-The Telegraph New Delhi: A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter ruing the "rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism" that is choking dissent, and urging public authorities to take "corrective action" to "reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution". "Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives - the lifeblood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself -are being throttled," the letter says. "Disagreement and dissent are considered seditious...

-The Hindu Kodenchery Station police are scripting stories of compassion Kozhikode: Two underprivileged persons from the Kodenchery station limits will soon have their own house, thanks to the compassion of a group of Police officers from the station. Work is on in full swing to complete construction of the houses. “Malar, a rubber tapper from Tamil Nadu, has been living at Theyyappara under a plastic-thatched roof. The house we completed with the support...

-Frontline.in The British government, on the basis of an 1891 report on the subhuman living conditions of “Pariahs” by James H.A. Tremenheere, Acting Collector of Chengleput, assigned 12 lakh acres of land for distribution to the “depressed classes” of the Madras Presidency to empower them socially and economically. But more than 100 years later, much of this land is in the possession of non-Dalits, and the struggle to reclaim them has...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court said on Monday that a senior police officer, who has been granted a fixed tenure, can't be removed or transferred midway on the whims and fancies of the executive, and quashed the Kerala government's decision to remove senior IPS officer T P Senkumar as DGP before completion of his two-year tenure. Holding that political interference in police administration could shake people's confidence in...

-VillageSquare.in Recent amendments to laws that govern the use of land owned by tribals in Jharkhand has led to a rash of protests because local communities feel that they might lose their land and livelihoods to industrial development Last year in May, when the Jharkhand government announced to remove handcuffs from all the statues and pictures of Birsa Munda, the indigenous people of the state lauded the newly appointed first non-tribal chief...