The Supreme Court’s interim order in the ongoing contestation between large sections of the farmers and the Centre over the new farm laws may be motivated by a laudable intention to break the deadlock in negotiations. However, it is difficult to shake off the impression that the Court is seeking to impose a compromise on the farmers’ unions. One portion of the order stays the three laws, seeks to maintain the Minimum Support Price as before and prevents possible dispossession of farmers of their land under the new laws. The stated reason is that the stay would “assuage the hurt feelings of the farmers” and encourage them to go to the negotiating table. However, it is somewhat disconcerting that the stay of legislation is effected solely as an instrument to facilitate the Court’s arrangement rather than on the basis of any identified legal or constitutional infirmities in the laws. The order forming a four-member committee may indeed help relieve the current tension and allay the

The recent three-day-long protest, led by Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, under the banner of the Secular Democratic Progressive Alliance, against Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi came as no surprise, given the strained ties between the two constitutional functionaries. They have been at loggerheads over many matters, most recently on the appointment of the State Election Commissioner, an office critical to holding elections to local bodies in the Union Territory. But the principal issue of contention is the implementation of direct benefit transfer in the public distribution system using cash, instead of free rice, being given to beneficiaries. The agitation was meant to highlight the demand of the Congress and its allies for the recall of the Lt Governor. As a prelude to the stir, the Chief Minister presented memoranda to President Ram Nath Kovind and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy, accusing Ms. Bedi of “functioning in an autocratic manner” and
Lead

Reclaiming SAARC from the ashes of 2020

Suhasini Haidar
Lead

The debilitating side-effect of a flawed vaccine trial

R. Prasad
 
Comment

In ancient Al-Ula, forging a new future

Talmiz Ahmad

Due process is not partisan politics

A.S. Panneerselvan

Richard Dawkins on collegemate Tiger Pataudi: ‘Sublime’

Suresh Menon

Metaphor for hope

A.S. Panneerselvan
Of all faiths The bust at the La Divina Pastora in Siparia, near Port of Spain, in Trinidad and Tobago.
Open Page

Syncretism of La Divina Pastora

Arun Sahu
Open Page

Rising to early-morning calls

Sarangapani Bashyam
Open Page

Reinventing death

Kishore Shanbhag