A court judgment delivered earlier this year holds Important lessons for those engaged in investigating and fighting terrorism. Questioning the methods of terror investigation is always a challenge because it is so easily seen as defending the enemies of the nation. The exercise is monumentally difficult after a benumbing bomb attack — especially if it has been judged to be the work of a home-grown Islamist organisation. The raging anger at this...

The Lokpal Bill is in danger of skidding off the rails. As it is introduced in Parliament, eminent activist Aruna Roy tells Shoma Chaudhury why we should not rush into it. THE LOKPAL BILL is now being debated in Parliament, almost 40 years after the idea was first mooted. Unfortunately, parented on one side by decades of wilful government inertia and, on the other, by the panicked hustle of ‘Team...

The past couple of months have seen a renewed attack on the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC has been decried as an unconstitutional, undemocratic, “super-cabinet” where unaccountable “jholawalas” hatch harebrained schemes guaranteed to run the government aground. Another line of criticism has focused on the process of the formation of the NAC, its space within the Indian Constitution, and its capacity to influence policy. The two criticisms merge with...

If the Lokpal Bill presented to Parliament is a dud, Anna Hazare and his team must accept their share of the blame. They took their eyes off citizens and concentrated almost exclusively on big people in Important positions. What tempted them to take this stance? Is it because enemies in high places are better ego boosters than humble friends? For ordinary people it is of little consequence if the prime minister...

-PTI   The Supreme Court today asked an expert panel appointed by it to explore the possibility of exporting the unused stock of Endosulfan manufactured here to other countries. A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said the panel would also consider how much of the Endosulfan stock can be exported against the orders for supply of the pesticide from other countries. It also said the committee will also look into the...