-PTI Activist Binayak Sen on Monday demanded repeal of sedition laws, saying they were being used to "suppress" the voice of the people. "Sedition laws are not benefiting free people in free polity and they should be repealed. The law is being used to suppress the voice of the people," Sen, currently on Bail after being convicted on charges of sedition by a Chhattisgarh court for his alleged links to Naxals,...

Dr Binayak Sen has given a double blow to the state administration of Chattisgarh. First, the Supreme Court rejected the sedition charges levelled against him for which the state courts found him guilty. And then he was appointed to the 40-member steering committee on health in the planning commission. The Chattisgarh government has been vocally protesting against Sen's appointment, saying that he still remains a convict out on Bail and should...

-PTI   A magistrate court here on Saturday granted Bail to a city journalist arrested by the Government Railway Police under the Official Secrets Act. Tarakant Dwivedi, alias Akela, was arrested on May 18 for his article in Mumbai Mirror on how the weapons, bought after the 26/11 attacks and kept in an armoury, were damaged by rain due to leaks in the roof. He was booked for trespass and related non-Bailable offences. The court released...

Chhattisgarh’s BJP government has decided to abstain from Planning Commission meetings in protest against the inclusion of Binayak Sen in its steering committee on health. Chief minister Raman Singh has told TV channels that an elected government cannot attend meetings where a “convict” will be present. Senior state officials, though, said that bureaucrats would be sent to plan panel meetings on financial matters such as outlays and projects. Skipping these meetings can...

TARN TARAN, India—India's northern state of Punjab was once a symbol of the nation's economic progress, its advances in agriculture lauded world-wide as a spectacular feat that made India self-sufficient in food production. But Punjab today faces a grave economic crisis, the result of years of shoddy governance that have stunted growth and created such a mound of public debt that the state is now seeking a multibillion dollar Bailout from...