What is it that makes the Indian middle class treat their domestic help with such derision and abuse? In her nine years as a nurse working with rescued domestic workers in Delhi, Mariamma K. thought she had seen the worst. That was until 2010, when she and her colleagues went to rescue a 17-year-old girl from a home in west Delhi. Sangeeta was found with bite marks all over her body....

In unprecedented action, a senior professor of Jadavpur University and the secretary of a housing society in Kolkata had to spend Thursday night in jail for forwarding an e-mail that contained a cartoon featuring Trinamool Congress leaders Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi. They were charged with defamation and outraging the modesty of a woman.   Top officers in the Kolkata police confirmed that there was no parallel in the state...

-CNN-IBN   Even as the controversy surrounding the Arrest of Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra over a cartoon on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is still afresh, the West Bengal CID has initiated a probe into another complaint of cyber crime and defamation on social networking websites, including Facebook. The complainant, Sumon Naskar, had lodged a complaint at Salt Lake Electronic Complex police station on April 9 against caricatures and posts made on the...

-The Telegraph   The Congress leadership today took care not to rub Mamata Banerjee the wrong way despite its apparent unease over a cartoon episode that led to the Arrest of a professor in Bengal. There were instructions from the top to exercise restraint and spokespersons were told to avoid making any direct comment. At the official briefing, party spokesperson Manish Tiwari repeatedly said he was not aware of the details and making...

-The Times of India   The city police have launched a manhunt for four persons belonging to the Hindu community who they suspect triggered the communal disturbances in Old City last Sunday by hurling a piece of beef on the walls of the Hanuman Temple at Kurmaguda in Madannapet. All the four are residents of Kurmaguda and in their late twenties, police said, and claimed that the accused would be nabbed within...