Faced with full demolition, the Adarsh housing society today said it would challenge the “mala fide” order in the high court even as it slammed environment minister Jairam Ramesh for his tearing hurry. “Right from day one, even before the show-cause notice was issued to the society, the minister has been saying the building would be demolished. It is a mala fide order. The minister seemed to be in a tearing...

While there will be general agreement that the judgement in Binayak Sen's case represents a gross miscarriage of justice, most people will attribute it to the overzealousness of a lower judicial functionary, or, at the most, to the prevailing atmosphere in the state of Chhattisgarh. If the trial had been held elsewhere, they would argue, Binayak would not have got the verdict he did. They are probably right, just as...

The first consignment of about 200 tonnes of onion imported by the government from Pakistan landed at the Mundra port in Gujarat today and is likely to reach Delhi on Tuesday. The government had asked state-owned trading agencies PEC and State Trading Corporation (STC) to import onion to boost domestic supply and rein in the soaring prices of the kitchen staple. Since Pakistan had banned trade of onion to India through land...

Why is the opposition to the UID scheme growing? The unique identity (UID) numbers being issued with much fanfare have no legal sanctity. This may surprise many who casually know about the UID scheme and believe it represents a progressive and transparent new India. The problem is, the Bill which proposes setting up an Authority mandated to issue such numbers was introduced in Parliament only in December 2010. This is yet to...

Some members of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council are in favour of a “compromise” on the food security bill after a committee appointed by the Prime Minister turned down their key recommendations yesterday. These members, speaking off the record, said they wanted to take the process forward and bring the bill in Parliament. However, this would be subject to the view that Sonia takes on the C. Rangarajan report. The bill,...