The Supreme Court today described the midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev’s supporters at Ramlila Maidan last summer as a glaring example of the “trust deficit” between the government and the people, and blamed both the police and the Baba for neglecting the common man caught in the brick-batting between them.   The people who were “rudely” woken up at the maidan became the “ultimate sufferers” of the showdown in the dark between...

While welcoming the report of the High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage for India for its comprehensive vision and many well-conceived recommendations, this article focuses on the conditions needed for its promise to bear fruit. Towards this, it explores the political dimension, which comprises the forces and interests that come into play to shape and reconfigure administrative policy and its implementation.   We are grateful to Anand Zachariah and Susie...

Police officers who have stood up for the truth are made to pay for it. IF there is anyone who can nail the perpetrators of the anti-Muslim riots of 2002 in Gujarat, it is the State's police officers. Witness to the worst communal violence seen in recent times, these officers have first-hand knowledge of the complicity of politicians in the riots and the degree of brutality and negligence of duty that...

Historians tell us of the colonial era stories of miserable conditions of workers, even bonded labour, in tea plantations of eastern India. However, the situation improved after independence. In the past few decades the tea industry has made steady profits even in worst years of economic downturn. And that is why reports of starvation deaths in tea plantations of Assam are so shocking. An Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) report says that...

Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi has written a strong letter to President Pratibha Patil complaining against Union Law and Justice Minister Salman Khursheed for challenging the Commission on the “nine per cent sub-quota for minorities issue” even after being censured by it. Mr. Quraishi sought her “immediate and decisive” intervention to ensure that the Election Commission (EC) discharged its functions and duties in accordance with the Constitution and law in Uttar...