Editorial

The horrific rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor in Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has triggered a massive people's assertion in West Bengal powered by a remarkable women’s initiative called 'Reclaim the Night' – derived from an international movement - on the eve of Independence Day. This August 15, the focus was turned on the crucial question of women's freedom, women's safety and women's inalienable right to a dignified and democratic life in today's India.

Hindenburg Research's second report on the Adani scam is in some ways even more explosive than the first report that had rocked the world eighteen months ago. The first report had exposed the monumental corporate fraud perpetrated by the Adani group and pushed Gautam Adani down the global ladder of wealth. Questions were raised across India, including in the Indian parliament, about the Modi-Adani nexus.

On 1st August 2024, a 7-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court delivered a 6:1 majority judgment upholding the legality of sub-classification of Scheduled castes-Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of reservation. No carte blanche, though, is granted by the Court.

The first full budget of the third term of the Modi government has left even large sections of the middle class support base of the regime highly disillusioned and angry. Even Godi Media anchors have started raising inconvenient questions before the Finance Minister. A budget coming in the wake of an election in which the economic crisis cast such a long shadow and the ruling party lost its majority could not remain completely quiet about the concerns haunting the country.

Bangladesh is witnessing a historic student upheaval. What triggered the unrest was a High Court verdict restoring the old quota system in government jobs, but what has evidently led to the intensification of the movement and its spread like a wild fire across university campuses and district towns of Bangladesh is the government's attempt to suppress the movement by unleashing state terror and extra-judicial violence.

When thirteen Assembly seats go for by-polls just a few weeks after the Lok Sabha elections and the BJP manages only a couple of narrow wins, the by-poll results can surely be seen as a reconfirmation of the 2024 mandate. The results acquire added significance in view of the Modi regime's arrogant rejection of the spirit of the mandate as reflected in the attitude and announcements of the government and the renewed spate of mob lynchings and bulldozer demolitions aimed at intimidating the people.

In April and May 2024 it was testing time for India and the world was watching us. On 4 June as the BJP juggernaut was stopped at 240, democracy lovers across the world heaved a mild sigh of relief. But just when India seemed to have succeeded in pushing the fascist forces back at least partially, elections to the European Parliament recorded a major surge of the xenophobic far-right in country after country.

Political observers have often characterised the first ten years of the Modi government as an undeclared Emergency. With the coming into force of the three new criminal codes, that state of Emergency has now been institutionalised. The three codes replacing the Indian Penal Code 1860, Criminal Procedure Code 1973 and Indian Evidence Act 1872 were passed hurriedly in Parliament without any serious debate or parliamentary scrutiny on 20-21 December 2023 when almost the entire Opposition was suspended by the Speaker.

A weakened government back in office and a stronger and more energised opposition to take it on in Parliament. The net outcome of the 2024 elections can perhaps be seen only as a modest pro-opposition tilt in the balance of forces. In a functional democracy it should mean a restrained executive and consequently a restored political equilibrium in society and governance. But parliamentary democracy in India in 2024 is anything but functional. Relentless erosion of democracy has been the new normal in Modi's India since 2014.

On 4th June, 2024, as the outcome of the 18th Loksabha election was being broadcast, the future of 24 lakhs NEET aspirants was declared to be marred in yet another corruption. The results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) that is held for admission to MBBS, Dental and Ayush courses in the medical colleges throughout the country were declared on the same day as Loksabha election results, so that the former does not attract any media attention.