The denial of equality, dignity and autonomy to persons with disabilities lies at the core of disability rights. “Disability need not be an obstacle to success … It is my hope that … this century will mark a turning point for inclusion of people with disabilities in the lives of their societies.” — Professor Stephen Hawking, “Foreword,” World Report on Disability. The inauguration of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of...

Questions the logic behind the exclusion of the Prime Minister from the purview of the Lokpal Accusing the Govt. of betraying civil society and not being serious about fighting corruption Social activist Anna Hazare has said civil society's aim is to vest autonomy in the Lokpal, much on the lines of the Election Commission, the Supreme Court and the RTI (Central Information Commission). Control of bureaucracy He, however, favoured keeping the bureaucracy out of...

Days after the government placed the CBI under the category of organisations “exempt” from the RTI Act, the country’s first Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has “requested” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to let the Central agency remain within the ambit of the transparency Act as “public interest would best be served by keeping these bodies transparent and accountable within the limits of the law”. However, the CBI has defended the move...

Talks fail; Hazare threatens fast from August 16 The Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal Bill ended its deliberations on Tuesday without a common text, and the government has decided to go ahead with its plan of consulting political parties and Chief Ministers on the two different versions before getting the Cabinet to clear a final draft. Expressing “deep disappointment” at what it said was the government's watered down version of a...

There is nothing wrong in having advisory groups. But there is a problem when groups not constituted legally cross the line of demands, advice and rights-based, democratic agitation. The 1990s saw marketing whiz kids at the largest English daily in the world steal a term then in vogue among sexually discriminated minorities: PLUs — or People Like Us. Media content would henceforth be for People Like Us. This served advertisers' needs...