-The Hindu   A joint committee of krishak sabhas (farmers' organisations) of four Left parties have given a call to their units across the State to observe “Haroa Diwas” on July 14. It would be in protest against the police firing and attacks by armed Trinamool Congress activists on Saturday on farmers and sharecroppers who had returned to their land in the Haroa area of West Bengal's North Paraganas district after having...

-The Times of India   Wednesday's Supreme Court decision which upheld Allahabad High Court's order quashing acquisition of land by UP government at Shahberi village in Noida has come as a shot in the arm of the farmers agitating across the state against forcible land acquisition. While Opposition parties used it to sharpen their attack on the Maya government, farmer organisations said it's a warning to the Centre and state governments...

Andhra farmers shun growing paddy this kharif in absence of buyers, storage space Achanta, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, hit the headlines in 1967 with a record rice yield in the kharif or monsoon crop season. It was the time of the Green Revolution. N Subba Rao, a farmer from the village, harvested three tonnes of paddy from just one kilogramme of seeds. Other farmers followed suit and the village...

-The Hindu   CM: adopted Maoist tactics during June 22 protest “Also associated with ULFA front organisations” Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday alleged that the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) led by the arrested RTI activist and farmers' leader, Akhil Gogoi, had links with Maoists. Mr. Akhil Gogoi was arrested in connection with the June 22 incidents in the city during a protest programme seeking halt to eviction of city hill settlers led...

There is nothing wrong in having advisory groups. But there is a problem when groups not constituted legally cross the line of demands, advice and rights-based, democratic agitation. The 1990s saw marketing whiz kids at the largest English daily in the world steal a term then in vogue among sexually discriminated minorities: PLUs — or People Like Us. Media content would henceforth be for People Like Us. This served advertisers' needs...