Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce postpones event after ABVP protests screening of Sanjay Kak’s Kashmir film Close on the heels of the cancellation of author Salman Rushdie’s visit to the 7th Jaipur Literature Festival due to the storm over The Satanic Verses, Documentary filmmaker Sanjay Kak had to bear the brunt of Hindu fundamentalists. “Voices of Kashmir”, a seminar at the Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, Pune, stands indefinitely postponed...

Till recently, I did not know of a single movie, let alone Documentary, which could persuade a viewer to sit under the open sky on an unusually wintry night for over three hours. On Monday night, I was in an audience of about 200 for one such Documentary, Jai Bheem Comrade, by activist-filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. It was with much curiosity and anticipation that I went for the first Indian public screening...

The CBI has said that the multi-crore forestry scam in Haryana which was exposed by whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi, a young forest official, is a fit case for it to investigate independently.  However, the agency will require clearance from both the Centre and the state government to investigate a case that many officials have attempted to scuttle over the last five years. The green signal may be difficult to get considering that...

-The Hindu   The Maharashtra Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal of granting State Minorities Commission judicial powers. A press release, issued by the Chief Minister's Public Relations Officer, stated that the government will make an amendment to the 2004 ordinance related to the minorities commission and will add the section 10(a)(1) to it. The additional powers will enable the commission to summon officers, call for official papers and Documentary evidence and record...

The Supreme Court has held that it would not, under normal circumstances, interfere with judgments of acquittal in criminal cases, as these had the obvious trait of freedom having been granted to the citizen. A Bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and Ranjana Desai said: “Unless the judgement in appeal is contrary to evidence, palpably erroneous, or a view which could not have been taken by the court of competent jurisdiction keeping...