-The Hindu With the exception of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, hardly anyone of consequence has supported Pragaash, the Valley’s first all-girl rock band, the members of which have gone into hiding after receiving a threat of ‘social boycott’ from the Dukhataarn-e-Millat, a radical women’s outfit. Three fresh Facebook pages have come up with nearly 1,000 supportive posts in the past four days but most...

-The Hindu Contrary to what Nandy’s defenders would have us believe, his corruption remark reinforces negative stereotypes about Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes The controversy around Ashis Nandy’s casual remarks at the Jaipur Literature Festival did not address a number of important questions of public concern. The frenzied ‘Save Nandy’ campaign that followed has actually foreclosed any productive discussion. His supporters have been trying to explain and contextualise Professor Nandy’s flippant remarks...

-The Hindu It has seen action on several occasions, starting in 1990 during the riots in Bijnor in western Uttar Pradesh The Durga Vahini or Durga brigade appeared in the early 1990s at the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement: its objective was to band together Hindu nationalism’s female “youth.” This organisation, like the Bajrang Dal, too, stresses defence — especially self-defence — of young Hindu women, including training in the use of...

-The Hindu Barely days after the controversy surrounding Kamal Haasan’s movie Vishwaroopam rocked the world of cinema, a painting exhibition at the Delhi Art Gallery in Hauz Khas village here on Monday was targeted by Activists of Durga Vahini, women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, who disrupted the private show for sometime. Although the VHP claimed that it had stopped the show, the police said the exhibition was very much on...

-The Times of India HYDERABAD: Opposing the impending appointment of new information officers with political affiliations, RTI Activists across the state are planning massive protests. They said they are afraid that the biased information officers would not provide important information. Activists are now trying to get an audience with governor ESL Narsimhan, to convince him about the issue. Activists said the whole procedure was clear contempt of Supreme Court orders as it clearly...