-The Hindu A large section of Indian voters appear distinctly uncomfortable with the way the Indian state deals with issues of internal security, particularly the issue of the maoist insurgency. While they recognise it as the ‘greatest threat', there is a clear disapproval for an approach based on deploying only security forces in large numbers. The CNN IBN-The Hindu Election Tracker survey, conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies...

-The Pioneer BHAWANIPATNA (Bhubaneswar): The Palli Sabha of Tadijhola village in Trilochanpur Gram Panchayat of Kalahandi held on Tuesday unanimously declared that the villagers would not allow mining in the Niyamgiri Hills. "Niyam Raja is our father and Niyamgiri hills, our mother. Hence, we will not allow Vedanta to snatch it from us," said every villagers of Tadijhola present in the meeting. Out of 22 voters of the village, 19 were present...

-The Indian Express Panchayat elections in West Bengal frame the same old politics of coercion and intimidation As always, panchayat polls in West Bengal have left a trail of violence across the state. At least five people were killed as the polls entered their fourth phase on Monday, taking the total toll in these elections into double digits. For a state that is said to have gone through poriborton two years ago,...

-The Telegraph Mathurapur (West Midnapore): Voters of a tiny hamlet in the heart of Jungle Mahal cast aside the fear of maoists and exercised their franchise today for the first time in seven years. Since 2006, not a single resident of Mathurapur, about 8km from Lalgarh, has voted in any election - Assembly, panchayat or the Lok Sabha - for fear of "retribution" from the maoists. Mathurapur was then known as the "home...

-The Indian Express The recent conviction of eight persons for spreading Naxalism in urban areas of Chhattisgarh again underlines a paradox in the functioning of investigation and prosecution wings of the police. Though the state has consistently topped the chart of maoist violence across the country, it is yet to secure a single conviction in assault cases. In fact, all the accused even in a high-profile incident like the Tadmetla ambush,...