-The Hindu If some communities have been denied the benefits of development on grounds of religion, this development is anti-secular, argues Rajeev Bhargava, political theorist Arch rivals the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party continue to trade accusations against each other of playing the communal card in the campaign to the general elections. These are classic instances of the confusion over what secularism is in India. Restoring clarity on the conceptual aspects...
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The faultlines of Birbhum -Madhuparna Das
-The Indian Express The gangrape may have brought the tribal councils of this West Bengal district to notoriety, but it wasn't the first sexual abuse on their orders. What is more at play here though is growing outside interference in a region considered a vote bank, writes Madhuparna Das. On January 29 evening, 900 people of a village in Birbhum district's Labhpur block gathered near the hut of their headman. The hut,...
More »Amnesty mulls bail fund to rescue undertrials -Stanley Pinto
-The Times of India MANGALORE: The India wing of human rights watchdog Amnesty International is seriously looking into the issue of undertrials' unwarranted long stay in prisons and is likely to set up a bail fund to secure their early release. Amnesty International secretary general Salil Shetty told TOI: "India has over 2.5 lakh undertrials, including 8,940 in Karnataka, as of December 2012. Of these, over 2,000 have been in jail for...
More »Why capital punishment must go-Satyabrata Pal
-The Hindu When a death sentence is given to satisfy the "collective conscience of the community," it raises troubling questions about the fairness of the trial The verdict of death for the bestial gang rape in Delhi last December is based on Supreme Court judgments, which stipulate that capital punishment will be imposed in "the rarest of rare" cases, where the community's "collective conscience is so shocked that it will expect the...
More »JS Verma: Left behind little as inheritance, lot as legacy -Rajeev Dhavan
-The Times of India No obituary notice can do justice to Justice J S Verma. A judge for over 25 years, Chief Justice of India (CJI), Chairman National Human Right (NHRC), Verma Commission on Security Lapses, Verma Commission on rape laws. The list is endless. Many judges hanker for post-retirement jobs, Justice Verma did not. A CJI has to chair of NHRC. He did not ask for the job, but did...
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