Anand Patwardhan’s paean to Dalits, that took 14 years to compose, probes even as it praises, says Saroj Giri THERE IS an entrenched tendency to represent Dalits fighting for rights and reservations as just (another) competitive bloc vying for self-interest and power. It leads to a pernicious inversion: ‘Dalit rights’ dividing the nation along caste lines. Victim as perpetrator! Anand Patwardhan’s film Jai Bhim Comrade takes us beyond the grid of...

A group of 21 jailed Maoists, led by former “sub-zonal commander” of the Sone-Ganga-Vindhyazal zone Sudama Oraon, have accused senior comrades of “living in town” and exploiting the lower cadre, mostly illiterate and poor tribals. In a two-page “press release” on jail application paper, duly signed or carrying their thumb impression, the 21 say the senior Maoists “hobnob with jungle mafia and landlords, embezzle party funds and put the blame on...

The Samajwadi Party government is gearing up to include 17 OBC sub-castes into the scheduled castes.  A high-level committee headed by Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Jawed Usmani has sought details from the department of social welfare before issuing a notification in this regard. The circular from the UP chief secretary on March 28, too, speaks of the government's priorities, including the inclusion of 17 OBC sub-castes within the SC category.  If the...

-The Pioneer After the withdrawal of quota in departmental promotions, the Dalit employees’ organisations are gearing up for a big agitation against the Samajwadi Party government. They plan to launch their protest by organising a state level conference in the state capital this month. The Arakshan Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (ABSS), an umbrella organisation of Dalit employees unions, has appealed its members to wear black armbands during duty hours to protest against the...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today issued notices to all states and Union territories asking them to explain unsafe and unhygienic sterilisation drives in violation of an earlier order for safe procedures. The move came on a PIL by a health rights activist who alleged inhuman sterilisations continued in rural areas in “reckless disregard” of the lives of poor women, especially in Bihar. In one case, 53 women were sterilised in two hours...