-The Hindu While voices were rasied against the brutal gang-rape of the 23 year-old woman who tragically died on Saturday, what about the daily occurrences of rape and assault in the lives of Dalit women? Who will listen to the voices of the margins? Margins mean those who are not in the capital, those who are not part of the urban middle-class, and those who are not in the gaze of the...
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Wake up and smell the ink -Markandey Katju
-The Hindu The Leveson report on the British press should jolt the Indian media into acting against ills such as paid news, and focus on being an agent of progressive social change After an inquiry lasting a year, Lord Justice Leveson has delivered a damning verdict on the decades of “outrageous” behaviour by the media. If anything, this verdict would apply in even greater force to a large section (not all) of...
More »Lost in Haryana rape debate, a girl’s story -Smriti Kak Ramachandran
-The Hindu For the first 10 days after she was savagely assaulted and raped by eight men, 16-year-old Reshma (name changed) shuttered up her heart and mind, hoping silence would kill her memories of the violence, wrenching physical pain and the waves of shame, anger and fear. The men had threatened to circulate photographs of their crime if she complained, and sworn to kill her family. Now, everyone knows Reshma and her story...
More »A more caring touch-Harsh Mander
-The Hindustan Times There is a widespread perception of policy paralysis in the corridors of power. The two remaining years of the UPA's term is still not too short to reverse the current drift, but time is rapidly running out. The damaged economy needs urgent fixing as does restoring the credibility of an executive racked by scandals and the absence of a sense of direction. The people of the country long...
More »The tyranny of context-Dharminder Kumar
Looking closer at the Ambedkar cartoon and the power play in it We have examined a lot of politics and history around the Ambedkar cartoon but left the most important part unexamined — the very cartoon that created such a furore in Parliament. By assuming that the meaning of the cartoon is wholly dependent on one context, we have denied the work of art whatever autonomy of meaning it could have....
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