-The Indian Express Lokayukta issues notice to finance corporation: Who took the decision to put the pictures? Delhi Lokayukta Manmohan Sarin has issued a notice to the Delhi State SC/SC/OBC/Minority and Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (DSFDC) to explain the decision behind the new loan application forms, which are now being sold at Rs 100 each with pictures of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and PWD Minister Raj Kumar Chouhan printed on them. The...
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Making it ‘for the people’ again -Harbans Mukhia
-The Hindu The movement by India Against Corruption is a call to the system as a whole to redefine the polity and the economy The one significant question being thrown us by the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement is this: is the movement for or against the country’s much revered democracy? The answer, as often in questions relating to society or politics, is neither a clear yes nor no. It is anti-democratic...
More »Will political novice Arvind Kejriwal do things hitherto not done?- Sruthijith KK & Nistula Hebbar
-The Economic Times When Arvind Kejriwal, the rising enfant terrible of Indian politics, raised allegations about the rising fortunes of Robert Vadra on Friday, all of Congress' spokesmen and too many senior ministers went on television to defend party president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law. In sharp contrast to the rehearsed talking points and cultivated anguish that features in nightly debates, this time the emotion was genuine, the anger sharp. "This is not...
More »Ambedkar, NCERT Textbooks and the Protests-Harish Wankhede
The cartoon controversy provides the possibility of interrogating the functioning of the academic system to understand its relationship with the downtrodden masses. A new deliberation is needed in order to make the academic world more sensitive and responsive towards the issues and concerns of the subaltern-oppressed communities. This will be an ethical incentive for the present-day dalit movement in India and can bring greater democratisation to the education system. Harish Wankhede...
More »Politics and Pedagogy The NCERT Texts and Cartoons by Valerian Rodrigues
School texts that teach young minds that politics is a contentious and critical but reasonable activity, that it is not merely a set of demands and commands, and that politicians have to be responsive and accountable are naturally disliked by the political class. This is the tone of all the Political Science textbooks of Standards IX-XI brought out after 2006. The nurturing of a culture of critical public opinion seems...
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