Every since the July 2012 blackout, which occurred on July 30th 2012 and July 31st 2012 affecting 620 million people in north, east and north eastern India, the power situation in the state has turned abysmal. Perhaps the stringent norms adopted after the blackout for both the gencos (generation companies) and discoms (Distribution companies) have led to this situation because unlike the previous period, excess drawal (Drawing electricity more than what you declare to the load dispatch...

Recently two reports were widely circulated in Indian media that a Pakistan based militant group is ready to venture into Kashmir and second “Can India become a great power”. While India has fixed its binoculars on Kashmir what it is forgetting that resentment of its 200 million Muslims is increasing. The State believes that in order to keep Hindus glued together Muslims must be portrayed as agent provocateur.

If according to reports Lashkar-E-Toiba has to come they will most probably...

Death of two Kashmiris - Afzal Guru and Mohammed Ali Murtaza, speech of Dr Shabir Choudhry in a seminar in the UN Human Rights Session in Geneva

Seminar arranged by International Committee for the Respect and Application of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights ICRAC (CIRAC) during 22nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva

Title of the seminar: Human rights in South Asia 12 March 1213

 

Mr Chairman, friends and colleagues Aslamo alaikam

Despite remarkable work...

The JnK Police bill, 2013 has been put in public domain for discussion. The currret bill stems from the Supreme Court's judgement titled Prakash Singh and Ors v Union of India WP (Civil) No. 310 of 1996. In this case the petitioner challenged the non-implementation of police reforms as recommended by the National Police Commision in 1981. In this case Court finally gave directions to make the police accountable in accordance to the rule of law. The recommendation of the Supreme Court are...

"An advocate, by the sacred duty which he owes to his client, knows in the discharge of that office but one person in the world- the client, and no other…to protect that client at all hazards and costs to all others, and among others to himself, is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties…..Nay, separating even the duties of a patriot from those of an advocate, and casting them if need be to the wind, he must go on reckless of the consequences…” - Lord Brougham, “Law and...

“(I)t is clear enough that under certain conditions men respond,” wrote Walter Lippmann in his seminal book ‘Public Opinion’, “as powerfully to fictions as they do to realities, and that in many cases they help to create the very fictions to which they respond.”

On Jan 30, 1971 an obsolete Indian airlines flight ‘Ganga’ was hijacked by Hashim Quershi who landed it on Pakistani soil. All the passengers were either Indian service personnel or their families. They were released...

Law is institutional normative order. Institutions have walls, sometimes literal, sometimes figurative – that keep things out. Unfortunately in the case of Afzal Guru, the judiciary seems to have given in to a narrative alignment and it has caused a shift in the ordinary course of law.

The first apparent evidence that there has been a ‘narrative alignment’ is when the court expressed itself that “the collective conscience of the (sic) society will only be satisfied if the (sic)...

There is a Spartan war to every Democracy. The question here is "Who is your Sparta?".

World's first democracy began in 5th century BC Athens, 2500 years ago, lasted around 150 years, and was replaced by thousands of years of monarchies. This democracy of the New World is around 200 years old and some countries like India(60 years, Bhutan(5 years) are relatively new democracies. These systems of governance don't remain for long. They die out due to corruption, decadence, internal politics or...