THE DANGEROUS IMPLICATIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT DENYING BAIL TO UMAR KHALID AND SHARJEEL IMAM

THE DANGEROUS IMPLICATIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT DENYING BAIL TO UMAR KHALID AND SHARJEEL IMAM https://pucl.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/18Jan2025-PUCL-Position-Paper-SCUmarSHarjeel.pdf 18th Jan 20026

the judgment indicates that the Supreme Court has given the supreme imprimatur to the criminalisation of the constitutional freedoms of
speech, association and assembly, especially when exercised by Muslim citizens of India. It also lays down a troubling interpretation of the UAPA with serious implications for the future of the constitutional freedoms of speech, association and assembly.

PUCL states that the Supreme Court judgment, which has ignored set precedent and broadened the scope of terrorism under UAPA to include acts of civil disobedience and democratic protest by citizens, requires judicial review and scrutiny. UAPA has been systematically used against political dissenters and protesting citizens since its enactment. The amendments over the last decade have made the provisions even more draconian, leading to denial of bail in most cases, even where no or questionable evidence exists

Please see the full video of PUCL Dialogues on the issue.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4uASZySICY&pp=0gcJCU8KAYcqIYzv 

As BMC elections near, BEST buses slip out of political focus

As BMC elections near, BEST buses slip out of political focus https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/as-bmc-polls-near-mumbais-best-buses-slip-out-of-political-focus-10464690/ The change is most visible in air-conditioned services. BEST owns only 25 AC buses, while 1,720 AC buses on city roads are run by private operators. Even among non-AC buses, privately run vehicles now far outnumber those owned by BEST. This growing dependence on private buses has come with worrying safety figures. Between January 2023 and December2025,BEST buses were involved in 958 accidents, in which77people were killed and 217 were injured.

Comment: Meanwhile the busses are cramped to a capacity which violates every rule in the Laws relating to public transport.  At places at like Churchgate the Driver will keep a packed audience locked, and go to the BEST counter, and even take a short break.  Sometimes the AC is not working.   The new Electric buses, with the gearless system also does not meeting the standards of steady driving, especially when the bus if overloaded and our roads damaged.  So standees have to hang on for dear life.. 

'Indianisation' of Syllabi is Hollowing Out Knowledge in Our Universities

Knowledge – its very disciplines – are today locked in a struggle for survival on university campuses in India. It is a bloodless war, but no less brutal for that. Most people in India remain blissfully unaware of this conflict and carry on with their business. On one side stand those who defend knowledge, armed with nothing but their training, their discipline, and their commitment to intellectual integrity. On the other side are the invaders, wielding a far more lethal weapon: nationalism, sharpened into its Hindutva form.

For the past eleven years, the making of syllabi has turned into a continuous tug-of-war. Hapless department heads have had to defend their curricula against volleys of nationalist and “Indianist” sophistry. Whatever the discipline – particularly in the humanities and social sciences – the moment words such as caste, gender, discrimination, sexuality, or LGBTQ appear, administrative representatives react with hostility. Foreign authors and thinkers provoke a similar unease. In their haste to “Indianise” knowledge, committee members do not hesitate to browbeat subject experts.

https://thewire.in/education/at-delhi-university-indianisation-of-syllabi-is-hollowing-out-knowledge 

It would be wrong to say that everything is lost. As I have noted earlier, many department heads and teachers continue to devise ways to protect the dignity of their disciplines. Sometimes they succeed; sometimes they are forced into compromise. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Indian universities have become battlefields where a fierce struggle is underway between knowledge and Hindutva ideology. Knowledge itself cannot fight. On its behalf stand those teachers who still remain teachers, entering committee meetings prepared to counter an endless barrage of Hindutva idiocy.

by Apoorvanand

31/12/2025