After the brutal murder of Azad, is there any hope for well-meaning routine calls for “dialogue” and “peace talks”? What can the "civil society" do as a serious, real intervention? It is reported that the decades-old talks with Naga insurgent groups has made some progress recently (See “Differences ‘narrowed’,” Times of India, July 19, 2011). One reason why talks have a chance in these cases is that separatism comes in...

-The Hindustan Times   Uttar Pradesh has earned the dubious distinction of witnessing the highest number of fake encounters, with nearly 120 people being allegedly killed by police in such incidents in the past three years. In the first six months of this year, six persons were killed in the state in alleged encounters and their families have approached the National Human Rights Commission for justice. In 2010-11, NHRC received complaints that 40...

IF YOU walked down the streets of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi between 3-5 August, you would see what TV cameras aren’t putting out on primetime news. Thousands of farmers from Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh to Rohtak in Haryana. On protest. Against the systematic grabbing of their land by various state governments across the political spectrum. On one side of the road, on large green carpets, are about 3,000 farmers,...

-The Hindu Business Line   Over 56 per cent of Indian farmers are not aware about the maximum retail prices (MRP) of fertilisers they buy, while 45 per cent fork out more than the MRP and 59 per cent face problems in getting their season's full requirement in time. These are the startling findings of a countrywide survey of 5,498 farmers conducted by field audit teams of the Comptroller and Auditor General...

A court judgment delivered earlier this year holds important lessons for those engaged in investigating and fighting terrorism. Questioning the methods of terror investigation is always a challenge because it is so easily seen as defending the enemies of the nation. The exercise is monumentally difficult after a benumbing bomb attack — especially if it has been judged to be the work of a home-grown Islamist organisation. The raging anger at this...