Activist Medha Patkar addressing a rally in New Delhi on Monday against the land acquisition policy of the UPA government. “Sangharsh,” a collective platform of social movements and people's organisations fighting displacement and forcible land acquisition, began a five-day dharna at Jantar Mantar here on Monday. Representatives of people's movements from Assam to Tamil Nadu participated in the “Sansad Gherao” dharna. Among the struggles highlighted was the Assam-based Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti's...

Sonia Gandhi visited a farmer widow's house in August 2004, soon after the UPA came to power. However, this visit did not bring as much change in her life as Rahul Gandhi's visit on July 18, 2008, to Kalawati's house. In fact, the damaged canal that led to the suicide by Ranjana Deshmukh's husband has still not been repaired. The struggles of Kalawati of Yavatmal and Ranjana Deshmukh of Wardha, both...

Union Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi on Friday maintained that the Centre was set to increase the wage rate paid under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), but it was for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address the issues raised by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Dr. Joshi said it was not for him to react to the recommendation made to Dr. Singh by Ms. Gandhi — in her...

Food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is being praised in some quarters for daring to take a politically incorrect position. In a sharp disagreement with the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council's (NAC) proposal to supply subsidised food to 75% of the population, Pawar has pointed out two flaws in the proposal: first, that it is unaffordable and second that it is near impossible to procure and store the required food...

Admitting to irregularities in the export of non-basmati rice to some African countries during UPA-I tenure, the government on Friday said it has referred the matter to the CVC after slapping show-cause notices on officials of PSUs, involved in the transactions. The action follows an internal enquiry by the Department of Commerce which found that "the exporting public sector units did not follow the transparent procedure for selection of domestic associates...