-The Times of India Ranchi/ BOKARO: Maoist activities and presence of a number of splinter groups are deterring construction of new roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in the hinterland. Sources in the Jharkhand State Rural Road Development Authority (JSRRDA) said construction of a number of roads under the central scheme has either not started or has stopped due to Maoist problem. There are many places in Latehar, Gumla and...

-DNA Even as Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi goes on showcasing his state as a case study in development, the centuries-old evil practice of not allowing Dalits to enter temples still plagues a village in Ahmedabad district. Around 100 Dalit families of Galsana village in Dhandhuka taluka are testimony to the backwardness that still prevails the state in many areas of social life. Upper caste members of the village do not allow...

-The Hindu Caste might be cast in stone judging from the way the dominant discourse gets conducted in India “Caste is the most overwhelming factor in Indian life. Those who deny it in principle also accept it in practice. Life moves within the frontiers of caste and cultured men speak in soft tones against the system of caste, while its rejection in action just does not occur to them...” Socialist thinker Ram...

-The Hindu The ground beneath Arundhati Roy’s seismic claims on the Parliament House attack, is shaky — to say the least “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions”, the American politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan — among others — is credited with having said, “but not to his own facts.” Muhammad Afzal Guru’s execution on Saturday morning — a grim spectacle, where the Indian government disgraced itself by denying his family a last meeting,...

-Manorama Online In the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon, four characters have differing recollections of the SAMe event. Did the SAMurai stab himself with his wife's dagger? Which of them, if any, is telling the truth? I felt like this after the session at last month's Jaipur Literature Festival during which Ashis Nandy said, among other odd things, “It is a fact that most of the corrupt come from the...