-NDTV Eight opposition members of parliament, arbitrarily suspended from the Rajya Sabha, spent last night at a protest dharna at the foot of the Gandhi statue within the compound of parliament. The conduct of the government and its officials in the Rajya Sabha, which led to such a development, brings it no credit. The country was denied the opportunity to witness the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday when the...

-Livemint.com * The upcoming kharif harvest season will put the new regime to test and farm unrest may spread beyond Punjab and Haryana if crop prices take a hit NEW DELHI: The new legislations that look to rejig India’s vast and fragmented agriculture markets together with Amendments to the Essential Commodities Act are significant structural changes brought in by the Narendra Modi government. So far protests by farmers have largely concentrated in...

-The Hindu The historic Fundamental Rights case prevented the nation from slipping into a totalitarian regime Kesavananda Bharati Swamiji, the sole unwitting petitioner in the historic Fundamental Rights case which prevented the nation from slipping into a totalitarian regime, died on Sunday. He was 80. Though the judgment is a landmark, the Swamiji did not win any relief in the case. The Amendments in the Kerala land reforms law which he had challenged...

-Scroll.in Mining companies stand to benefit from one of the Amendments being pushed through without proper public consultation. India’s mining law enables the government to recover 100% of the value of minerals extracted illegally. Based on this provision, in August 2017, the Supreme Court of India ordered the recovery of Rs 17,576 crore from mining companies that had extracted iron ore and manganese in Odisha in violation of environmental laws. If the Modi...

-Down to Earth The ordinance does not expressly define ‘extraordinary circumstances’: Such legislative ambiguity makes one question the entire exercise of introducing this particular provision As the Union government announced massive reforms as part of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief package, attention went to three agriculture sector ordinances related to farmers’ trade, contract farming and Amendments in the Essential Commodities Act. While each of the three ordinances have far-reaching implications from legal...