-The Deccan Herald   Cover eight states, hold meetings in 87 villages   Rights groups released a report here demanding the implementation of Panchayats (Extention to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) and rights of the tribals in India.  The recommendations were based on the 39 days of foot march conducted by the Adivasi Janjati Adhikar Manch (AJAM), supported by ActionAid. The primary demand put forth by the tribals was implementation of PESA in Forest Rights Act, 2006...

The Supreme Court today refused to direct the Nanavati Commission to summon and question Narendra Modi about his alleged role in the 2002 riots, saying that doing so would amount to “judicial overreach”. The court’s decision followed an embarrassing gaffe it had made in the case a week ago, and would come as a relief to the Gujarat chief minister. Ironically enough, the two-judge bench had sought to issue notices on the...

The arrest of Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi in connection with the bomb attack on an Israeli embassy car raises many questions. AN uneasy silence fills the streets of B.K. Dutt Colony near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Named after the revolutionary freedom fighter Batukeshwar Dutt, who, along with Bhagat Singh, threw bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly on April 8, 1929, the nondescript colony has been...

The Budget provides proof of the United Progressive Alliance government having forgotten the importance of its own “flagship schemes”. BUDGET 2012-13 provides conclusive proof that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has lost its way. It has managed the remarkable feat of upsetting almost everyone and making no one happy. The Budget is highly regressive in both taxation and spending terms and will raise prices of essentials, so aam aurat and...

-Rediff.com President Pratibha Patil's wanderlust has cost the public exchequer a whopping Rs 205 crore on her foreign visits, surpassing the record of all her predecessors. Since assuming office as the country's first woman President in July 2007, Patil has undertaken 12 foreign trips covering 22 countries across four continents. She has four more months to go for her five-year tenure and a trip to South Africa is said to be on...