-TheWeek.in Noted ecologist Madhav Gadgil blames the “law-flouting” state government for the devastation in Kerala. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), headed by Gadgil in 2011, had suggested measures to preserve the ecologically frail Ghats. But, the Kerala government, like the other five states, chose to reject the report. Having suffered such devastation, Gadgil feels that the state should survey the “ecologically sensitive zones” that have been compromised due to...

-PTI The guild noted that the court, instead of protecting media freedom, has issued an order that has effectively curbed it. New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India today condemned a Patna high court order restraining the media from reporting on the probe into the Muzaffarpur shelter abuse case and appealed to its and Supreme Court’s chief justices to review the decision. In a statement, the media body said such restrictions on reporting...

-PTI Washington: A global media watchdog has urged the Indian government to ban a group of nationalists targeting "biased" journalists online, saying the harassment of those who don't toe the line of the ruling party was reaching "alarming proportions". The watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said that with the general election nearing, journalists must be able to express themselves without having to fear for their physical or professional survival. "Otherwise, Indian democracy...

-The Hindu Can India manage with a certain amount of disorder to sustain a plural vision of democracy? The current situation in Assam seems like a nightmare, a warning about the internal contradictions of democracy. It is a warning that the 19th century ideas of democracy as electoral-ism and the notion of the nation-state as a fetishism of borders may be inappropriate as imaginations for the 21st century. It is a caution...

-The Indian Express Can a democracy permit so many to be in a state of liminal legality? NRC poses a political and moral question The possibility — whether immediate or somewhat remote — that at the end of the process as many as 4 million people may lose their legal status as citizens should not be a cause of celebration in a democracy. Nor should it generate a mad rush among...