There are times when fathers and sons say the same things. In 2008, days after terrorists from Pakistan massacred scores of people in Mumbai, a group of affluent young couples met for dinner. They work in large corporations, hold university degrees from the United States and England, subscribe to The Economist and even read it. But it was inevitable that when the men started talking about how the Indian government was too...

The Union Government has announced that it would bring the Lokpal Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament which is expected to pass it in the winter session. The all-party meeting held on the Lokpal issue damned the Civil Society and passed a one-line resolution: “The all-party meeting agreed that the government should bring before the next session of Parliament a strong and effective Lokpal Bill following established procedures.” The...

The battle lines are drawn: it is the government versus "Civil Society" in India now. A controversial anti-corruption bill has been tabled in parliament, and a showdown with "Civil Society" representatives, backed by an energetic section of the media, looms. After months of wrangling with activists led by folksy anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare, the government says it has cobbled together the best possible legislation. It is called the Lokpal bill but Mr Hazare...

-The Times of India   The Supreme Court on Monday said those responsible for fake encounters should be given the death sentence and hanged in what marks a significant toughening of stand against extra-judicial killings by trigger happy cops. "Fake encounter killings by cops are nothing but cold-blooded brutal murder which should be treated as the rarest of rare offence and police personnel responsible for it should be awarded death sentence. They...

After the brutal murder of Azad, is there any hope for well-meaning routine calls for “dialogue” and “peace talks”? What can the "Civil Society" do as a serious, real intervention? It is reported that the decades-old talks with Naga insurgent groups has made some progress recently (See “Differences ‘narrowed’,” Times of India, July 19, 2011). One reason why talks have a chance in these cases is that separatism comes in...