OPINION

The turn of events in Bihar last week, which saw reinstallation of Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister, albeit with the support of the BJP, could not have come at a better time. The state, after having fought and overcome the ills of 15-year-long Rabri-Lalu Raj, was again slipping back into what has been called the era of “Jungle Raj”.

Without going into the merits of the charge brought against Nitish Kumar of being politically dishonest towards Lalu Yadav and family, as somebody whose interest lies in the progress of the state, release of Nitish Kumar from Rashtriya Janata Dal’s cobweb for your reporter is good news.

The separation of Nitish Kumar from Lalu Yadav, should also bring good tidings for erstwhile Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who mentored him in his early days after he broke away from Janata Dal with George Fernandes; and the two together formed the Samata Party. George and Kumar became vital clogs in the formation of NDA I governments led by Vajpayee in 1990s.

Breastfeeding lays a sound foundation for healthy life during infancy/child-hood as well as the later years of life. Every child needs to be provided adequate nutrition, care, protection, love and affection for his/her proper growth and development. As per WHO and UNICEF, breastfeeding must be initiated within the first hour of birth; and that colostrum (thick, yellowish and sticky but highly nutritious secretion) must be fed to the baby.                                                                                                                                                                              Further, that the infant should be exclusively breastfed (only breast milk and no additional food or drink, not even water) for the first 6 months; breastfeeding should be on demand; use of bottles, teats or pacifiers prohibited; and after 6 months, she/he should be given age-appropriate complementary foods along with continued breastfeeding uptil 2 years or beyond. 

AADHAAR and its biometric features are at the centre of a raging controversy with the issue being looked into by the Supreme Court. The SC on 9^th July created a 9 member panel headed by Justice Khehar to look into the possibility of the Right to Privacy being granted a Fundamental Rights status.

This came after several petitioners moved the court that the 12 digit Aadhaar card which also contains fingerprint and iris scans infringed on their privacy and raised serious security concerns regarding the breach of privacy. The petitioners had completed their argument in the apex court on July 20.

Currently the Central Government has been claiming and operating under the premise that the Right to Privacy is merely a common law right and not a fundamental right.

However, on 26^th July, the Centre represented by Attorney General KK Venugopal conceded in the SC that there is a fundamental right to privacy but that it is wholly qualified. A wholly qualified right is one where government interference is allowed in special circumstances, and only when necessary in a democratic society, as opposed to an absolute right, which cannot be limited, reduced or amended in any way.

According to Advocate Gopal Subramaniam who is representing the petitioners opposing the Centre in the SC, privacy is enshrined in the spirit of the constitution even if not mentioned explicitly. Article 19 contains the basic Fundamental Rights but Article 21 -Protection of Life and Personal Liberty- is a residuary right and privacy is embedded in all processes of human life and liberty.

 President Pranab Mukherjee has demitted a few hours back. His presidency  was the culmination of extraordinary career of a political leader. India has seen  a few politicians like him who had the capacity to evolve into a statesman  irrespective of their political affiliation and the office that they held. Pranabda is  one such leader who brought dignity to every office that he held. 

 My first contact with him started when he, along with Dr Manmohan Singh, was  occupying the Opposition benches during the Vajpayee Government. He  chaired important Standing Committees which had the responsibility of clearing  several legislations. Three of them were important Constitution amendments.    One related to the freezing of seats in the Lok Sabha and the State  Legislatures despite demographic changes in several States. The second  involved review of the Anti-Defection Law. The third one dealt with limiting the  size of the Council of Ministers both in the Centre and the States. His  Committee expeditiously considered these amendments and improved upon the drafts that the Government had prepared and produced a much better document. He evolved a consensus on all these issues. Even in Opposition, he was never an obstructionist. He was a product of the parliamentary system and favoured using Parliament for larger national interest. 

In his later years, I closely observed him both as a Member and subsequently as a Leader of the Opposition. His natural ability was to rise above partisan arguments. In Parliament, he almost spoke like an amicus curiae — a friend of the House, rather than a party leader. This quality enabled him to evolve a consensus in favour of the argument that he advanced. Very rarely did he lose his cool, but if he did, he was smiling a minute later and making up with his target through some complimentary references.

Hepatitis - an inflammatory disease of the liver is caused due to viral infection. In 2015, it led to nearly 1.34 million deaths worldwide (almost equivalent to that caused by tuberculosis); most of the viral hepatitis deaths being due to chronic liver disease/primary liver cancer (mortality due to cirrhosis - 720,000; hepatocellular carcinoma - 470,000). Over time, mortality due to viral hepatitis is yet on a rise.