Last week, the Supreme Court granted bail to Binayak Sen, the doctor and civil rights activist who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Raipur on the charge of sedition. Sen was charged with being a Naxalite sympathizer, and of acting as a courier for the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The verdict of the lower court had been widely condemned. The proceedings were farcical; with no...

Has the battle between good and bad been lost again? Can we remain silent at the insidious adventures of some elements trying to scare away public-spirited people? The national capital is an excessively pampered city. Mindboggling amounts of money have been poured into it for improving infrastructure. This exercise has undeniably yielded dividends. Supreme among the additions to the average citizen's comfort is the metro built by Sridharan who, incidentally, is...

The Jaitapur nuclear power project has drawn blood even before its boundary wall is ready. One person was killed in police firing on Monday, which by all accounts was unnecessary to disperse peaceful protesters. There was arson in Madban, at the site’s centre, which gutted some grass and a part of a tiny makeshift shed belonging to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. The police went berserk and intruded into...

One person was killed in police firing and several were injured as the protest against the nuclear power plant in Jaitapur turned violent on Monday. Thirty protesters including Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi were arrested, Ratnagiri Collector Madhukar Gaikwad told The Hindu. A protester was killed in the firing and a policeman was grievously injured in stone-throwing, he said.  “Two separate incidents happened during the day,” Mr. Gaikwad said. “In the morning,...

Binayak Sen walked out of prison this evening to warm hugs from his mother, wife, daughters and friends but not before technical problems relating to his bail threatened to stall his release today. Eventually, the frail 61-year-old in kurta-pyjamas emerged from Raipur Central Jail a couple of hours later than expected, ending his four-month stay behind bars under a bail condition that requires him to surrender his passport. The rights activist, granted...