A tragic fire broke out in the Advanced Medicare & Research Institute (AMRI) Hospital in Kolkata early Friday morning in which 91 persons have died, making it one of the worst tragedies in any hospital in India. Many patients died while asleep.The government has ordered a judicial probe which shall run parallel to the inquiry under police's detective department. AMRI hospital, where the unfortunate incident occurred, is a private hospital and...
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Cacophony Colonnade by Saba Naqvi
Our democracy is creaking, but it works—nominally at least. What it needs is not dilution, but deepening. When “Too Much Democracy” Works Pressure in Parliament pushes PM Manmohan Singh to secure the resignation of telecom minister A. Raja in the 2G affair The angst and trials of tribals in the Maoist bastion of Dantewada is sensed in Delhi after the media highlights their plight People power at the sites of...
More »What the EXPLOSIVE Kandhamal tribunal report says by Vicky Nanjappa
A report of the National People's Tribunal on the 2008 riots in Kandhamal, Orissa, is out. The report that runs into 197 pages points out that the brutality of the violence falls within the definition of 'torture' under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. According to the tribunal, headed by Justice A P Shah, communal forces used religious conversions as an issue for political mobilisation...
More »Musings on the media in the dock by Sashi Kumar
The fourth pillar of democracy would cease to be free if it is made accountable to one or more of the other pillars. Much of the media, says Justice Markandey Katju, the new Chairman of the Press Council of India, is of very poor intellectual level. That, even for a former judge, would be being judgmental — except that sections of the media concerned seem hell-bent on proving him right. Setting...
More »Valsa murder a Maoist plot by Rajesh Kumar Pandey & Suman K Shrivastava
A group of villagers, instigated by Maoists looking to establish a role for themselves in Pachuara village’s dealings with a mining company set up there, murdered Sister Valsa John as they perceived her to be an obstacle in their designs, the police have concluded. Seven of those villagers have been arrested, including Advin Murmu, who is also accused of raping an associate of the Sister, said IG of Santhal Pargana Arun...
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