New Delhi, April 12 (IANS) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani Tuesday criticised social activist Anna Hazare’s supporters for painting all politicians black, and said there were still ‘conscientious and upright’ politicians in the country who gave people ‘optimism and confidence for the future’.  read more »

AHMEDABAD: Several voluntary organisations and “concerned citizens” fighting for human rights have condemned the “indiscriminate” detention of some human right activists and trade union leaders, branding them “Naxalites.”

“It has become an obsession with the Gujarat government and its police to brand human right activists Naxalites to stifle the voice of protest by the poor and the downtrodden. Civil society need to stand up against such undemocratic methods of the police to curb dissensions against the government administration,” Hiren Gandhi, director of “Darshan,” a voluntary organisation, human rights activist and advocate Girish Patel, and several others said here on Tuesday.

They were particularly protesting against the detention earlier this week of a Dalit leader, Ambubhai Vaghela Srinivas Sattayya Kurapati alias Kishore, who hails from Andhra Pradesh but has made Gujarat his work place for the last eight years or so, and his young wife, Hansaben.  read more »