Left, Right & Centre

The Supreme Court today ruled that 11 men convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and killing her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots but released early for "good behaviour" must return to jail. Listen in to Bilkis Bano's lawyer Shobha Gupta's conversation with NDTV.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been skipping ED summons, addressed a press conference and asked why he is being summoned when the crucial general elections are just months away. The BJP said Mr Kejriwal is guilty and is hence running away from the investigation. Can Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren be arrested for failing to appear before the ED after receiving summons? Is the no-show a defiance of the rule of law? How is this optics helping AAP?

 

Eighty-two people were killed when two blasts struck the city of Kerman in Iran on Wednesday. Thousands had gathered at a cemetery to mark the fourth anniversary of the killing of senior military commander General Qassem Soleimani. The attack is one of the deadliest to have hit the country in over 50 years. Twelve nations led by the United States on Wednesday jointly warned Yemen's Houthi rebels of unspecified consequences unless they halt attacks on Red Sea shipping vessels.

A three-judge bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud has found that prison manuals in more than 10 states, including UP, Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, continue to have provisions that sanction discrimination and forced labour on the grounds of caste in prisons. The court has asked for a response from the states and the Union within four weeks.

In a huge victory for the Adani Group, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the report by the OCCRP - an organisation funded by billionaire George Soros, among others - can't be the basis for doubting the capital markets regulator SEBI's investigation into the Hindenburg case. Delivering the judgment, a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said there were no grounds to transfer the probe to a special investigation team (SIT). The court also made several other key observations. Significantly, the court ruled that reliance on newspaper reports and third-party organisations to question the statutory regulator does not inspire confidence.  On Left Right and Centre we go through the judgement in the Supreme Court with some of the country's leading lawyers, ex-SEBI officials and market experts.

Five people aboard a Japan coast guard aircraft died Tuesday when it hit a Japan Airlines passenger plane on the ground in a fiery collision at Tokyo's Haneda airport. All 379 passengers and crew on board the passenger plane which burst into flames were safely evacuated, Japanese transport minister Tetsuo Saito told reporters. But five of the six crew members from the smaller plane -- bound for central Japan after Monday's huge earthquake -- died, Saito said. On Left Right & Centre, we take a look at what went wrong.

In Manipur after violence on the first day of the new year, another spell of violence was reported from Moreh on the Myanmar border today. In the last 24 hours at least 4 persons have died and at least 15 people are injured including seven security personnel who had to be airlifted from Moreh to Imphal. Once again raising the concerns over looted automatic weapons. Watch Left Right & Centre.

 

As the country gears up for the consecration ceremony of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, invitations to attend the ceremony are being extended to several politicians, businessmen, sportspersons and prominent people from all walks of life. But the invites to political leaders seems to have once again led to a rift within the INDIA bloc. The dilemma of whether to attend or not has now taken the centrestage. Watch Left Right and Centre.

January 1, 2024, was about India starting a new mission to solve what is among the oldest mysteries of the universe - black holes. The 260-tonne rocket carries an advanced astronomy observatory meant to study black holes and neutron stars. With this, India has become the second country after the US to have such a specialised 'observatory' of this kind to study black holes. Watch Left Right and Centre.

The idea of Ram has become a central one in political discourse with the big battle for 2024 just months away. The huge crowds that came out on the streets of Ayodhya today to witness Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit are the biggest testimony to the fact that this idea resonates with people. The symbolism, however, is much bigger: the BJP is pitching for a larger social and economic prosperity that the idea of Ram represents. Watch author and former MP and diplomat Pavan K Varma decode this.