THE conviction of senior lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, of criminal contempt of court by a three-member bench of the Supreme Court has lowered the image of the institution. It shows the highest court of the land in a bad light as being intolerant of criticism and using the contempt law to punish dissent. The two tweets of Prashant Bhushan, which were found to be scandalising the court, do not warrant any such conclusion. There have been numerous criticisms and charges made by former judges of the Supreme Court on various judgments and aspects of the court’s functioning in recent times.

ON August 7, a virtual meeting was held between the foreign ministers of India, Brazil, Israel, South Korea, Australia and the United States. This meeting was, by all standards, a curious one.Foreign minister, Jaishankar tweeted, “Continued our conversation on the Corona challenge, always good to learn from each other”. But the composition of the meeting and the countries represented by the foreign ministers raises many questions.The lineup of the countries itself is inexplicable if the agenda was sharing experiences on tackling the Covid-19 crisis and the way forward.

THE Bhumi Pujan ceremony for the Ram temple at Ayodhya, though organised by the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, became an official function with the prime minister laying the foundation for the temple with the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and governor in attendance. August 5, thus, marks an important stage in the political project of Hindutva; the building of a Ram temple at the site where the Babri Masjid stood was a centerpiece of its mobilising strategy to shape a Hindu majoritarian State.  For the BJP-RSS combine, the Ram temple project is a matter of “national honour” setting right the

THE political drama in Rajasthan, consequent to the revolt of Sachin Pilot who was the deputy chief minister and PCC president, is still unfolding.  But the essential contours have become clear.  The inner tussle in the Congress cannot be separated from the BJP’s drive to destabilise non-BJP state governments, in particular Congress ones. Since the Modi government came back to power in May 2019, first the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka was toppled in July 2019 followed by the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh in March this year.The BJP has been using hybrid tactics for destabili

THE Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had announced that the formal annexation of 30 per cent of the West Bank by Israel would take place on July 1.  However, this did not happen on that date though Netanyahu maintained the preparations for the annexation are on.  The illegal annexation move emanated from the notorious “Peace to Prosperity” plan announced by President Trump on January 28 this year, with the Israeli prime minister beside him.  This atrocious plan amounts to the Jordan Valley of the West Bank and the lands on which the illegal Jewish settlements exist being annexed