Court settles the class issue, but the real challenges of RTE have to be met The debate over the Right to Education is beginning to display characteristic symptoms of Indian debates. Elites are inventing specious arguments to condone the economic apartheid in the current system. But India’s self-appointed anti-elites are often even more elitist. They are more fixated on taking down elites a peg or two rather than intelligently fixing real...

The Supreme Court's recent mandate that private unaided non-minority schools should reserve 25 per cent of seats for underprivileged children is being hailed as a landmark ruling. The spirit of the decision is indeed laudable as it reflects the egalitarian ethos of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Thus, as private schools open their doors to children from marginalised sections of society, the government pats itself on the back for...

-PTI The issue of police lathicharge on tribals figured in the Chhattisgarh Assembly today with main Opposition Congress demanding a probe into the incident. Police yesterday cane-charged and lobbed teargas shells to disperse tribals who were on their way to `gherao' Chhattisgah Assembly here in support of their various demands, including 32 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutes. Nearly 1,000 adivasis were arrested by the police. Agitated Congress members...

While agreeing in principle on the need to have an effective anti-terrorism mechanism on the lines of the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), almost all States on Monday emphasised the need to make them an “effective stakeholder'' in all aspects of counter-terrorism domain. At a day-long meeting of the State police chiefs, Chief Secretaries and Home Secretaries, presided over by Union Home Secretary R. K. Singh, top officials wanted more...

-The Economic Times The attempt of Central Information Commission (CIC), the final appellate authority for implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act, to bring transparency in the functioning of ministries and autonomous bodies has come a cropper with the government refusing information to the panel itself. CIC has been facing a problem making public authorities (government departments, apex bodies, autonomous organisations and ministries) divulge details on how they are implementing RTI...