The Sangh Parivar is systematically following its “Indianisation reforms” in schools run by its affiliates. THE attempts of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS)-led Sangh Parivar at “saffronising” education attracted widespread attention between 1998 and 2004 when the Hindutva combine's political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), held the reins of power at the Centre. During that period, especially between 1998 and 2002, the BJP's Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi...

Interview with D.N. Jha, historian of ancient India and the author of ‘The Myth of the Holy Cow'. IN his career spanning more than 25 years, Dwijendra Narayan Jha, an eminent historian of ancient India, has dispelled many Hindutva myths. He has used ancient Indian literary and archaeological sources to show that much of the Hindutva propaganda is based on false premises. His book The Myth of the Holy Cow shows...

Deadwood in the Indian bureaucracy will not be able to clog the government any longer. The Centre has notified a rule making it compulsory for IAS, IPS and officers from other all-India services to retire in "public interest" if they fail to clear a review after 15 years of service.  Officers adjudged as inefficient and non-performing will be shown the door and even those who make the cut will need to...

At least 30 hardcore criminals and mafia dons are contesting this year's assembly elections from jails, which is high even by Uttar Pradesh's standards. What's different, however, is that this time merely two people with criminal records are contesting as mainstream party candidates; the rest are nominees of fringe outfits.  Top among the dons are Prem Prakash Singh aka Munna Bajrangi from Madiyahon (Jaunpur) on an Apna Dal ticket; he is...

Nearly four years after the High Court mandated reservation of 10 per cent beds and 25 per cent out-patient facilities for the poor in private hospitals in Delhi, only some have complied with the order. As per figures provided by Delhi government in an RTI response to Newsline, none of the major hospitals were able to treat the mandated number of patients. The government received 91 complaints about refusal of treatment...