-The Hindu Kolkata: Soni Sori, the tribal school teacher accused of acting as a courier between Essar Steel and the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), and Lingaram Kodopi, activist-journalist trained in Delhi, have been acquitted in one more crucial case by a Dantewada court. Fifteen others, including activists of various mainstream political parties, were also acquitted. Among them were Congress leader Vijay Sodi, CPI leader Lala Ram Kunjam and a panchayat...

-The Hindustan Times It now seems increasingly unlikely that Parliament will consider the National Food Security Bill during this budget session. In a land which for centuries suffered devastating famines, where chronic hunger continues to stalk more than 200 million people, and which is home to every third malnourished child on the planet, this would be one more sad betrayal of the country's indigent millions, a reminder of how little they...

-Live Mint Despite being declared unconstitutional by SC, ‘khaps' continue to hold sway in parallel with the state machinery Rohtak/Bhiwani: Ravinder Gehlawat and his wife Shilpa had been married for less than four months when they were marched out of their village-Dharana in Jhajjar district of Haryana-by men of the local community and warned never to return. Their fate was sealed on 24 April 2009 when the local khap panchayat, which translates...

-The Hindu "Freedom without limits is just a word" -Terry Pratchett Kamlesh Vaswani's PIL seeking to ban the viewing of pornography and make it a non-bailable offence has raised eyebrows. Columnists and social media commentators have greeted the idea with shock, raising issues such as social liberty, sexual freedom, and the fact that the mere banning of pornography might not bring down the incidence of rape. On the surface of it, this sounds...

-The Hindu In a fit of candour quite uncharacteristic of those holding high office, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha said on Tuesday afternoon what everyone knows to be the truth about the autonomy and independence of India's premier investigation agency. "I am a part of the government, I am not an autonomous body," he blurted out when asked for his reaction to the Supreme Court expressing its disappointment and anger at the...