The new curriculum sought to overcome the visual baggage of old textbooks. Today, India debates whether or not cartoons should be included in school textbooks. Such debates are welcome to improve our understanding of school education in general, and textbooks in particular. But before the review committee throws all cartoons out of the school tub, it would help to understand a few facets of textbook preparation, especially the selection of visuals. Locating...

As the dust begins to settle on the Ambedkar cartoon controversy, it may be useful to reflect on what it was all about. Contrary to some rhetorical grandstanding, it was not really about freedom of expression. Nor was it about how (not) to produce livelier school textbooks. Nor indeed about our sense of humour or lack thereof, or the special privileges of comic exaggeration or caricature that cartoonists have enjoyed...

-The Telegraph The Lokpal bill faces further delay with the Rajya Sabha today referring it to a 15-member Select Committee by voice vote, but not before the Opposition accused the government of playing “games” and trying to bypass House business rules. The Select Committee, to be made up by members from various parties, is to hand in its report by the last week of the monsoon session. The BJP, CPM and the Bahujan...

-The Hindustan Times Following a day-long drama, the government and the opposition parties finally decided on Monday to refer the lokpal and lokayuktas bill to a fresh House panel for further scrutiny, virtually bringing Anna Hazare and his team back to life. Within moments of the Rajya Sabha passing a government resolution to set up a 15-member Select Committee to examine the bill, Team Anna announced that Arvind Kejriwal would lead...

Institutions the bill proposes to set up are not adequately independent of the government The government is reported to be making efforts to seek a consensus amongst its allies and the opposition parties on the Lokpal Bill that is awaiting approval of the Rajya Sabha. People’s movements and some of the main opposition parties have objected to various provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, 2011, as passed in the winter...