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The verdict of a five-judge Constitution bench on politicians with criminal antecedents was the talk of the town this morning. Not only because we are in the election season, but because the verdict will definitely have important consequences in a bewildering polity such as ours.
The Times of India report emphasises the part of the verdict that said “election candidates, after filing their nominations, should repeatedly make declarations in print and electronic media at the constituency level about any criminal antecedents”.
The court’s decision to lay the onus of disqualification on Parliament triggered a mixed reaction. In its editorial, The Indian Express praises the court for not venturing into the legislative’s domain, writing, “While showing a welcome inclination to not step out of its domain, the SC has asked Parliament to come up with a law to check the criminalisation of politics.”
Giving a thumbs-up to the verdict, The Times of India writes, “Criminalisation of politics accompanied by rising influence of money and muscle power pose a fundamental threat to democracy. But half-baked and drastic solutions like disqualifying those charged by courts as sought by the petitioners are not the answer.”
In the Hindustan Times, Milan Vaishnav says the courts cannot absolve themselves by pushing the ball into Parliament’s court.
But for the Hindustan Times, the expected verdict of the SC on Aadhaar takes precedence over Tuesday’s judgment, with the lead story’s headline reading “SC to deliver Aadhaar verdict today”
Certainly, the Aadhaar verdict will have enormous repercussions on our polity as well. While the highest court holds Aadhaar constitutionally valid, it destroys the government’s determination to create an omnipresent state, in which it is both omnipresent and omniscient. For the moment, the Supreme Court hasn’t allowed this to happen. Justice YV Chandrachud, however, who would not have any of it, stated in his dissent that the Aadhaar Act violated Article 14 of the Constitution.
The Modi government may or may not be licking its wounds. We will see.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh Tuesday along with BJP president Amit Shah and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Nearly all the major English dailies had similar headlines: The Indian Express writes, “Failing at home, Congress looks at coalition abroad, it’s a burden: PM Modi in Madhya Pradesh”. The Times of India reports, “Cong trying to forge foreign alliances: Modi at MP poll rally”.
For a second, the PM’s blistering attack against the Congress gave the impression that he was in the opposition and the Congress in power. At this ‘Karyakarta Mahakumbh’ rally in Bhopal, Modi’s focus was on the failures of the erstwhile Congress governments and not the achievements of his four-year-old administration.
The term ‘termites’ seemingly enjoys deep popularity with the BJP brass. The Prime Minister said that “like termites… vote bank politics has destroyed our society”. On Sunday, BJP chief Amit Shah went a step further, and drew an analogy between the wood-eating insects and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
Criticising Shah’s reference, The Indian Express writes in an editorial, “The BJP chief’s reference to illegal migrants as termites is deplorable, it coarsens discourse, deepens divides.”
Prime Time
The true price of the Rafale deal
On his panel debate, India Today TV anchor Rajdeep Sardesai sought to know the true price of each aircraft under the Rafale deal. The Congress has alleged over the past couple of months that the Modi government had bought a jet worth Rs 526 crore for Rs 1,670 crore.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “BJP has no answer to the Rafale question, they have also no answer to how scamsters are fleeing India under Narendra Modi’s charge.”
His BJP counterpart Gaurav Bhatia hit back, “If Congress has an iota of the proof, why doesn’t it bring the proof out in the public instead of blaming BJP?”
Rehman Malik’s controversial statement
On Aaj Tak, anchor Anjana Om Kashyap asked whether it was a coincidence that Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik had expressed support for Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “This needs to be looked into.”
Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill retaliated, “Why does the BJP forget the fact that Narendra Modi attended the wedding ceremony of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s granddaughter?”
News it’s just kinda cool to know
A new discovery promises to help derive, within minutes, drinking water from water contaminated with heavy metals like lead. In a paper published in Advanced Functional Materials, Australian researchers have explained that when a chunk of aluminum is added to the core of liquid gallium at room temperature, layers of aluminum oxide are quickly produced at the surface of the gallium.