We have elections coming up in five states, notably giant -- thus politically crucial -- Uttar Pradesh. We have an Indian Cricket team seemingly determined to eat crow. We have yet another brouhaha over Salman Rushdie. But my electricity bill is in front of me, so I want to talk about food -- and those who prepare food. What, you may well wonder, is the connection between the two? The bill is made...

-The Hindu   “The intent is clear. Keep the people drugged so they do not revolt against poverty” Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman Justice Markandey Katju on Sunday called upon journalists to play a seminal role in promoting scientific and rational ideas in society and raise the intellectual level of the masses by extricating them from the morass of superstition, casteism, bigotry, communalism and feudal tendencies. Delivering the Jhabarmal Sharma memorial lecture here,...

The Youth Congress has a question: why can some company not buy the potatoes that Punjab’s farmers are throwing on the streets and sell them in Kerala where the crop’s price is as high as Rs 18 a kg? The answer, for the outfit being groomed under the guidance of Rahul Gandhi, is foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail. That’s the message from the monthly Youth Congress newsletter, which has now been...

-The Hindustan Times   Team Anna was left red-faced on Friday when the Bombay high court said what was “satyagraha” for it could be a “nuisance” for others. Worse, in a face-saving move later, Anna Hazare publicly denounced his team's decision to move court — and get snubbed in the process — as “wrong”, calling his followers “overenthusiastic”. Team Anna had sought an exemption or discount on the rental for the Bandra-Kurla Complex grounds...

The Republic of India has a billion (and more) citizens who, at any given time, are involved in a thousand (and more) controversies. Knowing which controversy is the most significant is always hard, and often impossible, to judge. Even so, we can be fairly certain that 2011 will go down in Indian history as the year of the Great Lokpal Debate, just as 1962 was the year of the war...