-PTI Anna Hazare on Sunday returned to his favourite mode of protest -- hunger strike -- in Delhi after his flop show in Mumbai three months ago, this time protesting against the "deaf and dumb" government which is "not doing anything" to protect whistleblowers fighting corruption. Hazare, after his usual visit to Rajghat before any such protest in Delhi, came to the capital's dharna hotspot Jantar Mantar at around 11am to loud...

The UPA-II has used the Budget to again play politics with hunger. But it has paid no heed to the ticking time bomb of growing social tensions as 58 million Indians living off agriculture slide deeper into poverty. The Economic Survey says more than half the population is dependent on a sector whose share in the economy is shrinking. The urban-rural income divide is therefore steadily widening, a tinder box that...

-The Telegraph Annual expenses for the government’s food security programme have been estimated at Rs 112,205 crore, which will make it very difficult for the government to fulfill its commitments on checking fiscal deficit. Food and consumers affairs minister K.V. Thomas disclosed the massive bill on the programme today in the Rajya Sabha, though no mention of this was made in Friday’s budget. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had just said he would foot...

West Bengal: The murder of two CPI(M) leaders in Bardhaman district points to an increase in political violence in the State. THE brutal murder of Pradip Tah, a former legislator belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or the CPI(M), and Kamal Gayen, another senior leader of the party, in broad daylight, allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters, in West Bengal's Bardhaman district on February 22 once again points to an...

There is a new twist to the alleged suicide of Bilaspur SP Rahul Sharma. One of the officer’s closest friends has said that a week before Sharma allegedly shot himself, he had fretted about being made to do “begaar” (literally, forced labour), and that he had been given a “target” for “election expenses”. Sharma was found dead at the Bilaspur police officers’ mess on March 12. A day later, IG G...