There is nothing more frightening than being frightened. Fear takes away the powers of rational thinking. It makes one pause before one performs acts that were previously considered routine. Does one forward an email containing a cartoon or a joke about a political leader who holds the most important job in the state of West Bengal? As a journalist, does one dare to write an article that is critical of...

Social activists and students of Jadavpur University took out separate processions here on Tuesday in protest against the police action last week against Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of the university, for circulating e-mails containing graphics of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress leaders. Dr. Mahapatra, who was Arrested in connection with the incident and subsequently released on bail, was present in both the processions. Students carried placards...

-The Hindu The Defence Ministry will challenge a judicial commission's findings on ownership of the plot of land where the controversial Adarsh Housing Society here was constructed. The two-member commission has concluded that though the Ministry was in possession of the land, the owner is the Maharashtra government. (The origins of the Adarsh Housing Society scam go back to February 2000. Though the housing complex was meant for serving and retired defence personnel,...

-Express News Service A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches at the house of an eyewitness in the murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty. The team conducted seaches the house of Vandana Murhe in Talegaon Dabhade and seized some documents on Monday. Shetty was murdered near a newspaper stall operated by Murhe on January 13, 2010. “Our teams spoke to Murhe and seized some documents from her residence today for...

-The Business Standard Kolkata Arrest shows the IT Act is too easily misused The recent Arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University, for emailing a comic strip lampooning West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, highlighted glaring flaws in the laws that made the Arrest possible — the Information Technology (IT) Act, its amendments, and the Rules framed for its implementation. The strip was an innocuous mash-up that combined stock...