Amid a deadline set by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to Maoists to disarm themselves and come for negotiations, there was an exchange of fire on Tuesday between security forces and left wing extremists at a village in the Bankisol-Aluberia area in Paschim Medinipur district. There were reports that Akash, secretary of the State committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), was among those who escaped. “We received a tip-off...

The Union government's desire to give the Lokpal constitutional status will not in any way delay the proposed legislation on the subject, Law Minister Salman Khursheed said on Tuesday. Expressing surprise at the response of the Opposition and Team Anna — that it was a delaying tactic — he said that while the government was totally committed to getting the Bill passed, eventually it was the responsibility of Parliament to...

With the focus now on the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, scheduled for early next year, the Congress led-UPA government has once again displayed its keenness to position itself with the agitating farmers by trying to ensure the passage of the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill during the winter session of Parliament. Assuming that the Parliamentary Standing Committee Attached to his department is likely to give all stakeholders a fair...

Five years after it had upheld the expulsion of 11 MPs in the cash-for-questions scam, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the Delhi police's bid to prosecute the two journalists who had conducted the sting operation. As a corollary, a 2010 Delhi high court ruling that corruption can be exposed by undercover journalists without informing authorities has Attained finality. A bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam dismissed the special leave petition filed...

Why did they Attack Team Anna man Prashant Bhushan? In the twisted mind of Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, it was some sort of glorious act. “God give us the power to complete our mission,” he tweeted before it. The mission: a coward’s Attack on eminent lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan by Bagga and two of his friends, Inder Verma and Vishnu Gupta. On October 13, the three men...