News Wrap

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The 11 november 2021, historical decision of India’s Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice NURamana, will ensure that India get its first openly gay judge. The apex court decision to elevate Kirpal to the Delhi High Court comes after hesitation in the highest echelon of the judiciary and government. The High Court of Delhi, which has a sanctioned strength of 60 judges, is presently working with 30 judges. Kirpal is the son of chief justice Bhuponder Nath Kirpal, and studied law at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He returned to India following brief stint at the United Nations, Geneva.

CPI(M) Veteran Biman Bose
In order to pave the way for new faces in the leadership, CPM veteran and West Bengal’s Left Front chairman Biman Bose wants to be “relieved” from all “party committees”. At Haringhata in Nadia district on 22 November 2021, Bose now 81 advised the party to repose faith in younger leaders, and felt it would be unethical to continue in the leadership anymore. New young faces had once played the role in developing the party. People like MN Roy were there, below thirty then. Even, on the matter of attending district conferences, he would go wherever state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra advises. He would do whatever work the leadership asks him to do. Though not in any committee, he would remain in the party, and obey all the directives and do the job, the party leadership asks him to do.

Migrant Camps
On 19 November 2021, Polish authorities claimed that no more migrants are camping along the Belarus side of the European Union’s eastern border. Attempt at illegally crossing into the bloc’s territory is continuing unabated. Anna Michalaska of Poland’s Border Guard claimed that around 50 migrants got through a fence into Poland on 18 November 2021. They included a family of five, who said they wanted to stay and live in Poland, opening a procedure towards settlement. The other will have to return to Belarus. Again large groups of migrants were forcibly prevented from entering. Some migrants have thrown stones, and used branches to hit Polish border guards. Hundreds of Iraqis flew back home on 18 November 2021, from Belarus, after abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union. Still, many migrants hoping to reach European soil, remain in a heated house, that Belarus recently made available, near the border. The migrants had been camping in a cold and wet forest, since 08 November 2021. Tensions flared at the Poland-Belarus border in recent days, with about 2000 people trapped between forces from the two countries. The United Nations says about half the migrants at the border area were women and children. Western powers have accused Belarus President Alexander Lukahenko of using the migrants as pawns to destabilise the EU, in retaliation for its sanctions on his authoritarian regime. Belarus denies engineering the crisis, which has seen migrants entering the country since summer 2020, and then trying to cross into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.

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Frontier
Vol. 54, No. 25, Dec 19 - 25, 2021