Six non-Congress, non-BJP and non-BJD political parties and six other grassroot organizations opposed to proposed Posco steel project on Sunday called for state-wide protests on May 20 and May 21 in reaction to “police excesses” on anti-Posco activists in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa. The decision to observe the protest day was taken at a meeting of the political parties including CPI, CPM, Forward Bloc, JMM, RJD and SJP at CPI’s...

In India peasantry is under assault. There is a five-pronged attack on this class and the mighty Indian state is sometimes an active and sometimes a passive abettor. The first point of attack is from the corporate sector. The corporate sector is in a land grab mode. Though not justified, one could understand their urge to get land for industry and real estate purposes. Not that they are causing aggressive...

In another case of 'honour killing', a woman was murdered on Wednesday in Punjab's Tarn Taran district by her family for marrying against their wishes, police said. Her mother-in-law was also shot dead. The newly-married woman, Gurleen Kaur, bled to death after being attacked with swords at her home in Bahmaniwala village, about 25 km from here. The family also chased her terrorised husband through the streets and fired at...

The body of a business management student, head severed and legs chopped off, was dug out from a paddy field in Muzaffarnagar yesterday in another suspected “honour killing” amid fears that his missing girlfriend might have been murdered too. police today arrested the girl’s father and brother, though both had got themselves admitted to a nursing home. Last month, a three-month pregnant Delhi-based journalist, whose family didn’t approve of her relationship with...

The number of cases in which the totally unconstitutional caste panchayats have openly defied the law of the land by issuing illegal diktats has increased manifold. In Haryana today, rapid capitalist transformation is accompanied by a regressive feudal consciousness. As education and political awareness spread among Dalits, women and backward sections, alongside there is a massive consolidation of caste (khap) panchayats in defence of the status quo. The number of cases...