Anna Hazare's decision to end his fast on Saturday comes after the United Progressive Alliance government virtually bent over backwards to accommodate all his demands, including the formation of a joint committee with five representatives of the government and five from civil society. The Centre has also agreed to bring a government order to announce the formation of the committee that will have a co-chairman from civil society.
The groups were asking for Shashank's ouster over a row on allowing Bru voters lodged in Tripura relief camps to exercise their franchise from there.
'The act of demolition, for whatever reason, was far too hasty without even giving an opportunity of an appeal.'
The Anna Hazare team on Wednesday met Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat in New Delhi to explain the civil society's position on the Lokpal Bill ahead of the all party meeting on the issue.
The United Kingdom's Department for International Development launched its biggest civil society project on Thursday to mark World Human Rights Day. The Poorest Areas Civil Society Programme and the International NGO Partnerships Agreement Programme is worth 45 million (Rs 360 crores) spread across the next five years.
The roller-coaster ride of the government-civil society joint drafting committee on the Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill has ended in a draw, but left both sides badly injured. Whether the tie will be broken when they present their separate recommendations to a proposed all-party committee in July remains an open question.
Noted social worker Swami Agnivesh differed with Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejiriwal -- members of the civil society on the Lokpal Bill drafting panel -- that the talks with the government failed to yield substantial results.
Civil society led by Anna Hazare on Monday hit back at the government over the charge that it was undermining Parliament and Constitution and asked why an "honest" man like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is "scared" of being investigated by the Lokpal.
"The US is committed to promoting and defending civil society around the world. And we will continue to remind leaders of their responsibilities to their citizens under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Clinton said in a statement issued on the occasion of Human Rights Day on Friday.
In the whole sordid series of happenings after Anna Hazare broke his fast, the only side to emerge with credit is the government. In fact, it is outshining the civil society, says B S Raghavan.
The body of the post-graduate trainee doctor with severe injury marks was found on Friday inside the seminar hall of the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital's chest department. The preliminary autopsy report suggested she was subjected to violent sexual assault.
Shops and markets have been opened in the morning while vehicles run on the roads in Churachandpur town where the maximum protests and violence took place on Friday and Saturday, officials said.
Terming the joining of hands of civil society and government on the Lokpal Bill issue as a step that augurs well for democracy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the government intended to introduce the "historic legislation" in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
In the wake of the killing of 24 EFR jawans by the Maoists in West Bengal, the Congress has asked the civil society to ostracise individuals and organisations providing legitimacy to and "romanticising" such violence and described them as Fifth Columnists.
A court in New Delhi on Wednesday granted the National Investigation Agency (NIA) 10 days' custody of two people accused in a case related to NGO terror funding.
Pakistani civil society groups and political and religious parties on Thursday protested the perceived snub of the country's cricketers in the auction for the lucrative Indian Premier League tournament in India, even as an association of cable television operators said they would boycott its broadcast.
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Amid a war of words between the government and the civil society members over Lokpal Bill, both sides will meet in New Delhi on Wednesday to draft the bill.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday asked civil society activists not to reply to every charge levelled against them by the Congress saying it was a "trap", even as it asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clarify whether he wanted the top post to be included under the ambit of the Lokpal.
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Take a look at the highlights of the draft Lokpal Bill and let us know if you can spot any loopholes in the draft and suggest corrective measures
A local court in Ajmer has issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India on a plea seeking to declare the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti a temple. The petition, filed in September, has sparked a heated debate, with politicians and community leaders weighing in on the potentially volatile issue. The dargah committee has declined to comment, but the Anjuman Syed Zadgan, a body representing the caretakers of the dargah, described the petition as a deliberate attempt to fracture society along communal lines. The petition comes just days after four people were killed in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, following a local court ordering survey of a Mughal-era shrine. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which fixed August 15, 1947, as the cut-off date for status quo on the character of religious places, is at the centre of much of the debate. Several politicians, including Union minister Giriraj Singh and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, have weighed in on the issue. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called the civil court's decision to entertain the petition unwarranted and has asked the Supreme Court to immediately intervene.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday approved 139 Padma awards including seven Padma Vibhushans, 19 Padma Bhushans and 113 Padma Shris.
'I have been asking whether the chief minister (N Biren Singh) is in charge of the situation in Manipur.' 'Law and order is a state subject and chief minister is a Constitutional authority. Why did he follow the diktat, if at all there is a diktat from the Union government?'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided it would not adopt the path of appeasement and vote bank politics.
Chief Minister Zoramthanga, deputy CM Tawnluia, ministers, and MLAs of the state cutting across party lines took part in the massive protest rally in Aizawl.
The resolution moved by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio was adopted by voice vote during the one-day special session of the Assembly held to discuss the AFSPA, 1958, and its application to Nagaland in the aftermath of the killing of 14 civilians by security forces, including six in a botched anti-terrorist operation, and eight others in subsequent incidents in Mon district on December 4 and 5.
The farm bills passed by Parliament mark the watershed in the liberation of India's farming community from the shackles of exploitative practices that slow-pedaled their progress, the former civil servants said.
'Article 370 offered very important protections that were related to people's day to day lives.'
'If democracy does not exist, if there are no political spaces, there is no media, there is no civil society, what do we rejoice?'
The government is "extremely disappointed" with the latest report of the Moody's rating agency on India's economic outlook. The report, a senior government official said, was highly contradictory and called the rating agency's credibility into question. Referring to the Moody's statement that "India's fiscal strength remains a key weakness in the sovereign credit profile...", the official remarked: "How can my strength be my weakness? Moreover, they are unwilling to have a like-to-like comparison with India."
It said the law must be just and fair and should protect the human rights and dignity of all members of society.
The Congress on Wednesday asserted that the only way to comprehensively investigate the Adani issue is through a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) and claimed that the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee would be a 'clean chit' panel for the government.
Much drama is likely to continue in the coming year, within the Sangh Parivar as well as involving the Opposition parties and, of course the BJP's allies, predicts Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday suggested that corporate India should join the public sector and civil society in facilitating social change, while outlining primary education, health and nutrition as areas where the three could collaborate
The petition, likely to come up for hearing within next few days, sought to investigate if the illegal hacking into the phones using the Pegasus spyware represented an attempt by agencies and organisations to muzzle and chill the exercise of free speech and expression of dissent in India.
Sullivan indicated that President Biden would raise his concerns on human rights with Modi.
The 'Civil Society Report on Climate Change' prepared by the Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change -- a conglomerate of 40 scientific think-tanks from as many countries, including the US, the UK and Italy -- that was released today clearly says that 'cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the coming two decades is not a cost-effective way to address climate change". The report was released by deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
The situation in minority-dominated Lilong Chingjao area in Manipur's Thoubal district, where four villagers were gunned down by unidentified assailants, remained calm but tense on Tuesday as additional security forces were deployed, an official said.
'Everyone's voice must be heard. We will be talking to both Kukis and Meiteis'
