The mask is off. Team Anna and his lieutenants are batting for the BJP On 30 October last year, when Mohan Bhagwat claimed that Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement was actually supported by the RSS, the remark conveyed palpable nervousness and attracted criticism from Team Anna. Three months later, as Team Anna launches its voters’ awareness campaign in UP, there is not even an attempt to keep its secular mask intact. The mask,...

-Express News Service The Orissa State Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Youth and Students’ Council has drawn the attention of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) about the increasing torture of the dalits in the State. Council president Haladhar Sethi discussed the matter with NCSC chairman PL Punia and invited him to visit Kamadhenukot village in Dhenkanal district where 22 houses of the dalits were burnt after the first phase of the panchayat...

The Madhya Pradesh government beefs up its saffron agenda with a “draconian” law. “IT is a contest between the two. The holy by-lanes of old Bhopal, which houses two of the largest mosques in Asia, the Taj-ul-Masjid and the Jama Masjid, were under attack from the holy cow,” said an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in a tone which he thought was in good humour, when asked about...

Hindutva continues to be the main agenda of the BJP in Karnataka, as is evident from the cattle slaughter Bill. THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party in the Assembly elections and managed to form the government in Karnataka in 2008. The electoral victory encouraged the hard-line elements in the party and organisations with Hindutva affiliation to advance their ideology in a spirited manner and stoke communal...

-IANS A day-long shutdown began in Andhra Pradesh Monday on a call given by Dalit groups to protest the recent desecration of statues of B.R. Ambedkar. Schools, colleges, shops and business establishments remained closed in many districts while protestors blocked roads to stop buses of state-owned Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC). Student organistaions, especially Osmania University student Joint Action Committee has also called for a shutdown to protest the desecration of...