On the sixth day of his indefinite fast on Wednesday, N. Chandrababu Naidu's health showed significant deterioration causing concern to Telugu Desam Party leaders and his family members. Mr. Naidu rejected numerous appeals from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and leaders of parties across the political spectrum, including the TDP, to call off his fast. He insisted that the government concede all his demands to provide...

Retail price of onions has surged to Rs. 60-70 a kg within a couple of days NOCs will not be issued to exporters till January 15 Minimum export price raised to $1,200 a tonne The government on Monday announced suspension of onion exports till January 15 in a last-minute effort to cool prices of the poor man's essential vegetable from the prevailing high of Rs. 60-70 a kg. In a twin strategy, while the...

Since the last few years, Prashan Bhushan, senior lawyer, has fired up the Indian political scene through his missionary legal practice.In the legal fraternity he is a loner because he is, always, on the wrong side of the power set up in New Delhi. In fact, when one meets the slow and soft-speaker, he hardly looks like a lawyer who is capable of shaking-up the government and its cronies.But, his...

Whatever the justification given by journalists whose names have come up in the `Radiagate' expose, there is no question that it has forced much-needed introspection. For years, the cosiness between prominent media persons and both politicians and the corporate world had become blatant. But rarely to the point where it was flaunted as it is today. In many ways, the 24-hour-news format and television have made this evident with anchors...

For a government that has been busy granting the people of India rights to employment, education and food, the United Progress Alliance has been lackadaisical in protecting the citizens’ right to privacy. Industrialist Ratan Tata was, therefore, right to seek the protection of the Supreme Court in the matter relating to leaked tapes of telephone tapping undertaken by the Union government’s tax authorities. After finishing its internal investigations, the government...