-The Hindu   A 14-year-old Adivasi boy died in firing allegedly by CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) commandos of the Central Reserve Police Force at Dolamara in Assam's Karbi Anglong district on Thursday morning. Irate villagers attacked the Dolamara police station, demanding stern action against those responsible for the death of Boga Garh. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has ordered a magisterial probe and announced an ex gratia of Rs. 3 lakh to...

Perennially hungry Chotanagra panchayat, 120km from district headquarters Chaibasa, may be forgiven for rubbing its eyes today in disbelief at the sight of a piping hot lunch. Amid the flurry of goodies — from land to tube well repair kits to tricycles — distributed by Union minister Jairam Ramesh, chief minister Arjun Munda and his deputies, what starving villagers relished most were steamed rice, mashed vegetables and eggs, courtesy the Central...

Markandey Katju's forthright comments on the state of the Indian news media and the intellectual competence of many journalists have certainly raised many hackles. One does not have to agree with everything the chairman of the Press Council of India diagnoses or prescribes to see that his observations have hit home. Nor are his concerns confined to how and in what respects journalism and many journalists go astray and let...

Varavara Rao says it was a fake encounter; CRPF terms it an ‘absolutely clean operation' A day after Communist Party of India (Maoist) Polit Bureau member Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji was gunned down by the joint security forces in the Burisole forest in Paschim Medinipur district, Maoist sympathisers and security forces on Friday traded allegations and came out with counter-claims on whether he was killed in a “fake encounter.”  While revolutionary poet...

CHANDRAWAL, India—Satbir Sharma's wife is dead. His family lives in fear. His father's left leg is shattered, leaving him on crutches for life.   Sharma's only hope lies in a new law that gives him the right to know what is happening in the investigation of his wife's death. Most of all, he wants to know what will happen to the village mayor, now in jail on murder charges. He talks quietly, under...