CBI has finally asked CWG Organizing Committee (OC) chief Suresh Kalmadi to present himself before the agency, which is likely to quiz him about his role in dodgy contracts, a blackmail letter and destruction of Evidence. Kalmadi has, like DMK's A Raja did in the 2G spectrum allocation case, responded by expressing his inability to be at the CBI headquarters immediately. Kalmadi has sought time till January 3 and agency sources...

“Take again Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code. Now so far as I am concerned that particular section is highly objectionable and obnoxious and it should have no place both for practical and historical reasons, if you like, in anv body of laws that we might pass. The sooner we get rid of it the better.” —Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Parliament during debates on the first amendment to...

Confusion continues to reign in the debate on microfinance that has unfolded following the promulgation of the Andhra ordinance, soon to be replaced by Andhra Pradesh Micro Finance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Act, 2010. A key confusion has been that microfinance is a major instrument of poverty alleviation. Going by the available scientific Evidence and agreement among scholars, to-date, there exists no compelling study linking the expansion of microfinance to...

Prominent lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday offered to defend rights activist Binayak Sen, who was sentenced by a trial court to life imprisonment for sedition, in a higher judiciary. He also said he did not find it contradictory to fight the case and be a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP at the same time. “No party line says that lawyers should not appear for some people,” Mr. Jethmalani said. He said...

Activists, intellectuals, students and academicians gathered at Jantar Mantar earlier this week in protest against the life imprisonment sentence pronounced by a Chhattisgarh court for human rights activist Binayak Sen. The protest was organised by the All-India Students' Association, People's Union for Civil Liberties and All-India Progressive Women's Association and several other groups and individuals as part of a nation-wide protest against the “unjust conviction” of Dr. Sen. A large number...