Adjournments nibble away at personal liberty, UAPA consumes youth: https://theleaflet.in/adjournments-nibble-away-at-personal-liberty-uapa-consumes-youth-umar-khalid-completes-three-years-in-prison/
Gursimran Kaur Bakshi·September 19, 2023 Umar Khalid completes three years in prison
Between 2016 to 2019, 5,922 persons were arrested under the UAPA and only 132 have been convicted. Of those arrested in 2018–20 under the UAPA, 53 percent are persons below thirty years of age, as per the statistics of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Access to justice is really all about the right to be heard. However, Khalid has become a victim of the court’s constant adjournments, unannounced recusals and the prosecution counsel’s unavailability.
The Supreme Court will have to navigate its way through a seventeen-thousand-page chargesheet filed against Khalid and hundreds of witnesses to impart justice to a scholar. When the Supreme Court came to the rescue of journalists Teesta Setalvad and Arnab Goswami saying “deprivation of liberty even for a single day is one day too many”, should not three years of youth be enough for the court to at least give a fair hearing to Khalid?
Women’s Reservation: Modi’s masterstroke could alter poll dynamics in 150 Lok Sabha seats Parimal Peeyush September 19, 2023 https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/womens-reservation-modis-masterstroke-could-alter-poll-dynamics-in-150-lok-sabha-seats/3248665/
The role played by women has been crucial to the BJP’s performances in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019. The Women’s Reservation Bill can significantly add to that momentum.
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States like Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Goa, were among 12 states, accounting for 200 Lok Sabha seats, where women registered higher voter turnout than men. In all these states, barring Tamil Nadu (39) and Kerala (20), the BJP secured emphatic wins in the 2019 general elections that saw the party bag 303 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.
Much of this emphatic victory was attributed to the crucial role played by women voters in the elections. As per CSDS data, the BJP polled 37 per cent of the total votes in 2019, with women accounting for over 36 per cent of those votes.
Gujarat flood: Govt’s decision to close Narmada Gates for Modi’s ‘birthday wishes’ triggered ‘man-made’ disaster, says Opposition https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/gujarat-flood-govts-decision-to-close-narmada-gates-for-modis-birthday-wishes-triggered-man-made-disaster-says-opposition/3247311/ The opposition parties, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), have named this disaster as “man-made disaster” for deliberately opening 23 gates out of 30 of Sardar Sarovar dam. September 18, 2023
The Opposition parties – Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – have named this disaster as “man-made disaster” for deliberately opening 23 gates out of 30 of Sardar Sarovar dam causing a difficult time for Gujarat. So far, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued 37 people trapped in the floodwaters of Dhami river in Aravalli district’s Demai village and almost 10,000 people have been shifted to safer areas.
Pal Ambaliya, chairman of the Gujarat Kisan Congress, the farmers’ wing of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) said, “In doing that, vested interests have certainly been protected but scores of people had to suffer large-scale damage. For example, farmers of Saurashtra, Kutch and north Gujarat regions had been longing for water for the past one month. But they were not given water because they (the government) were waiting for September 17.”