The BJP has wrenched power in “yet another state”. The Congress is looking at long-term gains by refusing to back Shibu Soren. But the Jharkhand verdict has also opened the eyes of the two mainline parties to a disturbing realisation: their failure to “nurture” tribal leaders. “Both of us stand exposed as out-and-out upper caste parties who have failed to create, and worse, nurture tribal leadership. The mandate’s message is the...

The Centre's fresh move to create 15,000 more courts appears to have fallen short of the estimation of Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan as he thinks the lower judiciary needs at least 35,000 judges as against the existing 16,000 to tackle the huge backlog of 2.71 crore cases. Law minister Veerappa Moily's initiative saw the cabinet clear a decision to create 15,000 more courts, but a Bench comprising...

Much like the tsunami waves that devastated many coastal areas five years ago, the closing weeks of 2009 saw an ill wind sweeping across many of our democratic institutions, highlighting that beneath the veneer of the nation’s aspirations towards great power status was a crumbling institutional core. To look at the fourth estate first. The preface to the Press Council of India’s “Norms of Journalistic Conduct” has a section that...

Bihar has become the first State to reject the commercial cultivation of genetically modified or Bt brinjal, if only temporarily. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said the issue was carefully considered by the Rajya Kisan Ayog, which, after deliberations with farmers, agricultural scientists and agricultural officers was of the opinion that there should be an adequate number of trials to see its performance in different agro-climatic conditions in Bihar. Such...

Ironically, the Right to Information (RTI) Act is being used to unseat Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah himself.    Using documents got using the Act, Mumbai-based RTI activist Girish Mittal on Monday served a legal notice on the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Ministry of Personnel & Grievances (DoPT) saying that Habibullah, whose resignation is still hanging fire, is being accorded preferential treatment and that he should be relieved...