Farmer protests in Gujarat; the fate of Kaziranga's grazing communities; universal patterns of sound use in languages; and more

[View this email in your browser]( Top Story [Farmers Protest in Gujarat as Government Starts Taking Possession of Land Acquired in 1997]( Damayantee Dhar [The Gujarat Power Corporation Limited is planning to establish a thermal power plant, construct a colony, have an area for ash dumping and mine for lignite on the 3,000-plus acres of land in Bhavnagar. In 1997, consent was taken from the villagers in the area. However, no attempts were made to take possession of the land until December last year. Reportedly, the fact that the thermal power plant in the area was commissioned in 2017, and not 2000 as originally planned, initiated the process of taking possession. On February 15, one day before the Gujarat high court was to hear the case, villagers claim that about 1,200 police personnel swarmed into the 12 villages. Roads between the villages were blocked. Reportedly, there was one deputy superintendent of police (DySp), ten inspectors, 15 sub-inspectors, 70 policewomen and 15 personnel from the mounted police division present.]( [Modi and Jaitley Cannot Pretend Over-Invoicing Doesn’t Happen in India at a Massive Scale]( M.K. Venu [Whether it is the diamond business or a big infrastructure project, the modus operandi remains the same – inflate project costs and get the banks and taxpayers to foot the bill.]( [Watch: Lawyer Vrinda Grover on Why Top Cop in Ishrat Jahan Case Must Face Trial]( The Wire Staff [Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Wire, interviews Vrinda Grover, lawyer of Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kauser about the discharge of the accused former Gujarat DGP P.P. Pandey.]( [‘Sign the Papers and Agree to Surrender or We Will Kill You in an Encounter’]( Sukanya Shantha [In 2003, as part of its anti-Naxal drive, the Maharashtra government began rewarding villages for being ‘Naxal-free’. This process included picking up non-Naxals and making it look like a voluntary ‘surrender’.]( [As Kaziranga Expands, the Fate of Grazing Communities Hangs in the Balance]( Eleonora Fanari and Pranab Doley [The sixth addition of Kaziranga National Park, situated in the northern bank of Brahmaputra, is raising fresh fears of eviction.]( [Scientists Elicit Universal Pattern of Sound Use in Languages]( G.B.S.N.P. Varma [We use a smaller variety of sounds with which to end words than we do to begin them. This piece of information can help us get a lead on making sense of undeciphered languages.]( [Debate: The Supreme Court is Indeed Rescuing Secularism]( Rahul Unnikrishnan [The Supreme Court is not a supra-constitutional authority. At best, what it can do is to address questions of secularism when appropriate litigations on the said topics arise.]( [No Country for the Underprivileged: Govt’s Infrastructure Push Has Urban Poor Fighting for Homes]( The Wire Staff [A recent report shows that forced evictions in Indian cities have led to massive homelessness in 2017 even as the government’s record of resettling the poor and providing affordable housing remains abysmal.]( [What Explains Mob Lynchings Becoming the New Normal in India]( Abdul Kalam Azad [Why at this particular moment in history do members of one group consider members of another group as less than human?]( Copyright © 2018 The Wire, All rights reserved. You're getting this email because you recently subscribed to receive email digests from The Wire via our website. Our mailing address is: The Wire 13, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg Gole MarketNew Delhi 110001 India [Add us to your address book](//thewire.us11.list-manage.com/vcard?u=6b988b13445248b1268a308f2&id=4808224841) Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](