-The Telegraph New Delhi: A group of retired bureaucrats have written an open letter ruing the "rising authoritarianism and majoritarianism" that is choking dissent, and urging public authorities to take "corrective action" to "reclaim and defend the spirit of the Constitution". "Argumentation and discussion about different perspectives - the lifeblood not only of institutions of learning but of democracy itself -are being throttled," the letter says. "Disagreement and dissent are considered seditious...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: The government is all set to notify a new set of Right to Information rules that will allow appeals to be withdrawn and, according to activists, put the lives of whistleblowers in danger. The government is all set to notify a new set of Right to Information (RTI) rules that will allow appeals to be withdrawn and, according to activists, put the lives of whistleblowers in danger. The Central...

-Frontline.in The British government, on the basis of an 1891 report on the subhuman living conditions of “Pariahs” by James H.A. Tremenheere, Acting Collector of Chengleput, assigned 12 lakh acres of land for distribution to the “depressed classes” of the Madras Presidency to empower them socially and economically. But more than 100 years later, much of this land is in the possession of non-Dalits, and the struggle to reclaim them has...

-TheWire.in The proposed amendments not only make approaching the information commission more cumbersome and legalistic but also defy the diktat of the Supreme Court. The RTI Act has undoubtedly been one of the most empowering legislations for Indians. According to estimates, four to six million information applications are filed every year, making the Indian RTI Act the world’s most extensively used transparency legislation. National assessments have shown that a large number of...

-PTI Alok Kumar Verma, the former Delhi Police Commissioner, was on January 19, named as the chief of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) The government has refused to share details of appointment of CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma, claiming the information was exempted under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Replying to an RTI query, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said the appointment was done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led...