-The Hindu   West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, warned organisations glorifying Maoists that the government would take action against them anytime. Ms. Banerjee also gave a justification, for the first time in six months, as to why she could not keep her promise of force withdrawal from the Jangalmahal Addressing a press meet at the State Secretariat, she said the government still hoped that good sense would prevail upon the...

Many people including members of Team Anna have expressed reservations about the way in which their campaign has been developing, and some have even resigned. This raises questions about the real aim of the leadership around Anna. Is it really what it is proclaimed to be? Is the aim to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed by parliament? Team Anna has repeatedly stated that they have just a one-point agenda: to get...

Gail Omvedt, an America-born Indian, is a social anthropologist trained in the radical academic setting of the University of California during the angry 1960s and the tumultuous 1970s. Her doctoral thesis on the “Non-Brahman movement in western India, 1873-1920” set the stage for her engagement with the subcontinent. Today, first-rate professionals are making a beeline for the West, but in Omvedt we have an instance of the ‘reverse flow' happening some...

-The Hindustan Times   Of the 72 students of Budhamunda Village Primary School in Belpada block, just half line up for morning prayers in their crumpled, unwashed uniform. What about the rest? “Many of my friends have migrated with their parents to work in brick kilns. I will also follow them in a few days,” said Dipakanta Pradhan (10), a student of class 3. The scene was the same at an anganwadi (mother and child)...

‘Government afraid of civil society groups' Irom Sharmila, whose fast will enter the 12th year on Saturday, was produced on Friday in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal East, on the completion of her one-year detention. The law under which she is detained permits the authority to detain her for one year at one go. As she refused to break her world-record fast she was remanded in judicial custody for...