Subterfuge is the favourite tool of the corrupt, when caught. That seems to be the case as the Union ministry of commerce and industry proceeds at an elephantine pace in its “inquiry” into the Rs 2,500-crore rice export scam reported in Outlook. Last year, on July 30, Parliament erupted in a furore over the revelation that despite a strict ban on exports, tonnes of 25 per cent broken, non-Basmati rice...

Orissa Dalit Mahasabha today demanded immediate dismissal and arrest of a senior minister accused of passing derogatory remarks against some people belonging to the scheduled caste community. Five dalit organisations held a rally here under the banner of Orissa Dalit Mahasabha where leaders cutting across partylines demanded Damodar Rout''s resignation and arrest. Rout, who is also vice-president of the ruling BJD, had at a public meeting in Kujang of Jagatsinghpur district on...

Two days after the government scrapped a bauxite mining project in Orissa, Rahul Gandhi visited Niyamgiri, the ground zero of the anti-mine protests and told tribals that he was their sipahi in Delhi. Around the same time, farmers in Uttar Pradesh said they wouldn’t sell their land at the rates the government was offering. India is growing fast, but hassles over the acquisition of land are going to be the...

A letter written by the attorney general to environment and forest minister Jairam Ramesh proves that the SC had never granted forest clearance for the Vedanta project on its own nor did it restrict the ministry's role on the issue. The letter is in contrast to the allegations made by Orissa government and BJD leaders that the SC had granted forest clearance to the project and that the Centre's decision...

Four days after a government-appointed expert panel recommended that Vedanta Resources should not be allowed to go ahead with its bauxite mining project in the Niyamgiri hills of Orissa, the Congress announced that its general secretary Rahul Gandhi would be visiting Niyamgiri on August 26. In a report to Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, the expert panel headed by N C Saxena, a retired IAS officer who is a...