The Congress today appears besieged and beleaguered with key allies and even members from its own ranks lining up behind the combined Opposition in vehemently opposing the Manmohan Singh government’s decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail. But, paradoxically, this state of siege — reflected by the prolonged deadlock in Parliament with a quasi no-confidence motion hanging over it — also gives the Grand Old Party a great opportunity not just...

Plutarch's Life of Dion contains an interesting anecdote of Dionysius, an avowed and established tyrant, killing his captain, Marsyas. Marsyas had dreamt of cutting Dionysius's throat, and Dionysius killed Marsyas on account of his dream. He based his decision on the assumption that Marsyas would not have dreamt of such a thing by night if he had not thought of it by day. In his seminal work The Spirit of Laws...

Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh admitted lapses of the past but spoke of a new beginning today in Saranda while unveiling an action plan for the forest region that was under the shadow of Maoist terror for over a decade. Armed with goodies like bicycles and transistor radios for residents of Chotanagra panchayat, about 120km from district headquarters of Chaibasa, Ramesh made it clear that the implementation of the development...

Seek adequate compensation from Carbide, Dow Chemical On the 27th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy on Saturday, victims and survivors, still waiting for relief, will register their protest by launching an indefinite rail roko andolan (stop trains). “On December 3, please don't travel by train. Change your reservations now. We are sorry to cause you inconvenience but stopping the trains is the only effective way we can think of to get...

It also goes back on new method of appointment of CBI Director A day after the Parliamentary Standing Committee attached to the Union Ministry of Personnel finalised its report on the Lokpal Bill, Congress MPs forced the holding of an emergency meeting on Thursday to go back on two key decisions taken on Wednesday: the ruling party MPs on the Standing Committee have now withdrawn the assent they had given to...