'The Rajasthan human rights commission has said that women who live with their partners before marriage are “like concubines”, and that live-in relationships should be legislated again to “protect women”. “It is the responsibility of the government and human rights organisations to protect women from the harms of live-in relationship through intensive awareness campaigns,” an order issued by the commission’s chairperson, Justice Prakash Tatia, and member, Justice Mahesh Chand Sharma, said.
'The Election Commission and manufacturing companies are reluctant to place detailed information about the working of EVMs and VVPATs beyond what they decide that the citizenry must know... In June, 2019 I had sought detailed information about electronic voting machines (EVMs), voter verified paper trail (VVPAT) units and symbol loading units (SLUs), from Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) by filing identical requests under the RTI Act.
'In Anchar, a volatile Srinagar neighbourhood and the epicentre of ongoing protests, local boys used forceps to take pellets out their wounds, fearful that a trip to the hospital could land them in jail. The upscale locality in the city is aghast over reading down of Article 370, which accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir. According to locals, around 200 youth have been wounded in teargas shelling and pellet firing by the security forces since August 5, the day the government of India stripped the state of its autonomous status.
'On August 31, Kashmiri journalist and author Gowhar Geelani was stopped by immigration authorities at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport as he was heading to Germany. Geelani, who works as an editor at German media organisation Deutsche Welle, was to attend a training programme in Bonn. Geelani said that the immigration official did not give him any reasons for stopping him but they kept repeating one line: “Aapko pata hai dikkat hai Kashmir mein” – You know there is a problem in Kashmir.
'Fourteen years after the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the state and central governments entered into a tripartite agreement in New Delhi to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC), 1951, as per the exclusive citizenship cut-off date of March 27, 1971 for Assam, the revised NRC was published by the office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) this August 31. As per a press note issued by the office of the state coordinator for NRC in Guwahati on August 31, a total of 3,11,21,004 persons were included in the final NRC out of the 3,30,27,661 applicants.
'On a cold December morning in 2018, a strange event occurred on the grounds of D.E.S. Navalmal Firodia Law College in Pune. The staff was gingerly led into their staff room for an unexpected meeting. The room was crowded with extra chairs and the doors were closed. Inside the room stood solemn-faced police officials flanked by members from the college’s senior management. The management began the meeting with a patriotic song that somehow led to a speech on nationalism and how it was time to repay one's debt to the motherland.
'Millions of people in north-eastern India could lose their citizenship on Saturday in what could become the biggest exercise in forced statelessness in living memory. Human rights experts have raised serious concern over the drive against suspected illegal immigrants in the border state of Assam, warning it could create a humanitarian crisis that disproportionately affects Muslims and the region’s poorest communities. Around 30 million people in Assam have been forced to prove they are citizens by demonstrating that they have roots in the state dating to before March 1971.
'Lt Colonel Dharamveer Singh had raised a flag over alleged fake encounters in Northeast. He is now facing court martial for insubordination and keeping unaccounted arms... In September 2016, a sensitive situation reached the offices of Indian Army’s Eastern Command in Kolkata. One of its officers, Lt Colonel Dharamveer Singh of the Special Forces, alleged that a team of an army intelligence unit in Nagaland had committed fake encounters and dacoity against civilians in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland in 2010 and 2011.
'During the recent parliamentary debate on the National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act had been repealed in 2004 not because it had been misused but to safeguard vote bank politics. This, despite the fact that the misuse of POTA is well established and its repeal in 2004 was welcomed as a significant step by India towards recognising that counter-terrorism cannot justify the violation of civil liberties and rights of citizens.
'A police constable was beaten on Friday evening in Vadodara city allegedly by the religious hardliners of the majority community... The victim, Arif Ismail Shaikh (44), said that he was attacked without any provocation when he was travelling back to home at around 8.30 pm. “I made a mistake by not covering my face this time,” said Shaikh, adding that he usually covers his face while stepping out of his home. Shaikh is a constable with the Gujarat Police... The FIR was registered after hours of tussle.
