shankar Jha: The Shadow
of Haren Pandya’s Case Lies Long Over Justice Arun Mishra
Ajaz
Ashraf - A police officer's account of being harassed for stopping a riot in
Rajasthan
Samjhauta Express blast case verdict: ‘Who will
answer for death of my five children?’
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
