Uttarakhand’s travails continue: the rain gods refuse to relent; hillsides crumble; missing pilgrims and villagers have been given up as dead; zero to inadequate relief has reached trapped human and animal survivors. Politicians and economists will quibble over the quantum of loss and funds necessary to rebuild the State, but … Read More
In a startling development with far reaching repercussions for Indian society and polity, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on July 11, 2013, banned caste-based rallies in Uttar Pradesh and issued notices to the Central and State Governments, Election Commission, and four major political parties – the Bharatiya … Read More
MHA plays dirty over case, meddles with original charge sheet: Certain high profile terrorist incidents which have ensnared Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, and others on grounds of ‘Hindu terror’ or counter terror, even though the initial investigations suggested the involvement of known terrorist outfits, may … Read More
The unseemly triumphalism with which the Congress has handled the alleged fake encounter of Mumbai girl Ishrat Jehan and her three companions – smuggler Javed Sheikh and Pakistanis Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar – has so muddied the waters that the case can no longer be limited to the … Read More
Caged parrot CBI employs special parameters to investigate case: Mumbai girl Ishrat Jehan and her three male companions were abducted by the Gujarat police at different times, held at different locations, and then brought together for elimination by staged encounter at the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004 … Read More
In view of the sharp twists in the Malegaon blasts cases of 2006 and 2008, completely overturning and making a mockery of investigations by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) and foreign agencies like the US Department of Treasury, some basic questions arise about the functioning and very legality of … Read More
Congress can’t defend decision with bad math, promise of investment The Tamil Nadu chief minister has rightly questioned the legitimacy of the Congress-led UPA government’s decision to virtually double the price of natural gas from April 1, 2014, when its mandate expires in May 2014. Logically, any decision should only … Read More
Kedarnath and Badrinath, two most beloved northern tirthas, have for the past two weeks witnessed an apocalyptic spectacle of pralaya with an enraged god and angry goddess stomping a dance of death in fierce tandem. As clouds burst, mountainsides crumbled, and torrential streams hurtled multistoried buildings, hydel projects, roads, humans … Read More
Maoist sympathiser Sheetal Sathe was granted bail from the Bombay High Court on Thursday, June 27, 2013, on humanitarian grounds (being in an “advanced stage of pregnancy”) after the Public Prosecutor’s office did not oppose the bail plea. Sathe becomes the third Naxalite to receive bail from Justice Abhay Thipsay; … Read More
The unseemly controversy over assistance rendered and offered by a State Chief Minister to flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, particularly the peevish behaviour of the Union Home Minister in trying to obstruct his visit on grounds that it could hinder relief efforts, deserves careful scrutiny on several counts. What is relevant here is … Read More
