-The Indian Express Nearly 50 activists and organisations are coming together on a common platform to lobby for “issues of the people” with political parties ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. They include Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan’s (MKSS) Aruna Roy (a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council); former NAC member Harsh Mander; Ekta Parishad’s P V Rajagopal, who recently led a march of tribals and others from MP to...

-The Hindu Act needs urgent amendments in order to plug loopholes in implementation: Union Minister The Union Government will bring in amendments to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, during the Budget session of Parliament next year. Addressing a National Dalit Adivasi Sammelan at Ramlila Maidan here on Friday, Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment Kumari Selja said the Act needed urgent amendments in order to plug loopholes in...

-The Hoot The coverage given to Thackeray’s death by some television channels was overwhelmingly disproportionate to his contribution to people’s well-being. The comments made by the “experts” were toned by the fear of Sena reprisal, says KALPANA SHARMA. Can Indian news television plumb greater depths? The blanket coverage of Bal Thackeray’s death and funeral on some channels would make any self-respecting journalist hang her head in shame. What were they thinking?...

-Farmlandgrab.org Oxfam’s Phil Bloomer reports on the shocking scandal of (mostly) secretive land-grabbing, usually from those least able to defend their rights Land grabbing has fast become a major threat to poor communities in Africa, Asia and South America. Poverty-stricken women and men are being driven from their homes and the land they rely on to grow food to eat and make a living, usually without compensation. In many cases this is...

-The Hindu For any law to truly liberate those trapped in manual scavenging, their numbers must first be established by a comprehensive survey Everybody declares with a full heart, and in a low voice, that it is a national shame. From Manmohan Singh and Pratibha Patil to Mukesh Ambani and Aamir Khan, the last mentioned a new convert to the Dalit cause, there is no dearth of people queuing up to take...