-The Economic Times CHANDIGARH: Haryana government today transferred whistleblower in Robert Vadra-DLF land deal, Ashok Khemka, Haryana IAS officer to department of Archives within six months of his recent posting as managing director of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation. The latest transfer of Khemka, second in last few months and 44th in all, is seen as a bid to avoid further threat to image of the Congress government that has taken beating after...
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Welcome to closet illiberalism-Vidya Subrahmaniam
-The Hindu Caste might be cast in stone judging from the way the dominant discourse gets conducted in India “Caste is the most overwhelming factor in Indian life. Those who deny it in principle also accept it in practice. Life moves within the frontiers of caste and cultured men speak in soft tones against the system of caste, while its rejection in action just does not occur to them...” Socialist thinker Ram...
More »Aid pours in for Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party on debut -Jayashree Nandi & Prerna Sodhi
-The Times of India After over a year of campaigning, dozens of protests and exposes against ministers, Arvind Kejriwal officially entered the political arena on Monday. Negating the perception that only big parties can draw hefty funds, the newly launched Aam Aadmi Party collected more than 1.10 crore on the day of the launch, with former law minister Shanti Bhushan alone donating Rs 1 crore. Day one also saw supporters pitching in...
More »Absurd arrests
-The Business Standard IT laws have clauses that can be too easily misused The arrest of two women in Palghar (near Mumbai) for an innocuous Facebook status update is the latest indicator of an increasing intolerance of free speech, especially online. The state has also increased its surveillance. The focus on surveillance and censorship is evident not only in specific instances but also in the statistics. In February, the government said...
More »Where whistleblowers are hounded out -Chander Suta Dogra
-The Hindu The trials and tribulations of Ashok Khemka and Sanjiv Chaturvedi expose Haryana’s intolerance of upright bureaucrats When Haryana’s top land registration official, Ashok Khemka, decided to probe Robert Vadra’s land deals in the State, he perhaps never anticipated the kind of animosity that his actions against Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law would generate within the government. Or, maybe he did, but went ahead nevertheless, hoping that a proactive media would...
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