-The Hoot The coverage given to Thackeray’s death by some television channels was overwhelmingly disproportionate to his contribution to people’s well-being. The comments made by the “experts” were toned by the fear of Sena reprisal, says KALPANA SHARMA. Can Indian news television plumb greater depths? The blanket coverage of Bal Thackeray’s death and funeral on some channels would make any self-respecting journalist hang her head in shame. What were they thinking?...

-The Hindu Sequence of attacks on “well-known business units” suggests violence was not spontaneous Last week’s violence in Faizabad district during the Durga Puja procession which left two persons dead, several injured and dozens of shops razed, was executed in a planned manner and the targets had been selected, according to a fact-finding team and accounts by victims and eyewitnesses. The fact-finding team of human rights organisation Rihai Manch said the sequence of...

-The HIndu In what’s being called a reverse sting, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) chairman Naveen Jindal has released video recordings which allegedly show Zee editors trying to extort Rs. 100 crore in return for the channel not airing damaging stories on coal block allocations involving his company. In a counter-offensive, Zee claims that it was JSPL which offered to pay the channel. At a dramatic press conference on Thursday, Mr. Jindal,...

-The Hindu Chautala echoes Haryana khap panchayat demand; rape not a black-and-white law and order issue, says Renuka Chowdhury Even as the former Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, backed demands for new laws that will allow marriage of teenagers saying it would help end the surge in sexual crimes reported from across the State in recent weeks, a senior Congress leader has said that the State’s rape crisis was not a...

-Live Mint He is at the head of a march to Delhi for a new policy that promises every poor family a small patch of land Morena (Madhya Pradesh): One hot Friday in October, a 64-year-old man named P.V. Rajagopal is marching at the head of a procession of around 50,000 people on the highway from Gwalior to Delhi.   Rajagopal is slight and heavily sunburnt, and has walked tens of thousands of kilometres...