The Supreme Court on Friday quite rightly stayed an Andhra Pradesh High Court order that sought to convene a judicial inquiry into whether there is a “constitutional breakdown” in the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government in the State. The top court’s intervention must be welcomed as it quickly halted an untenable adventure by the High Court that might have required the imposition of President’s Rule. While hearing habeas corpus petitions filed by relatives of persons remanded in judicial custody or on bail, on October 1, the High Court had suo motu summoned the State counsel to assist in deciding “whether in circumstances prevailing in the State of Andhra Pradesh, the court can record a finding that there is constitutional breakdown in the State or not”. This was clearly a case of judicial over-reach by the A.P. High Court. The question of a “constitutional breakdown” or the failure of constitutional machinery is dealt with under Article 356 of the Constitution, whose invoking comes
On Saturday, global personal technology major Apple placed all fresh production orders on hold for its Taiwanese supplier Wistron. This embargo may affect all Wistron units, but the trigger was one of the biggest expressions of industrial unrest in India in recent years — at a new facility set up by the firm in Kolar, Karnataka, to manufacture iPhones, among other things. Violence broke out at the unit on December 12 after several workers raised slogans protesting against non-payment of their dues, a protest that escalated. In Kolar, Wistron claimed ₹437 crore of damages from the incident even as the Centre and the State government reacted with alacrity, given the importance of the project for India to establish its credentials as an alternative manufacturing base to China. The State said it was disturbed and around 160 people were arrested. The Centre asked the B.S. Yediyurappa administration for an expeditious inquiry to identify the culprits and ensure that investor sentiment is not
Mini Krishnan
Why do some memories from half-a-century ago seem brighter and clearer than what happened last year? From apparently nowhere pops up the name of a person long forgotten or the colour of the binding of an old book. Patterns of memory seem to have no logic at all.When we were eight or nine, my twin, Ravi, and I, fired by stories about the Lone Ranger, Tarzan, Ramses II in the Ten Commandments, incidents from the Mahabharata and tips from watching school theatre, began to stage home plays. I don’t
