This article explores the issue of dalits’ inclusion in the media industry. It argues that under-representation of dalits in Indian media leads to an exclusion of news on dalits. [This was presented in the “National Conference on Ethical Issues and Indian Media” held on 26 and 27 November 2010 and in Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu.] [J Balasubramaniam (balumids@gmail.com) is with the Department of Journalism and Science Communication, Madurai Kamaraj University.] The basis...

On the eve of a massive agitation by Tikait Singh-led Bhartiya Kisan Union, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met representatives of the Union and assured them that “farmers interests will be fully protected at all times.” The Prime Minister told the delegation that he would convene a joint meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to have an in-depth discussion on the various issues raised by the BKU...

An officer of the 32{+n}{+d} battalion of the Provincial Armed Constabulary has filed cases of rioting, attacking government servants on duty, abducting a PAC sub-inspector, snatching a light machine gun from the PAC, and other counts, against about 200 unidentified farmers of Bhatta village. The report has been filed after about two dozen farmers clashed with a PAC unit, late on Monday morning, and the PAC opened fire, injuring four...

Buoyed by the imminent scrapping of Reliance Industries-promoted Mumbai special economic zone, aggrieved farmers and activists are now gunning for seven other proposed SEZs in Maharashtra. Anti-SEZ groups will soon agitate to demand denotification of the fertile land earmarked for projects in the Konkan, western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha. The activists got a shot in the arm on Friday when their four-year struggle forced the government to denotify 16,900 acres of land...

Protesting against the states land acquisition programme, farmers from nine villages near the IMT, decided on Sunday that they would organize a mass demonstration near the Parliament house in New Delhi on the March 2. More than a thousand people from over 50 villages of the nearby region are expected to participate in the demonstration. The controversial land acquisition issue has already been forwarded to the chief minister of state,...