Left, Right & Centre

We could be on the edge of history. Finally India has a chance at getting rid off the archaic law that criminalises homosexuality - Section 377 - the Supreme Court begins hearings challenging the law. Will we finally see it thrown into the dustbin, where it belongs?

Jio University, which doesn't even exist and needs to fulfil key criteria first, is a greenfield project, the government says. Many academicians say this is outrageous. There were many other more deserving institutions. Have more deserving institutions lost out or is this a storm in a tea cup?

As political parties meet the law commission over the idea of simultaneous polls, they are deeply divided on what to do. Is one nation, one poll a good idea? Can it work in a parliamentary democracy like India?

From Jayant Sinha to Giriraj Singh in the last few days union ministers have been garlanding or visiting lynching convicts and riot accused in apparent contradiction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's warnings. Why aren't his own ministers listening? Is it because they are defying him? Or does his silence now mean something else - is the state tacitly supporting these actions?

On Left Right and Centre, a story being tracked by people around the world: will 12 Thai children and their coach who have been trapped for two weeks deep inside a cave more than a kilometer below the surface survive? Four boys who are a part of a junior football team have been rescued. It has taken approximately eight hours for the first batch of children to make it to safety but while they have been rescued, little is known about their condition or how much longer it is going to take for the rescue of the others.

In a picture that has gone viral, Union Minister Jayant Sinha was seen garlanding the convicts in the Ramgarh lynching case in Jharkhand at his residence. The Minister has come under severe criticism from the opposition as well as human rights activists even though the BJP remained mum on the incident. Today, speaking out for the first time finally, he said he was only upholding the due process of law. Is this defense acceptable? Tonight on Left, Right & Centre we ask, when a union minister felicitates those convicted of lynching are we encouraging a culture of hate?

India's banking sector is in a state of panic. Over the years bad loans have mounted, willful defaulters have run away like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, and the rising NPAs are reflecting poorly on the government politically as we head into an election year. The investigating agencies are going after bankers much more aggressively for the loans they've given. The banking industry now believes there is a witch hunt where top officials are being targeted for no illegality. So is this action against banks, helping to clean the system, or is it terrorising the system instead?

Three weeks before general elections in Pakistan, former PM Nawaz Sharif is sentenced to 10 years for corruption. His daughter Maryam gets seven years in jail.

The government warns WhatsApp over rumours that have seen innocent people killed by mobs in various parts of India but how exactly will this be done?

In a big win for Indian banks, a UK court has said yes to seizing fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya's UK assests so that they can recover their money. Can India Get Mr Mallya and Nirav Modi back?