-The Hindustan Times   Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the ruling BJP in Uttarakhand of corruption, kicking off his party’s campaign in the hill state which goes to polls early next year. “We (Centre) had sent thousands of crores for the MNREGS (rural job guarantee programme), Kumbh preparations, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and for roads. Did it reach here? Big (BJP) leaders are involved in land scam. It was your...

-The Hindu   The government's decision on a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for minorities within the overall 27 per cent reservation for the backward classes promises to be the new trigger for a heated political discourse just ahead of several Assembly elections, including the all-important poll in Uttar Pradesh just a few months away. More than a decade ago, the V.P. Singh government ushered in the ‘Mandal revolution' in North India. It...

-The Hindustan Times   With the Right to Education Act (RTE) setting aside 25% of seats in schools for students of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), heads of minority institutions in the city have expressed their displeasure at the reservation. Claiming that a substantial percentage of the seats was already being given to students of the minority EWS community, principals of several schools such as St. Columba's, Carmel Convent School and Guru...

Kandhamal was not a spontaneous outburst of mass anger. And the victims still await justice. It was a terrifying Christmas in 2007 for tribal and dalit Christians who live in the second poorest, deeply forested district of Odisha, Kandhamal. Long-smouldering violence targeting them exploded, and was to continue to rage for another full year. During this time, 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses were looted and burnt, 54,000 persons rendered homeless,...

-The Hindustan Times The union cabinet has cleared the National Food Security Bill that seeks to provide rice at Rs 3, wheat at Rs 2 and coarse grains at Re 1 per kg to over half of India's 1.2 billion population. The bill seeks to cover 75% of the rural population and 50% of urban households and proposes the right of every individual to 7 kg of foodgrain. The cabinet didn't take up...