-The Hindu Does the Bill address issues of gender and identity? Does it consider the appeals and the concerns of the community? The story so far: Parliament has made into law the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, which had been framed for the welfare of transgender persons. The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 5 this year, a month after its introduction in the House, and the...

-The Telegraph The Opposition’s feebleness at this moment of crisis for our secular, democratic founding principles is deeply worrying Once the chariot starts rolling, it is difficult to stop it. The Union home minister’s announcement in Parliament last week that the National Register of Citizens will be carried out throughout the country, including Assam in the ‘natural course of events’, rang with the confidence of a rolling chariot that can ignore all...

-Press release by National Alliance of Peoples' Movements  dated 28 November, 2019 In yet another of its egregious legislative misadventures, the BJP Government with support from some other parties, passed the regressive 'Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)' Bill, in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, despite wide-spread opposition by members of the transgender, intersex and gender non-confirming communities, seeking referral of the Bill to a Select Committee. We have all been witness to...

-The Hindu State has the worst patient-doctor ratio and most number of centres without electricity, water supply or good roads New Delhi: Facing a shortfall of 2,277 doctors — against the required strength of 3,621 — and with 942 primary health centres (PHCs) working without electricity, regular water supply and all-weather motorable approach road, Uttar Pradesh’s PHCs have the worst patient:doctor ratio and infrastructure in the country to cater to the poorest...

-The Hindu If big money entirely funds elections in a secretive way, democracy as we know it will not exist The recent disclosures that the Election Commission (EC) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had expressed reservations about the Electoral Bonds scheme highlight the importance of this issue. In 2017, the then RBI Governor wrote to the then Finance Minister that “allowing any entity other than the central bank to issue...