-PTI   The National Advisory Council (NAC) has prescribed a seven-point test for a having a humane legislation on land acquisition and rehabilitation. In a letter to the government, the NAC chaired by Sonia Gandhi, has suggested a check list of seven parameters which includes provisions for a rehabilitation package that is sensitive to the aspirations of the affected people. NAC’s check list Does it discourage forced displacement? Does it minimise adverse impacts on people,...

In reply to a question about his views of “western civilisation”, Gandhi is said to have remarked: “It is a good idea!” The resurgence of “civil society” in the past two decades has led to similar ironic comments: “Are the rest then uncivil?” and the like. But there is a serious question that needs articulation and addressal to make the current debate meaningful. Just what is civil society, and how...

Victims have not forgotten the following brutal tragedies in the life of independent India, even if the State and political parties may pretend to have. 1984—Delhi: On October 31, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards in revenge for ‘Operation Bluestar’. For the next three days, as Doordarshan telecast the lying in state of her body, over 3000 Sikhs—men and boys—were burnt alive while policemen, politicians and...

A day after it announced issuing an ordinance to reclaim disputed land at Singur, the Mamata Banerjee government on Friday said it would not notify the ordinance, but would instead place it as a Bill in the ensuing Assembly session. The session, which was earlier slated to commence from June 24, will now start on June 13. Ms. Banerjee told reporters at the Secretariat: “The Ordinance is not being brought into...

-The Hindu   A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her government had issued an ordinance to reclaim the land at Singur that had been acquired for the since-relocated Tata Motors small car project, a delegation of Left Front legislators met Governor M. K. Narayanan here on Friday to point out that according to the Constitution an ordinance could not be promulgated when the Assembly was in...