-The Hindustan Times A cartoon on BR Ambedkar in a government schoolbook rocked Parliament on Friday, forcing HRD minister Kapil Sibal to apologise to the nation and order the removal of the “objectionable” caricature. The row over the cartoon — more than 60 years old — sidetracked the ongoing controversy over  the Aircel-Maxis deal, which the BJP and other Opposition parties have been using to target home minister P Chidambaram. Instead, members cutting across...

-The Indian Express After retrospective taxes, here comes the retroactive cartoon The no-no cartoon was published in Shankar’s Weekly on August 28, 1949 and reproduced in many Shankar collections, including one with a Nehru quote as title that will make his party men squirm today — “Don’t spare me Shankar”. The Congress government has pulled out the cartoon and the textbook that carried it. The cartoon features Nehru himself, standing behind a...

-CNN-IBN More than 3000 working poor are right now agitating at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, under the banner of Pension Parishad as the curtains are up on the 'right to pension' campaign. Spearheaded by Aruna Roy, the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan leader and member of the National Advisory Council (NAC), the campaign seeks universalisation of a minimum pension of Rs 2000 per person per month for all elderly citizens of...

RTE marks a welcome return to common schooling; the objections lack substance. It's the strangest of debates. Private schools are up in arms against the Supreme Court order upholding the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009. What are their objections? First, non-minority private unaided schools feel they have got a raw deal. They will have to provide free education to 25 per cent of their students, admitted from economically...

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...