Pages

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Personal Laws on the basis of Religion - A Trap





Supreme Court asked the government to file a copy of the report of a committee that is inquiring into personal laws relating to marriage, divorce and custody. Unsurprisingly, the uniform civil code (UCC) debate has been revived. The nationalists want a UCC to further their cultural majoritarian project. They cite the directive in Article 44 of the Constitution requiring the state to “endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code”. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) sees the continued existence of Muslim personal law as a symbol of a distinct Indian Muslim identity and an area of law with divine sanction and, therefore, beyond the purview of temporal government. It uses the constitutional guarantee of the “right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion”.






Between these intransigent outposts stands the baffled liberal citizen. She worries about the AIMPLB’s indifference to another constitutional right in Article 15, which prohibits the state from discrimination on the grounds of sex, and rejects the claimed divine immunity because it is contrary to public reason. She is also skeptical of the Hindu right’s hypocritical use of the anti-discrimination argument, given its predilection to enforce gender norms and indifference to the discriminatory tax implications of the Hindu Undivided Family. Often forgotten are nuanced interventions by the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, the All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board, Awaaz-e-Niswaan, and countless individual litigants.




Source - http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-trap-of-personal-laws-uniform-civil-code-aimplb-supreme-court-2775249/

Friday, June 24, 2016

We, The People. ... saw 400 deaths everyday in 2015 Road Accidents!


An official report, released by Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday, said 1.46 lakh people were killed in road accidents in India in 2015 — an increase of five per cent from 2014.

Road accidents, as a whole, rose 2.5 per cent during 2015 to 5.01 lakh or 374 accidents every day, claiming 400 lives, the report said.

Majority (54.1 per cent) of those killed in 2015 were in the age group of 15-34. Thirteen States, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, accounted for the highest number of accidents. Among cities, while Mumbai had the highest number of accidents (23,468), Delhi saw the most number of such deaths (1,622).

Also, drivers’ fault was responsible for 77.1 per cent of the accidents, deaths and injuries, mainly because of overspeeding, the report noted.

So many were not killed even in wars, epidemic and militancy,” Mr. Gadkari said.

Source: http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/146-lakh-lives-lost-on-indian-roads-last-year/article8710699.ece