Union home minister P Chidambaram remark blaming the spiralling crime graph in the capital on migrant population comes at a time when in most cases, local people are involved and new gangs are emerging in Delhi's crime scene. A look at the statistics available with Delhi Police gives an entirely different picture than what was portrayed by the home minister. More than 83% of people involved in crime this year were...

A senior officer in Chhattisgarh Police admitted Tuesday that two tribal men killed on suspicion of being Maoists were most probably innocent civilians.A day after policemen got a pat for supposedly displaying heroism, a preliminary inquiry has showed that the deceased were local civilians, probably killed in cross-firing.The incident took place early Monday on the outskirts of Jagdalpur town, headquarters of the restive Bastar region.Preliminary investigation indicates that Mahru, 40,...

Over the past two decades, Maharashtra’s leaders and caretakers have carefully steered it from being India’s most progressive and forward-looking state to lying on the verge of becoming one of India’s most backward.This is no mean achievement. Mumbai, as is well known, contributes close to 40% of the nation’s direct taxes. In 2003-2004, Maharashtra’s net state domestic product was second only to Haryana’s and the gross domestic product was 13%...

Tom Sawyer, the mischievous young protagonist of Mark Twain's 19th century classic, is an unlikely hero for a social activist from rural West Bengal. But Shabnam Ramaswamy, a feisty 55-year-old from Murshidabad, likens herself to Tom Sawyer in more ways than one.  Like Sawyer, who, when given the onerous task of painting a wall, convinced his friends of the importance of his job and had them queuing up to help him,...

Today, the Indian media—both print and television—is focusing on the recent corruption scandals involving the UPA Government with unusual zeal. However, I fail to understand why almost every commentator, every TV anchor, every editorial writer feels compelled to pay ritual obeisance to the “personal honesty and integrity” of Dr Manmohan Singh while dealing with the scandals emanating from his cabinet colleagues. They do so even when there is clear evidence...