The wife of a leading Indian human rights activist who has been sent to prison for helping Maoist rebels has said she may seek "political asylum". Ilina Sen, wife of Dr Binayak Sen, told reporters that she and her family were "not feeling safe in India" after her husband's incarceration. Last month Dr Sen was found guilty of carrying messages and setting up bank accounts for the rebels. Activists say the evidence against...

Over the past decade, as crops have failed year after year, 200,000 farmers have killed themselves Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we...

Krishi Bhavan supports endosulfan companies; Kerala protests THE timing and the message of the conference could not have been more stark. At a time when the endosulfan problem is in the limelight, sparking calls for a nationwide ban on the pesticide, its manufacturers staged a remarkable feat. They held a three-day conference on rural prosperity at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, venue for high-power official meetings, and put across the message that the hazardous...

Bauxite Mining of the sacred hill of Adivasis in Lanjigarh, Kalahandi district, Orissa, had been stopped by a decision of the India Ministry for Environment and Forest (MoE&F) on August 24th, 2010. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had constituted an enquiry panel – which in its report recommends that bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills should not be allowed for mining unless the local Adivasi communities give their consent. According to this report,...

Withholding Talegaon land deal info sought by friend of slain activist Satish Shetty tantamount to violation of RTI Act, State Info Commission tells government agencies A day after slain RTI activist Satish Shetty's friend and fellow RTI CAMPAigner Arun Mane was attacked, allegedly for pursuing matters that Shetty had been after before his death, the Pune bench of the State Information Commission yesterday issued a pathbreaking order when it asked for...