The 2002 Gujarat riots victims gathered at Naroda Patiya and sent an open letter to Narendra Modi seeking justice. Here's the full text of the letter: Dear Narendrabhai Why do you have to undertake this Sadbhavna Mission by observing three days upvaas?? No other Chief Minister of the 26 States in India has to do such a prayaschit to earn sadbhavna! Have you finally realized after about a decade that all the...

As Anna Hazare was being whisked away in a SUV, a Rajouri Garden trader turned to the hassled cops, who had wrestled with him and thousands of others to ensure smooth passage for the activist's vehicle, and pleaded with folded hands "Thank you so much sir". Red-faced, the cops looked away. Delhi rediscovered Gandhigiri on Tuesday when the West is veering towards violent protests and their aggressive stifling. For instance, last...

-The Business Standard   Remember the food riots of 2008? Is the world heading towards another food crisis? That, worryingly, seems to be the conclusion that a new publication on food prices and availability in the next decade (2011-20), issued jointly by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), arrives at. The OECD-FAO report forecasts agricultural commodity prices, in real terms,...

From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars. In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10. If, however, you live in New Delhi, those skyrocketing costs really matter: A doubling in...

The dun wheat field spreading out at Ravi P. Singh's feet offered a possible clue to human destiny. Baked by a desert sun and deliberately starved of water, the plants were parched and nearly dead. Dr. Singh, a wheat breeder, grabbed seed heads that should have been plump with the staff of life. His practiced fingers found empty husks. “You're not going to feed the people with that,” he said. But then, over...