-The Hindu Political parties are ‘deeply concerned' and even ‘outraged' at the Supreme Court verdict that any person in custody - whether convicted or not - could not contest elections. Even as they had apprehensions, politicians had ‘cautiously welcomed' the verdict, which disqualified convicted lawmakers from holding office or contesting polls. But the judgment barring those imprisoned from fighting polls has opened up prospects of a confrontation between the judiciary and the...

-The Hindu Six years after it was set up to challenge mainstream media discourse, kafila.org has not only provided an alternative space for critical writing, but also offered a radical model of editor-less, ad-free, voluntary journalism with a zero marketing budget Aditya Nigam, an academic and activist on the left, had long been frustrated with the nature of the Indian media. In 2002, soon after the Gujarat ‘massacres', he was a part of...

-The Hindu The hostility to the UPA's food security Bill from both its allies and the Opposition stems not from substantial objections to the draft law itself but from other political grouses The decision to bring an ordinance to provide food security to 67 per cent of the country's population was received with much hostility by the Opposition parties last week. The latter seemed surprised that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) could...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: Residents of Mumbra, a suburb northeast of Mumbai and known to many as the place where Ishrat Jahan lived, suffer from a feeling of insecurity and a perception of discrimination, according to a study commissioned by the Maharashtra government's minority development department. The preliminary findings of the 2011 study, conducted by Dr Ranu Jain of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, were presented to the government Friday. The study,...

-The Hindu Extraordinarily, more than a dozen senior police officers in Gujarat are in jail or facing prosecution, in connection with cold-blooded murders dressed up as encounter deaths. Darshan Desai traces the hand of politics in the extrajudicial killings. At a recent function in the state capital, Gandhinagar, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi warned the Central Bureau of Investigation against becoming a tool in the hands of the Congress-led union government. He...