The month of March started with the visit of royalty in the form of George Bush who toured South Asia in the first week. Protests marred the warm welcome accorded by a fawning Indian Prime Minster and his cohorts. People protested not only in the cities he chose to visit but even where he didn't go. The protests in Delhi and Mumbai were significant for the broad alliance of the left, Muslim organizations, NGOs and others, which came together for massive protests, especially in Mumbai.

March 8th was International Women's Day there were marches and other programs in different parts of the country. Interestingly many mainstream media channels and even corporate marketing campaigns chose to take note of the occasion making use of it for the purposes of pushing cosmetics, beauty pageants, and such.

On March 7th the Supreme Court passed an order in the Mumbai's mill lands case awarding big builder contractors and mill owners a bonanza in terms of real estate and lack of accountability to planning and the needs of the city. Organisations in Mumbai came together in a show of unity to fight the order and demand legislation from the state government to hand over part of the land to the city for public spaces, low cost housing and infrastructure.

We also have Resolution of the delegates to the conference on 'Peace and Justice in South Asia' that was held in Mumbai in the last week of February.