Activists realise it takes a fight to translate democracy from thin paper to thick action In the winter of 1997, advocate Ashok Agarwal filed a petition in the Supreme Court opposing the nearly 400 per cent hike in school fees. This was the year the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations were implemented and the salaries of teachers shot up. Parents trying to cope with the overall price rise were suddenly hit by...

In a rare outburst, a sitting High Court Judge has alleged that “a vocal and aggressive Executive Government is attempting to regulate and take over Judiciary, even by corrupting the Judiciary.” This is part of the Republic Day greetings on his blog posted by Karnataka H C Judge D V Shylendra Kumar. He has been in the news ever since he took on the Chief Justice of India on the...

Sri Lankan journalists suffered worst by all standards Tendency to sell news space for trivia grew in India A dozen journalists were killed in South Asia — most of them in conflict situations — during the year which also saw the media come under strain due to “over-commercialisation, monopolisation and excessive political clout.” Taking stock of the circumstances under which the media functioned this year, the South Asia Media Monitor for 2009...

From next year, on swearing allegiance to the Queen, all members of Britain’s House of Lords will be required to sign a written commitment to honesty and integrity. Unexceptionable principles, one might say. But, until recently, it was assumed that persons appointed to advise the sovereign were already of sufficient honesty and integrity to do so. They were assumed to be recruited from groups with internalised codes of honour. No...

Referring to China in 1947, Nehru declared, “A new star has risen in the eastern horizon,” and some years later predicted, “If you peer into the future, the obvious fourth country in the world is India.” One of the countries he had in mind has disappeared, and he did not imagine that the emergence of India and China on the global stage would lead to mutual friction. The Chinese are...