While the Delhi government is responsible for implementing the Right to Education Act in the city, its own schools seem to be the worst offenders. Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has received 14,752 complaints since April 1 last year when RTE was enforced. Of these, as many as 12,332 complaints were related to government and MCD schools. These complaints were either received in bulk through NGOs or...

Voices against Anna Hazare, so far inaudible in the course of his high-decibel campaign, are getting louder. A section of civil society activists, Dalit leaders and some legal experts are gearing up to counter the Hazare wave. Their gripe: Hazare’s movement is teetering on the edge of “fascism”. Udit Raj, a Dalit heavyweight and head of the All-India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, will storm India Gate on August 24 with followers to...

Our country is poised at a dangerous place right now for many reasons. There are all kinds of battles for supremacy. There are real resistances, there are theatrical and false resistances, revolutions from the top, revolutions from the bottom. And sometimes all of this is interpreted by an increasingly hysterical media which doesn't allow space for reflection, for thought, that will only bombard, control the public imagination.   At times like this,...

-AFP   Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy launched a scathing attack on Monday on the "aggressive nationalism" behind the anti-corruption drive led by hunger-striking campaigner Anna Hazare. In a column entitled "I'd rather not be Anna" published in The Hindu newspaper, the novelist, essayist and rights activist condemned both the style and substance of Hazare's campaign that has mobilised public opinion in India. In particular she questioned Hazare's use of the hunger strike and...

The Left parties said on Monday that the August 30 deadline set by anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare for the Centre to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill was not feasible and suggested that the government convene a special session of Parliament next month for passing the Bill. Asserting that the CPI(M) wanted an effective Lokpal Bill, general secretary Prakash Karat termed the Bill pending with Parliament “inadequate.” “We are not satisfied with...