-The Hindu Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on Wednesday demanded an independent inquiry into the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which has pointed out serious lapses and wrongdoings in the Rs. 52,000-crore farm debt waiver scheme. Ms. Karat was talking to journalists at the party office here, before resuming her programme of “Sangharsh Sandesh Jatha,” which began from Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on March 4. She said...

-The Hindu By allowing futures trade in food and diversion of farm land for commercial purposes, the UPA government is fuelling the price rise International agencies are warning of high food prices on a global scale in 2013 if urgent action is not taken. But our government shows little concern. The President’s address to Parliament had only a cursory mention of inflation. “Inflation is easing gradually, but is still a problem,” he...

-The Hindu New Delhi having ratified the U.N. Convention on the rights of the disabled in 2007, it is time the government enacted fresh legislation to replace the 1995 law The national convention for youth with disabilities earlier this month in New Delhi may not have been greeted with the kind of euphoria that is occasioned whenever the country’s youth-power becomes a talking point. But there were enough indications during the two-day...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Are people in Tamil Nadu more likely to protest in public against a perceived injustice? Data from the Union home ministry appears to suggest so. The state recorded 15,746 demonstrations in 2011, an average of 44 a day, more than any other state in the country. Uttarakhand was a distant second, with 8,610 protests, according to figures from the home ministry's Bureau of Police Research and Development. Maharashtra...

-The Telegraph It is the time for West Bengal to create landmarks. First, the denial of a rape; second, the arrest of an academic for circulating a cartoon; third, a public circus with the winners of the Indian Premier League; fourth, the mimicry of the prime minister on television; fifth, the announcement of sop after sop even though the state is bankrupt; sixth, the announcement in the hills of being “rough...