The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. President Pranab Mukherjee approved the Cabinet's recommendation for President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh after political turmoil.
2. Authorities stopped dozens of female activists from entering a temple in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, preventing an attempt to end a custom of prohibiting women from its inner sanctum.
3. An Indian Air Force shot down an unidentified "balloon-like" object over Rajasthan.
The Big Story: Constitutional Breakdown
President Pranab Mukherjee has added his stamp to the Cabinet's declaration of President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh, with the Opposition crying that this is a "murder of democracy." It can be nobody's case that things in the state are all hunky dory, even though embattled Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has asked the Centre to show even one instance of a breakdown in law and order. What is evident is that the political crisis in the state has properly boiled over.
Splinter Members of Legislative Assembly from the Congress party allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party and demanded Tuki's resignation. This led to a legal mess, which has now resulted in President's Rule for the state and a focus on important legislative matters being considered by the judiciary. The Supreme Court will on Wednesday consider a petition from the Congress against the recommendation and imposition of President's Rule.
That petition might have some pull on technical grounds: There are suggestions that Arunachal's Governor did not take appropriate legal advice before attempting to advance the Assembly session and later while recommending President's Rule. But there is no doubt about a crisis in the state, with Tuki attempting to stave off an Assembly session in an effort to bring back a few rebel MLAs and survive a no-confidence test. Even if the Supreme Court decides that the President's Rule was improperly applied, Arunachal's political crisis is not going away.
The Big Scroll:Ipsita Chakravarty writes, in a previous Daily Fix, that central intervention in Arunchal is not needed at this point. Politicking & Policying
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Chief Justice of India TS Thakur is correct when he says the Supreme Court should not entertain frivolous litigants nor should it tolerate “private interest litigation” initiated at the behest of corporate rivals. But is the Reliance Jio one such case? Or is there “public interest” involved in finding out whether a scarce and precious natural resource that belongs to the people of India – telecom spectrum – was allocated and priced for the benefit of a privileged few?
