Describing the conviction of rights activist Binayak Senby a trial court as “a travesty of justice,” social activist Swami Agnivesh expressed the hope here on Sunday that the Supreme Court would take notice of it and rescind the order. Demanding that Dr. Sen be set free, Swami Agnivesh pointed out that the authorities of the Raipur Central Jail, who were present when he met Narayan Sanyal, Polit Bureau member of the...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Binayak Sen among six people charged with sedition in 2010 by Priscilla Jebaraj
As doctor and human rights activist Binayak Sen spends New Year's Day in prison as the only person to be convicted on sedition charges in 2010, it is worth noting that at least five others have also faced the charge over the course of the year. Most of these have been charged for their statements with regard to either the Naxal issue or the Kashmir conflict, according to media watchdog...
More »Dread of Democracy by Rudrangshu Mukherjee
The historian Ramachandra Guha has famously described India as a fifty-fifty democracy. But even admirers of India as a functioning democracy will perhaps be forced to admit that certain events in 2010 forced the needle to move beyond fifty against democracy. Threats to democracy and democratic rights have never been as evident, and as powerful, since the dark days of the Emergency in 1975-76 as they were in the course...
More »Sri Lanka bans BBC again from war inquiry panel
The BBC has been banned for a third time from covering an official panel's investigation into the final phase of the Sri Lankan civil war. The panel visited Tamil prisoners at a top-security jail in Boosa in the south of the country. But the BBC correspondent and a number of Sri Lankan journalists were turned away at the prison gates. The 26-year conflict ended in May last year with victory for government forces...
More »Civil Rights activist Kannabiran passes away by Ravi Reddy
He had been defending political dissenters since the late 1960s Eminent Civil Rights activist and prominent lawyer K.G. Kannabiran (81) passed away in Hyderabad after a brief illness on Thursday evening. He is survived by wife Vasanta, two daughters and a son. The last rites were performed later in the evening in the presence of family members as per his wish. Born in 1929, Mr. Kannabiran obtained master's degree in Economics and a...
More »