Reports

They had three sons. They were not rich, but “were quite contented”. In the mid-1950s, her husband responded to the Naga movement and joined the Naga army. He rose through the ranks to become an important officer. His wife and children stayed behind in the village to fend for themselves by labouring in their fields. The Indian army kept constant surveillance and often raided the house hoping to capture him. She lived through constant fear and harassment. After several years in the Naga army, the...

A year after the Press Council of India decided to bury a sub-committee report on the malaise of “paid news” in the news media, the issue has returned to haunt the council again. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Press Council make public the report of the two-member sub-committee as part of suo motu disclosure mandated under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Press Council of India had constituted a two member sub-committee comprising senior journalists Paranjoy...

The fashion community worldwide is not known to get into political wrangles. But the New York Fashion Week this time did – it booted out the daughter of Uzbekistan’s dictator who had planned to unveil her spring fashion line at the event. The organisers of the New York Fashion Week cancelled the show of Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzebekistan’s authoritarian leader Islam Karimov, after intense pressure from groups like the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to HRW, “Her father...

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) had fled Nagaland in May 1994 in the face of stiff opposition from both the people and militants. The oil exploration giant returned to the state a few years ago to resume operations, since a semblance of peace had apparently returned in the backdrop of the ongoing ceasefire between the insurgents and the Indian government. In March 1994, ONGC was served with an ultimatum by the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) demanding a...

The black-naped hare, or the Indian hare, is so commonly found in the wild in India that it is described as a species of Least Concern by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and accorded least protection by India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act. But a recent spurt in poaching of this animal in South India has wildlifers worried. This came to light earlier this month when forest officials nabbed 21 poachers involved in the hunting of the Indian hare ( Lepus nigricollis) in...

In July this year, the Editor of Mint, R Sukumar, created a bit of a flutter when he wrote of an anchor with a business news channel who got three times her earlier salary, for agreeing to leave the top two buttons of her shirt unbuttoned, after switching jobs. Sukumar admitted that the column was all about losing friends and offending people, and maintained a diplomatic tone throughout. But did he have a point? Maybe. But a study conducted by two Indiana University researchers recently found...

Tension prevails in the remote Saal Valley of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has been turning a blind eye at repeated attacks on villagers protesting against the Hul hydropower project. All attacks have been allegedly carried out by goons hired by the Hyderabad-based Hul Hydro Power Private Limited (HHPPL). The attacks were carried out in the backdrop of the people of eight panchayats of Saal Valley, under the banner of the Saal Ghaati Bachao...

It is women in Jharkhand who have been facing the brunt of Operation Jharkhand. There have been several reports and allegations of police and other security forces inflicting brutal violence on villagers during their anti-Maoist operations in areas under Operation Greenhunt, including rape and sexual violence against women, which rarely, if at all, get reported. This investigation by Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS), a non-funded group, were told of news reports of rape...

It was the Punjab government’s well-guarded secret for a while. Till, of course, word trickled out, and dirt hit the proverbial fan. The coalition government of the Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party did everything in their means to browbeat the farmers of a small village called Gobindpura in Mansa district of the state into submission. All fundamental rights– right to speech and expression, right to organise and struggle, right to free movement – were trampled upon by a ruthless police force...

Over a third of Indian pharmacies continue to sell diclofenac to livestock farmers. Manufacture and sale of this drug for veterinary use has been banned in India since 2006, because of its toxicity to critically endangered vultures. Farmers are still illegally purchasing human diclofenac to treat their cattle. Diclofenac was held responsible for bringing three South Asian species of Gyps vultures to the brink of extinction. The population crash was first noted in the late 1990s. Nepal and...