For decades, the victims of communal and targeted violence have been denied protections of law that the rest of us take for granted. It's time to end this injustice. In a vibrant and mature democracy, there would be no need to have special laws to prosecute the powerful or protect the weak. If a crime takes place, the law would simply take its course. In a country like ours, however, life...

A Tamil economist, the late S. Guhan, used to say that Delhi was a capital in search of a country. I was reminded of that remark during the fortnight of May 29 to June 11, 2011. In that fortnight, if one watched the ‘national’ channels or read the ‘national’ newspapers, one would think all of India was involved in one way or the other with the ideas and practices of...

In the light of fact finding report submitted recently by the Union rural development secretary B K Sinha on the rampant corruption and irregularities in the implementation of the projects under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee, the Centre has warned the Jharkhand government that it would be compelled to discontinue to release funds for rural job guarantee projects under MGNREGS.. In consequence of Centre’s warning, the state government has decided...

The Mumbai police suspect that Mid Day scribe Jyotirmoy Dey may have been killed at the instance of a south Mumbai businessman who is into smuggling of red sandalwood. "Dey was working on a story that could have exposed him. The businessman, through his underworld contacts, executed the Murder. This is one of the key motives that has emerged from our interrogation," a police officer said. The businessman offered Rs 10...

This paper was presented at the Regional Workshop on War on Terror and Asian Democracy 17 May 2011, Kim Dae-Jung Convention Centre, South Korea organised by Solidarity for Democratization Movement in Asia (SDMA) Introduction In the discourse on terrorism and counter terrorism, September 11 stands as a watershed because of the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001. Government of India (GoI) also took full advantage of the ‘War on Terror’...