IT IS one of the inspirational legends of Indian journalism that James Hickey, founder and editor of the Bengal Gazette — this country’s first newspaper, with its first edition going back to January 1780 — was a fearless seeker of the truth, taken to court and imprisoned by Warren Hastings, then governor-general. Reality is a little different. Hickey’s paper was often a gossipy, yellow rag. It thought nothing of publishing scurrilous...

The United Progressive Alliance government on Monday chalked out its first multi-winged operation to tackle the problem of Naxalism through development programmes, implemented under the protection of Central security forces. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh finalised the action plan for Saranda forest area in Jharkhand, considered to be the second stronghold of the Maoists in the country, with Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto at a meeting attended by officials...

“Both government and Naxals are sincere about the peace process” Time-frames — whether the seven-day deadline set on October 15 by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for Maoists in the State's Jangalmahal region to lay down arms and sit for negotiations or the month-long truce offered earlier by the left wing extremists in return for suspension of joint security operations against them — could always be extended and kept flexible if the...

With the focus now on the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, scheduled for early next year, the Congress led-UPA government has once again displayed its keenness to position itself with the agitating farmers by trying to ensure the passage of the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill during the winter session of Parliament. Assuming that the Parliamentary Standing Committee attached to his department is likely to give all stakeholders a fair...

What began as a few whispers is now a booming drumbeat. Powerful senior ministers are asserting that the Right to Information Act (RTI), till now flaunted as one of the UPA government’s biggest gifts to the aam aadmi, is “transgressing into government functioning”. Similar misgivings are being voiced on another constitutional body that has been in the news lately—the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). Put together, this has...