-The Hindu The combined power of the mobile phone, the Internet and the social media was on display in the crisis that led to thousands of people from the northeast fleeing Bangalore. What became clear was that rumour-mongers did not belong exclusively to either the northeast or the Muslim community. There were also other groups who may have helped fan the panic. In mid-July this year, a Pakistani news portal, columnpk.com, carried...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: The Akhilesh Yadav cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to put the office of Lokayukta outside the RTI Act purview. The cabinet said there was a need to maintain secrecy while investigating corruption charges against officials. Since the office of the Lokayukta functions as an investigating agency, any queries about ongoing investigations can hamper probes, the government said.  In its election manifesto, the Samajwadi Party had promised...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: A special SIT court on Monday sentenced 21 people to life imprisonment for attempt to murder and arson in the 2002 post-Godhra riot of Dipda Darwaza in which 11 Muslims were killed in Visnagar town of north Gujarat. All the victims belonged to the same family.  In addition to the 21 found guilty, M K Patel, the then police inspector of Visnagar and also the first investigator...

-The Hindu The debate over the cartoons used in NCERT textbooks as aids to learning have thrown up a range of issues. The discussion has crystallised around a set of oppositions: motivated political correctness of our elected representatives vs. the necessity of preemptory parliamentary intervention on educational material appropriate for schools; institutional autonomy vs. political responsibility of a state presiding over a diverse and fraught society; the hubris of ‘experts’ vs....

The State finds a handy tool in a colonial law to quell dissent Wrong Arm Of The Law   Why ‘sedition’ rings hollow in India 2012 The law Section 124(A) of the Indian Penal Code, 1870; non-bailable offence The definition Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government...