Dinesh Maurya [Presenting the Bahujan perspective i.e., the views of the SC/ST/OBC and religious minorities, on the proposed Lokpal legislation, the writer makes some useful suggestions to make the bill more inclusive- Round Table India] We want to submit some suggestions regarding the Government of India’s proposed Lokpal Bill. Like Anna’s Lokpal Bill, our …
Jan Lokpal or Janvirodhi Lokpal?
By People for Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights (PCDHR, Nagpur) Recent stir by Anna Hazare (Original name unknown/ Education unknown) & Co. for an Ombudsman for corruption in the name of Jan Lokpal is an ‘extra-constitutional method’, bypassing the Parliamentary process which is at the heart of Constitutional Democracy which ‘We the People’ of India …
Ambedkar’s way & Anna Hazare’s methods
By Sukhdeo Thorat Following Dr. Ambedkar’s example, Team Anna should use constitutional methods and enhance people’s faith in them. Otherwise it will convey the message that only coercive and unconstitutional methods work. A group of people, with placards showing Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, staged a demonstration in Delhi a few days ago against Anna Hazare’s proposals …
Honamma’s murder
report translated by Cynthia Stephen On June 30th 2010, Karnataka woke up to hear the news of Honamma’s horrific murder, killed with stone slabs by an upper caste mob of men. A year since, there seems to be no substantial progress in this case. We hope more awareness about it might expand and strengthen the …
Aarakshan: Expression with Reservation
by Bobby Kunhu I have not watched Aarakshan. I am an unapologetic advocate of free speech. And I generally do not like writing about what I do not know. But then this piece is not about Aarakshan, but about dominant discussions about the movie from newsroom discussions to (English) newspaper headlines. And most of the …
The ‘Death of Merit’ and a debate on caste discrimination in educational institutions
[ A Round Table India report ] Hyderabad, Aug, 07, 2011: The National Dalit Forum organized a screening of the ‘Death of Merit’ documentaries by the Insight Foundation, followed by a discussion on the suicides of Dalit students in institutions of higher education and on caste discrimination in campuses, today in the morning at Dr. …
UP and ‘untruthful’ political players
by Chandra Bhan Prasad Now that the Election Commission (EC) has decided to hold the UP Assembly polls in February, the accompanying trauma is all set to begin. Political parties will spend many sleepless nights while political analysts, in particular psephologists who seem to do brisk business via the electronic medium, will certainly also have …
Feet of Clay: Amitav Ghosh and the Imperial Indian Gaze
— Jason Keith Fernandes A couple of days ago, an interview, of the part-time Goa resident author Amitav Ghosh, with Lila Azam Zanganeh for the magazine Guernica created something of a storm of outrage. Ghosh had suggested in the course of conversation, that ‘one of the wonderfully liberating things about India; [is that] it lets …
On Jha’s Suicide Quote
— Prabin Dhangada Majhi [ Prabin’s article is a response to senior journalist and editor Prem Shankar Jha’s comments in a 2007 CNBC discussion on reservations. The comments resurfaced again in online discussions over suicides of Dalit students in India’s elite educational institutions, recently. You’ll find some of Jha’s comments reproduced here . And you’ll …