If the Northeast has occupied the farthest nook of mainland India’s consciousness, the state of Manipur has been given the tiniest toehold on that nook. That is why the rest of the nation, as a rule, doesn’t think of the eight states (including Sikkim) beyond the chicken’s neck, except for news of death and gore. But gory news is largely and thankfully past, and tales from the Northeast, except about...

Two Indian air force Antonov transport aircraft arrive at Imphal airport. They are among several emergency missions carrying desperately needed supplies of food and medicines. For the past five weeks, two key highways linking this remote state in north-east India to the rest of the country have been blocked by supporters of an influential separatist leader from neighbouring Nagaland. Thuingaleng Muivah, who heads the NSCN (IM), a Naga group that carried...

UPA-II leadership is seen struggling with both food act and the achievement of its ministers. Numbers don’t add up Political leadership of the Congress party will take a final call on the number of people eligible to receive subsidised food-grain under the proposed national food security law. While a preliminary report of the Suresh Tendulkar Committee puts the number at 372 million, the government’s official estimates say it is only...

A military plane landed at the Tulihal airport here on Monday morning with 700 cartons of life-saving drugs from Guwahati. Life-saving drugs and many essential items became scarce in Manipur following a 41-day economic blockade imposed by Naga tribal students on two major highways. Routine surgeries were suspended in government and private hospitals due to lack of medical gas. Official sources said another plane was ready to airlift medical gas and...

RAJINDER SACHAR is one of India’s renowned civil rights activists. A former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Sachar has done pioneering work in enabling a legal framework to assist hundreds who stand accused by the police across India for waging war against the State, many of them with little or dubious evidence. Though 87 years old, Sachar continues to work tirelessly with one of India’s key rights groups,...