Editorial

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of India, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to remove the words secular and socialist from the Preamble which had been inserted through an amendment in 1976. On the face of it, this categorical clarification from the apex court should have put an end to the relentless campaign against the Constitution, but within a few days we heard a most virulently majoritarian statement by a sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court.

December 6, 2024 marks 32 years of the tearing down of the Babri Masjid by a Hindutva mob cheered on by top BJP leaders, becoming that one defining moment of communal fascism in the country. This demolition took place despite the assurance to the National Integration Council by Kalyan Singh, the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, that his government will “hold itself fully responsible for the protection of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid structures”.

The indictment of the Adani group in a multi-billion-dollar bribery scam and the arrest warrants issued consequently against Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani by the US Department of Justice mark the most serious blow to Adani's corrupt corporate empire to date. In January 2023, the Hindenburg disclosures had shocked the entire business world with details of the Adani group's monumental corporate fraud underpinning the phenomenal rise of the group in the Modi era.

Even as the BJP propagates the paradigm of 'bulldozer raj' as a sign of 'justice' and 'strong governance', two recent judgments of the Supreme Court have come down heavily on this state-sponsored lawlessness. On 6 November a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra imposed a punitive fine of Rs 25 lakh on the UP government for illegally demolishing the house of journalist Manoj Tibrewal Aakash in Maharajganj district in 2019.

After a failed coup attempt following his defeat four years ago, Donald Trump has now staged a dramatic comeback in the US presidential election with the biggest ever Republican victory in last two decades. He has also become the first Republican President to win in terms of the popular vote too. Coupled with the Republican control over the Senate and the Congress, this will make Trump 2.0 much stronger than Trump 1.0, putting him in a more advantageous position to aggressively pursue his rabidly racist and imperialist rightwing agenda.

Bolstered by the surprising Haryana victory for a third successive term, the Sangh brigade is going all out to retain power in Maharashtra and conquer Jharkhand. For public consumption, the BJP's pet slogan in every Assembly election is ensuring 'double engine' government for 'development', but the party is keenly aware that the double engine rhetoric no longer has many takers.

The Badlo Bihar Nyay Yatra (Transform Bihar, Secure Justice), a simultaneous campaign of padyatras or people's marches criss-crossing the state of Bihar from October 16 to 26, will be remembered as one of the most vibrant mass initiatives undertaken by the CPI(ML) in Bihar in recent decades. The idea of a march took shape in early October and in just ten days the party got ready to launch not one or two but some two dozen marches covering at least thirty of Bihar's thirty-eight districts.

Professor GN Saibaba breathed his last at thirty-six past eight in the evening on 12 October 2024. His heart had stopped functioning and doctors were trying desperately to revive him, but it was not to be. Saibaba was 57 years old. He died due to complications arising after the removal of gallstones – a procedure that is seldom life-threatening. But Saibaba did not enter the operation theatre under normal circumstances.

The RSS has now entered its pre-centenary year. The 99th Vijayadashami or foundation day address of RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat gives us some broad idea as to how the RSS is approaching its centenary. We must however always remember that the RSS remains a conspiratorial organisation at its core and in its essential operational mode and the ideological proclamations and public utterances only give us an outline.

Results of the Haryana election have surprised all political observers and defied almost all field reports and opinion and exit polls. For the third consecutive time, the BJP has succeeded in winning Haryana, this time even bettering its 2014 and 2019 records and also the most recent 2024 Lok Sabha elections performance. The Congress has called the results 'counter-intuitive' and 'unacceptable' and raised several serious issues with the Election Commission, questioning various irregularities and complaining of administrative manipulation.