Endangered in the urban jungleFriday, May 17, 2013,09:42:04 AM
The Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh is not only a tragedy of epic proportions: it is the result of utter criminality. It happened on 24 April and rescue work is still going on.....
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What is water worth?Friday, May 10, 2013,08:30:27 AM
He was nothing like I expected. A serving municipal officer in charge of the water department of a local ward, he was softspoken and urbane, with uncommon empathy. He showed a map of the ward. "Our ward," he said, "is is perhaps the only ward, which, if we divide it north-south shows all the rich on one side....
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Legal words : lost in translationFriday, May 03, 2013,09:35:48 AM
In some form or the other, we all run up against the law. Some have the great good fortune not to have to tangle with those who practice (and preach) law, but everyone has to deal with some manifestation of a legal regime, at work, at home, ....
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Chronicle of a rape foretoldFriday, April 26, 2013,08:13:21 AM
Without comment: Times, 5/2/2009: 18-month-old raped by neighbour. Times, 4/10/ 2010: Woman gang raped in Khar by neighbours. Times, 9/10/2010: Stepfather held for raping 9-year-old girl. Times, 12/ 10/2010: Not only father, uncle had also raped minor girls in Nagpur. Mirror, 7/11/2010: Teacher ....
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The curious case of Gir lionsFriday, April 19, 2013,07:55:45 AM
Newspaper reports would have us believe that this was a political tussle between the neighbouring states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, dumbing down a serious issue to something infantile, like two children squabbling over a plaything. It is anything but. Whether some lions from Gujarat's Gir....
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The consent conFriday, April 05, 2013,11:01:09 AM
The day the President gave his assent to what is called the anti-rape bill, a woman of 26 was assaulted at a nightclub in New Delhi. When he tried to intervene, her male friend was beaten by four men. The more it changes, the more it remains the same. What has this bill changed? On....
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Rules and rulersFriday, March 29, 2013,08:20:42 AM
If someone asked any one of us to write an impressionistic description of this country, the chances are that we’d come up with every one of those old bromides: snake charmers, the Great Indian Rope Trick, the Taj Mahal. A more contemporary iteration should, I believe, include what is now becoming our ....
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Killing animals for sportFriday, March 22, 2013,07:28:59 AM
Some years ago, at one of those mindnumbing and raucous dinner events that are sometimes inescapable, a wellbuilt man then in his forties was holding court, extolling to his fawning audience the many pleasures of hunting animals. He spoke of sitting on the hood of a 4x4 in ....
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Defeating justiceFriday, March 15, 2013,08:56:17 AM
Ram Singh, the prime accused in last December’s ghastly gangrape in New Delhi, is said to have hanged himself from a ventilation grill in his cell in Tihar Jail. The officials call it suicide, but the improbabilities are impossible to ignore. ....
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Hawker versus PedestrianFriday, March 08, 2013,08:56:23 AM
This is a familiar sight. A police wagon rolls up. The street bursts into frenetic activity - shouts, calls, men running wildly, wooden racks and trays being gathered and squirreled away into the some recess between buildings. ....
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Missing the wood for the treesFriday, March 01, 2013,08:07:29 AM
An indicator of the bankruptcy of our times is that so much of the media, at least in this country, believes that if someone has money, influence or power — or better still all three — then he or she is qualified to pronounce on any field under the sun. This is why vacuous pronouncements by....
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The lives of othersFriday, February 22, 2013,07:32:45 AM
It’s a day that begins like any other. A man rides his daughter to school on his motorcycle. A lady alights from an autorickshaw. A group enters a café. And then it all turns inside out and upside down as a car careens into a one-way street the wrong way. In the mayhem that follows — “carnage” might be....
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Shadows of what is to comeFriday, February 08, 2013,07:33:08 AM
Ministers repeatedly say that our government is committed to the protection of the fundamental right to free speech. More and more, these assurances sound hollow; every day there is some renewed assault that finds voice in criminal action against speakers, writers, singers, artists. ....
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A battle cry for gender justiceFriday, February 01, 2013,08:09:31 AM
In this country, we have to come to expect that specially appointed commissions and committees will fulfill their charter in the most leisurely way, grinding for years together till the events that led to their formation, and even their purpose, become but the dimmest of memories. The Justice JS Verma....
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All quid, neither pro nor quoFriday, January 25, 2013,08:05:22 AM
Important message for savings account holders having Aadhaar/ UID number issued by UIDAI,” says the message on my bank’s online banking page. I follow the link.....
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Not the one you seekFriday, January 18, 2013,08:09:36 AM
Recent events that have occupied so much of our time and attention have also goaded some, among them a surprising number of young men and women, into blaming modern communication technology and cinema for our apparent fall from if not a state of grace then certainly a condition of decency. ....
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The nirvana fallacyFriday, January 04, 2013,08:06:56 AM
When we set about refashioning the law to better secure justice, populism is our worst enemy. It leads us into framing statutes that look good on paper but are impossible to enforce, or, worse, do not achieve their objective. Citizens’ responses to the Delhi gang rape case have been astonishing in many ....
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To seek justice, not revengeFriday, December 28, 2012,08:58:09 AM
When we talk of amending the law on rape to provide for chemical castration, the death penalty and other forms of state-sponsored brutalisation, we seek revenge, and revenge is not justice. Baying for blood pulls us into the gutter too, to the level of perpetrators. Let us not speak only of the law on rape, for that is ....
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Pity the poor IPL fan. All this brouhaha about illegal betting and spot-fixing assumes that the IPL cricket fan is a complete fool. So the police have found there is betting on IPL matches, and parts of games are being fixed. ....
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