-The Hindu   CM: adopted Maoist tactics during June 22 protest “Also associated with ULFA front organisations” Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday alleged that the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) led by the arrested RTI activist and farmers' leader, Akhil Gogoi, had links with Maoists. Mr. Akhil Gogoi was arrested in connection with the June 22 incidents in the city during a protest programme seeking halt to eviction of city hill settlers led...

-PTI   Nearly 121 central government employees, including one from CBI, are under Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) scanner for their alleged involvement in corrupt practices. Railway ministry topped the list with 23 officials under CVC scanner, 17 are from DoT, 12 from Bureau of Indian Standards, seven from Central Board of Excise and Customs, six each from DDA and MCD among others, a CVC report said. The anti-corruption watchdog recommended major penalty against...

The government is returning to a 1970s mentality. This mentality used a presumptive distrust of citizens as an excuse for enhancing state power. It sought accountability, not through intelligently designed transparency norms, but greater discretionary power in state officials. And finally, it sought to curb citizens’ freedoms, not by directly assaulting them, but by embedding them in a structure of regulation that deters free expression. This mentality connects three recent sets...

This paper was presented at the Regional Workshop on War on Terror and Asian Democracy 17 May 2011, Kim Dae-Jung Convention Centre, South Korea organised by Solidarity for Democratization Movement in Asia (SDMA) Introduction In the discourse on terrorism and counter terrorism, September 11 stands as a watershed because of the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001. Government of India (GoI) also took full advantage of the ‘War on Terror’...

Civil society” has dominated popular discussion for the last few months. It may be hard to recall how rare the use of the term was only some years back. In 2002, when I published a book analysing the role of civil society in preventing, dampening or inciting communal riots, I was asked in a television interview whether I was overstating the power of civil society vis-à-vis the state. And in...