Editorial, "CHANGING POWER ALIGNMENTS," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 31 December 2020, Vol. 16, Part 2, No. 24 issue

 CHANIGING POWER ALIGNMENTS

in the international scenario, at so fast a pace, are alarming developments for peace and stability in the world. It is indeed very disturbing that the bright prospects of friendship and peace between us India and China indicated in the Modi-Xi Mahabalipuram talks in October 2019 changed so suddenly within 6-8 months due to the jingoist border policies/measures of the communal fanatic central government, perhaps in spite of Modi, to a serious conflict climate. Likewise the belligerent policies and measures of Trump, who unjustly makes China his ‘whipping boy’, have also, or in the main, contributed to a cold war situation with China and to an extent with Russia too. America, through Trump’s brash talk, but no less supported, and even exacerbated, by the ‘president-elect’ Biden’s aggressive postures, has been almost itching for a war with China, and started a serious trade war already with a number of sanctions, solely due to the jealousy of losing its status of the only superpower in the world due to China’s unparalleled growth in the last decade or so. It may also be noted that, despite Trump’s soft attitude, the American deep state has forced him into confrontation with Russia too and, instead of lifting the sanctions imposed by the Obama regime, he more vitiated the climate by his unwarranted support to Zionist chauvinism and the near terrorist tirade against Iran. Here too the Modi Government, with no discussion/debate at all in the Parliament, let alone in the public forums, has hastily shoved us into the US-NATO-Israel evil axis, shedding our traditional support to the just Palestinian causes in that most conflict-ridden region of the world. Now these fools have also forgone the bright prospects/profits we can have by shunning the recently concluded Asia-Pacific accord led by China, the world’s largest trade deal, in which many countries, even Australia and Japan, wisely joined. Instead they are egging on for a serious confrontation with China, by tagging our country to the warship of QUAD nations. Glad to note, however, that Russia and China have now joined hands for countering the imperialist, hegemonic frenzy of this evil axis, and for reshaping the world into a multi-polar, peace-loving union of diverse, self-respecting nations working for the cause of peace and welfare of entire humanity, and hope our people will also rise against the current bigot policies and measures of our government and join the tryst for such much-desired destiny. §§§

Editorial, "FARM LAWS (2020) AND FARMERS' AGITATION," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15 December 2020, Vol. 16, Part 2, No. 23 issue

FARM LAWS (2020) AND FARMERS’ AGITATION

That the recently enacted three farm laws to facilitate the free trade of agricultural produce all over India as also to promote the private/corporate sector’s role in this arena, were resented by a large section of the people one always knew but it was beyond anybody’s guess that it would snowball into so large an agitation blockading the national capital Delhi. In one sense it is a welcome development in that the farmers have bravely stood on their feet and defiantly marched for their just demands in this regard, but, in another sense, it is quite disturbing too as it is very much infested by Khalistani separatists so far as the main Punjab detachment is concerned and the farmers in rest of India seem to have not much grievance or fury against these laws though several farmers/organizations there also did/are seeking to add fuel to the fire. The protests organized in some big cities of the US and the West point to the role of the Khalistanis supported by Pakistan in this regard. All of us know how badly we suffered due to the Khalistani terrorist menace in the 1980s and are shocked by the extremist declarations of reaching the present PM Modi the same ‘fate’ as suffered by our former PM Indira Gandhi. To quote from the preamble of one of these farm acts, it is said these are “to provide for the creation of an ecosystem where the farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice relating to sale and purchase of farmers’ produce which facilitates remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels; to promote efficient, transparent and barrier-free inter-State and intra-State trade and commerce of farmers’ produce outside the physical premises of markets or deemed markets notified under various State agricultural produce market legislations; to provide a facilitative framework for electronic trading and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.” Not a wrong or unjust motive, but in this editor’s opinion these suffer from two main lacunae – one, the assurance of Minimum Support Price (MSP) to agricultural products of many varieties (not just the 23 or so notified so far), including perishable goods, has to be incorporated in these laws with an undertaking by governments to purchase at least 50% of the produce at MSP from the farmers if so necessitated. Secondly, the States’ sovereign rights and powers should be protected/promoted by suitable amendments to let them levy duties on imports/exports of agricultural produce to/from their states. Otherwise the present quasi-federal structure of the country itself may be seriously jeopardized by fissiparous tendencies. §§§ 

Editorial, "ELECTRONIC MACHINES, ELECTION FRAUDS," in LAW ANIMATED WORLD, 15-30 November 2020, Vol. 16, Part 2, No. 21-22, special issue

ELECTRONIC MACHINES, ELECTION FRAUDS

With the current presidential [re-]election fiasco in the USA and the stubborn, refusing-to-concede, President Donald Trump countering the so-called ‘President-Elect’ Joe Biden, the political focus worldwide has shifted again toward the propriety and reliability of using electronic machines in election processes – be those voting or counting machines. Even in India, we feel that, widespread rigging was conducted incognito through electronic voting machines in 2014 elections, but more so in the 2019 central and states’ elections, which had tilted the balance toward some established parties to a great extent; as such, since long, we have been calling for going back to the paper ballot. It is significant to note that in developed democracies in the West, paper ballot is cherished more and electronic voting is not used, or now shunned, in most of them, including France and Germany, mainly due to cybersecurity concerns. In the recent US presidential elections, not only electronic voting but even counting machines seem to have played havoc and were manipulated to alter a definite win for the incumbent president to the so-called ‘victory’ for a corrupt and inept ‘president-elect’. President Trump is inflexibly resisting this fraudulent outcome and litigating in several courts with lots of evidence regarding electoral frauds and we wish all success to his efforts. The Dominion Voting machines, of Venezuelan origin, notorious for their alleged rigging of elections in Venezuela, have been used in the Swing States by the Democrats’ controlled cities and lakhs of votes were manipulated. The other big problem was the mail-in-votes fraud; lakhs of falsely signed mail-in-votes dumps suddenly emerged to  enable the losing Biden attain slender majorities by the next morning. Hence, even now, the said swing states’ legislatures can disregard this so-called ‘popular vote’ [including by the dead, non-resident, non-existing etc. mail-in voters] as a fraud on the people and send all electors for Trump by the time Electoral College finally meets on 14 December; that is neither unconstitutional nor illegal. Further, we may note that the unincorporated remote territory of Guam had, by public law 28-152, prohibited any sort of electronic voting ever since 2006 though it allowed counting machines. However, present developments show that even the counting machines are capable of flipping-the-votes, etc. frauds. So, unless the cybersecurity concerns are properly addressed in all or at least several major democracies in the world, electornic voting and counting should be strictly prohibited; and the mail-in-votes also must be limited to specific categories of people like government servants, armed forces, senior citizens of advanced age, seriously ailing handicapped persons etc. and that too with strict scrutiny standards as followed in our Indian postal ballot system. §§§