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...

Laws dealing with land and property have led to a maximum number of constitutional amendments and litigation in the Supreme Court over the decades. Even after these, the law and its interpretation are hazy. Some of the Supreme Court’s judgments are awaiting reconsideration by larger Benches — one was in the files for nearly 15 years and another for six years. Successive chief justices have avoided opening the chamber of...

A set of well-thumbed photographs are being passed around by protestors gathered outside the Sukma post office in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district. The first is passport-sized, of a well-built, thirty year old man called Madkami Massa in a pale blue shirt smiling into the camera, the other grainier image shows Mr. Massa's contorted corpse on a white slab – his right arm severed at the elbow, his chest pierced by a...

Villagers from Chikpal village in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district have blocked traffic to protest the killing of a prominent resident on Saturday August 6. In a complaint submitted to the Dantewada Superintendent of Police, Ankit Garg, villagers have accused the district police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) of killing the village ‘mukhiya’, Madkam Masse in a staged encounter last week. The police and CRPF have denied these accusations, claiming that Mr....

PUNE: Far from taking exemplary action against the policemen who fired at protesting farmers killing four of them, the Pune rural police on Thursday turned the tables and arrested five farmers for attacking the police and damaging their property. They were also charged with criminal conspiracy. Worse, the two officers who were seen firing at farmers running away from the police in television clippings are now facing a routine government...