Bringing an aggressive outlook to the ministry of rural development, Jairam Ramesh, who took charge of the portfolio in July, has attempted to address and fast-track contentious issues such as the proposed land acquisition legislation and the census for identifying households below the poverty line (BPL). Ramesh spoke in an interview about his blueprint for the ministry and revisiting controversial elements, including identifying the poor and poverty caps imposed by...
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Government's new approach to Anna fast
Anna Hazare has reached Ramlila Maidan to continue his fast. Along his route, Delhi is out in big numbers to cheer the man India is looking at as the icon of the war against corruption. Watching keenly, is the UPA government, battered by the events of the last few days and in desperate need of a concrete strategy to meet the Anna challenge. In its new approach, sources say, the government...
More »Prof. Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow at the CSDS interviewed by Revati Laul
You said that the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies conducted a survey asking people what they felt about street protest. What did you find? One of the first national representative surveys was the National Election Study held in 1971. This is when a protest culture was beginning to take shape in the country. There was the Naxalite movement and also a time when the Congress was dislodged for the...
More »South Asian human rights forum condemns Hazare arrest
-IANS South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) has condemned the arrest of social activist Anna Hazare and others before they launched their agitation for an effective Lokpal Bill as "ultra vires" of the Indian constitution. SAHR chairperson Hina Jilani of Pakistan said in a statement that in a democracy all citizens have a right to protest peacefully and the government must uphold the citizens' fundamental right of speech and expression. "This act of...
More »Hazare is no Gandhi by Salil Tripathi
Until about a year ago, the number of Indians who knew the name of Kisan Baburao Hazare, popularly known as Anna Hazare, ran into a few thousand -- small change in a country of a billion people. The former army driver was known for his peculiar experiments of social reform in a village in Maharashtra, in western India. He had received national awards for his social work. By the end of...
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