To many Indians, the word “politician” invariably invokes familiar scenes of din and disruption in Parliament, if not the taint of corruption. Yet from time to time, a little-noticed — and perhaps rather quaint — parliamentary tradition tends to suggest that at least some of India’s MPs may have a place in their heart for issues concerning the ordinary citizen. Of the 79 private members’ bills listed today in the Lok Sabha’s...

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday threatened to bring her anger to the streets of New Delhi and launch an agitation in the capital if the Centre didn't give in to her demand for a moratorium on debt repayment. In a rare and exclusive interview to TOI at the Writers' Buildings in Kolkata, the Trinamool Congress chief didn't once utter the words "threat" or "pullout", but her message was...

The National Advisory Council will ask the Centre to focus the ongoing socio-economic caste census on enumerating and classifying denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, or DNTs. The plan is to give these groups priority while issuing unique identity cards and introducing laws that will grant them explicit recognition on the lines of the 1992 statute on minorities. The NAC said special directives must be issued to the housing and urban poverty alleviation...

Free travel is becoming an acceptable norm in former railway minister Mamata Banerjee’s signature train — the non-stop Duronto. Launched in 2010 during Banerjee’s tenure, the Duronto was the only Indian train that did not permit free rail travel. However, things changed after Banerjee quit as the railway minister to take charge as the CM of West Bengal in May 2011. At first, MPs inched their way into the Duronto on free...

-The Telegraph Ambika Soni today voiced surprise that Trinamul was protesting the June 30 deadline for digitisation of TV in Bengal despite the junior I&B minister being from that party and aware of the decision taken last year. Both Houses of Parliament had passed the Cable Television Networks Regulation (amendment) Bill last December to ensure digitisation of TV transmission and distribution in the four metros by June 2012 and across the country...