-The Telegraph   Prior sanction shouldn’t be needed to prosecute any class of bureaucrats under any law, the parliamentary panel on the Lokpal bill has said in its report, which Team Anna dubbed a bid to “fool” people for ignoring its key demands. Another significant recommendation in the report, which was submitted today, is that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) look into complaints of corruption against Group C & D employees alone. On including...

Assailed from all sides, does the UPA really hope to recover its ‘image’ by muzzling online dissent? Kapil Sibal ko gussa kyon aata hai? Butt of online jokes: Politicians in 'tweaked' cinematic avatars. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. The UPA government has made it something of a fine art. Hardly had the ruckus over the decision to open up the retail sector to FDI died down than...

Our democracy is creaking, but it works—nominally at least. What it needs is not dilution, but deepening. When “Too Much Democracy” Works     Pressure in Parliament pushes PM Manmohan Singh to secure the resignation of telecom minister A. Raja in the 2G affair     The angst and trials of tribals in the Maoist bastion of Dantewada is sensed in Delhi after the media highlights their plight     People power at the sites of...

-IANS For over a year now a section of a Madhya Pradesh government website has not updated information on the Bhopal gas tragedy. And the facts and figures it gives out are two-three years old. The section of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, a part of www.mpinfo.org, was last updated Dec 9, 2010, while the facts and figures mentioned on it are of 2008 and 2009. The site, which has 10...

-The Telegraph   An encounter with hungry children at a government-run school left chief minister Arjun Munda apoplectic with rage on the second day of his road trip through Palamau. Munda’s interaction today with students of Classes I and III of Rajkiya Utkrisht Mahavidyalaya at Chhattarpur, about 35km from the Daltonganj circuit house, began with a question from him: “Kaisa lag raha hai, khana theek milta hai (How are you liking it, are...