-The Hindu Ongoing agitation in Kudankulam illustrates how State criminalises popular protest To what extent will the State go to criminalise an agitation, especially a prolonged popular struggle against a project seen by the government as a vital necessity, but as a hazard by the people living in its vicinity? It will charge the protesters with grave offences such as “waging war” and “sedition” regardless of whether there is any basis. The ongoing...

-The Hindustan Times The fragile peace at Kudankulam lasted through Sunday, but elsewhere in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Kerala, it was a day of protests and Arrests. In Tuticorin, around 250 protesters on way to Kudankulam were Arrested. They included Periyar Dravida Kazhagam leader Kolathur Mani and leaders of Naan Thamilar Iyakkam and Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam. In Kerala's Parassala, police stopped a "solidarity march" by cultural leaders to Kudankulam. For Tamil...

-The Telegraph Bombay High Court today said the “arbitrary” Arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi had breached his freedom of speech and expression. The court also said it intended to lay down guidelines for application of the pre-Independence sedition law to ensure that liberties guaranteed to citizens in a civil society are not encroached upon. “How can you (police) Arrest people on frivolous grounds?” it said. The court had on Tuesday granted bail to Trivedi,...

Between 2009 and February 2011, at least 14 people were charged with sedition in India London: The typical citizen could be forgiven for fearing that the world’s largest democracy is hurtling towards George Orwell’s 1984 rather than 2013. In late August the government’s department of telecommunications, citing the “communal tensions” around Assam, blocked more than 300 individual web addresses, including the Twitter profile pages of some journalists. It also ordered a limit...

-The Indian Express The latest controversy surrounding the sedition case against cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has left the Mumbai Police with egg on its face. It has also exposed the force’s double standards and its misplaced priorities while dealing with complaints. Surely the police cannot believe that Trivedi’s cartoons pose a greater threat than MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s constant tirades against north Indians? Does it take a sterner view of anti-corruption cartoons than...