I am not unduly worried by the muck being hurled at non-government members of the government-notified drafting panel for the Lokpal Bill and recall the beginning of the village-based RTI movement in 1996 in Rajasthan. One of the ridiculous allegations against the agitation leaders was that they had received a hefty commission from a Japanese manufacturer of photocopiers who would profit hugely from the demand for photocopied panchayat documents if...

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has demanded that in view of the crisis in Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant following the Tsunami, the government of India should review the decision to set up nuclear power plants in our country. In this context, Karat has made it clear that the proposed nuclear power plant in West Bengal's Haripur should also be subjected to similar review. Talking to reporters in the party's state headquarters,...

A three-day Tarapur-Jaitapur anti-nuclear plant yatra was stopped the moment it began and hundreds of activists were detained at Boisar in this district on Saturday. Activists and supporters, including Justices (retired) B G Kolse-Patil and P.B. Sawant, social activist Vaishali Patil, and Admiral (retd) L Ramdas, were whisked away in police vans from Panchmarg Tarapur, where they had addressed a public meeting in the morning. They were brought to the Boisar...

Last week, the Supreme Court granted bail to Binayak Sen, the doctor and civil rights activist who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Raipur on the charge of sedition. Sen was charged with being a Naxalite sympathizer, and of acting as a courier for the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The verdict of the lower court had been widely condemned. The proceedings were farcical; with no...

In spite of prohibitory orders and police warning to stop the Tarapur-Jaitapur protest yatra, anti-nuclear power plant activists have decided to assemble at Tarapur and continue their march. Organised by about 50 environmental groups and activists of anti-Jaitapur nuclear project, the rally aims to create awareness about the hazards of nuclear energy. Around 150 participants from across the country, including environmentalists, scientists and professionals will take part in it. "The idea is...