By the time you read this, Anna Hazare would have started his fast and his well-fed handlers will be stationed in front of television cameras. Independence Day, grey and wet was a holiday with no breaking news, so after the Red Fort speech, all airtime was taken over by talking heads debating the Anna fast. The talks generate lots of heat: "Think about the future," or "Aren't we also members...

Villagers from Chikpal village in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district have blocked traffic to protest the killing of a prominent resident on Saturday August 6. In a complaint submitted to the Dantewada Superintendent of Police, Ankit Garg, villagers have accused the district police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) of killing the village ‘mukhiya’, Madkam Masse in a staged encounter last week. The police and CRPF have denied these accusations, claiming that Mr....

Chhattisgarh must disarm SPOs, probe their alleged crimes In a blow to both the Chhattisgarh government and the Centre, the Supreme Court has declared illegal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youth as Special Police Officers — either as ‘Koya Commandos', Salwa Judum or any other force — in the fight against the Maoist insurgency, and ordered their immediate disarming. The ruling — issued on Tuesday by Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and...

Governments are censoring digital content on the ground that it infringes intellectual ­property rights or offends people. Can they be stopped? It’s a bit of Iraq and Afghanistan out there on the Internet. Just like the invasion of Iraq was lies, deceit and regime change as George W Bush chased illusory weapons of mass destruction in that hapless country, on the Internet, too, there is an element of fabrication and duplicity...

Many Indian laws do not reflect modern and enlightened concepts of justice and require major revision. The recent campaign in support of Dr. Binayak Sen has received much publicity. The mainstream media has enunciated his cause and dissected the evidence, conviction and judgment. Amnesty International argued that the case violated international standards for a fair trial. While Dr. Sen's conviction has received much attention, there is a need to foreground the...