AWAKENINGS

Constitution of India does not define the word ‘Minority’, but, has used the word minority or minorities considering two attributes – Religion or Language of a person. Article 29 protects the interests of the minorities by making a provision that any citizen / section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture have the right to conserve the same,  and Article 30 protects the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions whether based on religion or language. The above two provisions together may be taken as the constitutional charter for religious and linguistic minorities at all levels. Currently, 6 religious communities, (Muslims, Sikhs, Zoroastrianism, Buddhists, Jains and Christians) are notified as religious minorities under National Commission for Minorities Act 1992. Now Karnataka Government had mooted the idea of including Lingayat as the 7 th religious minority community which is being looked as a vote bank ...

Below is link for the full case history: http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/supremecourt/2017/22086/22086_2017_Judgement_20-Mar-2018.pdf 20 th March 2018 was historic in annals of highest judiciary because Supreme Court Judges   A.K.Goel and U.U.Lalit issued directions to prevent the misuse of provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. These two learned Supreme Court judges in their recent 89 page judgment of Subhash Kashinath Mahajan case (click the heading to know full details about the case) had ruled as under: 1   The underprivileged need to be protected against any atrocities to give effect to the Constitutional ideals. The Atrocities Act has been enacted with this objective. At the same time, the said Act cannot be converted into a charter for exploitation or oppression by any unscrupulous person or by police for extraneous reasons.     The court noted harassment of an innocent citizen, irrespective of caste or religion, is...

Indian prisoners arrived in India through Attari-Wagah land border after they were released by Pakistan in 2016.  The Modi Government’s latest proposals had paved the way for further releases of prisoners on a swap arrangement. The success of such continued positive approaches in the humanitarian side is due to Sushma Swaraj and Modi acting in unison. Everybody knows that India-Pakistan talks have been suspended since 2013 and efforts to revive them subsequently have to naught. Further, both Pakistan and Indian troops exchanged heavy fire for the past two   years after relations nosedived, following terrorist incidents in 2016 in Pathankot and Uri. The arrest of alleged Indian spy Kalbhushan Jadhav in Baluchistan province in 2016 further deteriorated the relations between India and Pakistan. Pakistan alleged that Jadhav was a serving Indian Navy official employed by RAW to spread terror in Baluchistan and Sindh province, while India denied the allegations. I...

T he BJP’s historic performance in defeating CPI- M was a herculean task of ‘From Zero to Hero’ achievement – impossible becoming possible. Red Rule of 25 years in Tirupura of which 20 years of continuous Rule was of Manik Sarkar – so called Poor Chief Minister - had come to an end in the most dramatic and tragic manner by the Surge of Saffron Party. The crisp’s comment of Amit Shah – Left is not right for any part of India – echoes the reality of majority of Voters’ mood and preferences.   In 2013 Tirupura assembly election of 60 seats, CPI M secured 50 seats with 50% vote share, Congress 10 seats with 35% vote share and BJP Zero with around 2% vote share. In 2018 Tirupura election, CPI- M got only 16 seats with vote share of 43%, Congress Zero with below 2 % vote share, while BJP + got  43 seats with vote share of around 50%.  BJP + achievement had pushed Congress into oblivion – almost achieving BJP’s aim of ‘Congress Mukt north east’ and Com...

Scam happened at PNB’s mid corporate branch at Brady House, Mumbai. The fraud was being continuously perpetuated for a period of 7 years without being detected from the year 2011 till January 2018. The main instruments of fraud were LOUs (Letter of Undertakings) and FLCs (Foreign Letter of Credits).  LOU is being termed as Letter of Understanding or Letter of Undertaking by various sources reporting this scam – even here for such important financial document, the financial pundit does not want to stick to one specific terminology! Even LC is termed as Letter of Comfort and Letter of Credit, but, term - Letter of Credit is popular. This scam is not a single banking transaction confined to one Branch though originated from one Branch – but, many financial documents, many transactions, many foreign banks – at different periods spread over 7 long years at present mainly two foreign Indian Branches viz. Allahabad Bank at Hong Kong (Main chosen Indian Bank to avail for...