-IANS   Five years after a movement that catapulted it into the national spotlight and spelt the beginning of the end of the 34-year Left rule, Nandigram is still counting the losses of the bloody anti-land acquisition movement. Development is at a standstill and many of those who had been at the forefront of the movement and lost their family members say they were used as cannon fodder against the mighty Left, which...

The lone Indian activist on the 2011 TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, Aruna Roy has been more successful than most,  when it comes to getting the government’s attention. The Chennai-born former bureaucrat who was an instrumental force behind the revolutionary Right to Information Act has also been credited by the government for “incorporating strong citizen entitlements” in the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). A constant...

The popular impression is that starvation deaths happen mainly because the information about potential victims fails to reach authorities. But can it amount to murder if a starvation death is caused despite adequate warning? A recent Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) report tells us a story of corruption and negligence leading to starvation and death in Odisha. Worse still is the fact that many more villagers await the same fate...

The Centre's strategy to revamp the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) to counter the problem of Left-Wing Extremism seems to have run into a rough patch within the Planning Commission. Due to the slow movement in the commission's consideration of his proposal to execute the IAP by the block rather than by the district, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has written to its Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, asking him to...

Ajay Vir Jakhar is the chairman of Bharat Krishak Samaj, a prominent forum for farmers. Over the years, his group has fought for everything from better NREGA to a better Right to Food Act. When he speaks about farmers, his demeanour is one of an impassioned pleader for their rights. In an exclusive interview with The Times of India, he spoke about how NREGS could be modified to make it...