'We think that the short, heated and not very well informed debate in the Parliament did not do justice to the responsibility that a democratic society has towards its future generations' May 11, 2012 Prof. Parvin Sinclair Director NCERT Subject: Resignation as Chief Advisers ( Pol Sc) Dear Professor Sinclair, We have followed the discussion in both Houses of the Parliament today regarding the cartoons published in the NCERT's Political Science Textbooks. We also heard the...

After Modi, it's Raghavan's turn to see riots as ‘action-reaction' In its closure report filed in the Zakia Jafri case, the R.K. Raghavan-led Special Investigation Team says Ms. Jafri's husband and former MP Ehsan Jafri was killed because he provoked a “violent mob” that had assembled “to take revenge of Godhra incident from the Muslims.” Ehsan Jafri fired at the mob and “the provoked mob stormed the society and set it...

Alarmed by its proactive role, the three ‘pillars’ of our democracy set out to weaken the fourth estate Fundamentalisms do not necessarily announce their arrival by banging a hammer on our heads. Freedoms are often lost in little steps. The process creeps in quietly but insidiously. The path is often complex and defies a simple narrative. But here’s a straightforward fact: a concerted attempt is being made to censor, control...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today appeared to be considering whether to lay down norms for court reporting that, if violated, would cost a journalist the right to cover court cases. The idea came from senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, who has been pushing for media curbs, and seemed to find favour with Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia. Venugopal suggested that journalists wishing to cover the courts be made to apply for formal...

-The Telegraph The counsel for the Editors Guild, a professional body of senior journalists, today announced its exit from hearings related to an effort by the Supreme Court to lay down norms for covering court proceedings. “We have decided we will not address this bench any more. This bench has no lis (jurisdiction),” senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan declared when the court sought to know whether he would respond to arguments of those...