-The Indian Express A sound whistleblowers' protection law is long awaited. It languishes in Parliament at the system's peril Nandi Singh, a resident of a remote village in Assam, was brutally attacked with axes in September 2012 as a result of a complaint filed by him regarding irregularities in the functioning of fair price shops supplying rations under the public distribution system. He succumbed to his injuries on the way to the...

-The Indian Express The Congress's bill could end up sponsoring the NDA's campaigns A good thing about the logjam in Parliament, it has to be said, is that it has prevented the ill-advised food security bill from being passed. It would, though, be naive on our part to presume the BJP stalled Parliament - the Congress's blatant abuse of the CBI process was a big reason for this - only because it...

-The Business Standard Comptroller & Auditor General Vinod Rai, who has put the government on the mat several times in the past three years, says an auditor is meant to be adversarial. On the sidelines of the inauguration of the International Centre for Environment Audit and Sustainable Development in Jaipur on Saturday, Rai, whose term as the CAG ends on May 22, spoke to journalists about his stint, retirement plans and...

-Tehelka The new biotechnology Bill will allow biotech firms to tamper with our food In March, US President Barack Obama signed the HR 933 continuing resolution - popularly known as the Monsanto Protection Act - that effectively divests the federal courts of their constitutional power to stop the planting or sale of genetically modified (GM) seeds and crops regardless of the health and environmental consequences. In other words, whether you like...

-The Economic Times The Right to Information is no more an aid for the common man. It is fast becoming a potent political tool. Congress has made it its weapon of choice to take on the state governments in Odisha, UP and Punjab while BJP fought its land acquisition battle in Noida last year armed with information collected fromRTI applications. It isn't the Opposition parties alone that politicians gun for. Congress...