For decades, the victims of communal and targeted violence have been denied protections of law that the rest of us take for granted. It's time to end this injustice. In a vibrant and mature democracy, there would be no need to have special laws to prosecute the powerful or protect the weak. If a crime takes place, the law would simply take its course. In a country like ours, however, life...

-The Telegraph   The Singur land was taken over by the state government tonight after a flurry of dramatic events, prompting the Tatas to make preparations to move the high court tomorrow morning. Sources said Tata Motors wrote to top state government officials tonight, requesting them not to alter the status quo without a court order. However, a government official said in Singur that the administration had taken possession of the land...

-The Telegraph   Governor M.K. Narayanan has given his assent to the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Bill, 2011, which will pave the way for the Mamata Banerjee government to award plots to “unwilling” farmers. According to government sources, Raj Bhavan officials informed chief secretary Samar Ghosh today about the clearance to the bill, passed by the Assembly on June 14. The chief minister, away in Delhi on a three-day visit, has...

Orissa government is finding it difficult to acquired land for Posco's Rs 52,000 crore steel project as anti-displacement brigade gained strength from political parties and social activists with Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patker on Monday visiting Dhinkia, the entry point to the proposed plant site on Monday and lending her support to protester. Last week social activists Swami Agnibesh visited Dhinkia and warned the government of any violence...

Land acquisition and involuntary displacement have been the fountainhead of enormous destitution of millions of invisible people since Independence. Generations of those sacrificed for ‘development’ are farmers and farm workers, and many are fragile tribal people and forest gatherers. By coercive displacement and dispossession, governments pauperise its poorest people, and its food-growers, so that the ‘nation’ can prosper and grow. Rage at persisting State injustice of coercive displacement frequently spills onto...