The essay attracted the ire of Hindutva activists because it talks about 300 different versions of the epic Most academicians at Delhi University are feeling betrayed by their own fraternity, the reason — the Academic Council's recent decision to drop from the history syllabus a celebrated essay by the late scholar and linguist A.K. Ramanujan on the Ramayana, despite intense opposition from the history department. The essay, “Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five examples...

Envelopes with cash distributed at BJP press meet A cash-for-coverage scandal has taken the fizz out of Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K.Advani's ambitious Jan Chetna Yatra against corruption and black money with the BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh “attempting to bribe” journalists for favourable coverage of the yatra. Envelopes containing currency notes worth Rs. 500-1,000 were handed out to journalists during a press conference called by local BJP MP Ganesh Singh at...

In one little patch of Maharashtra, a lot, it seems, lies in a name. About 175 girls whose names mean “unwanted” in Marathi will be re-christened in a public ceremony next week in a novel initiative to fight female foeticide. The Satara zilla parishad in west Maharashtra has found in a survey of the district that parents with many girl children often name them Nakusa, Nakoshi or Nakushi, all meaning “unwanted” or...

-PTI   Shooting off another letter to Anna Hazare on the eve of Hisar bypoll, Digvijay Singh, who is leading Congress' counter-attack, on Wednesday raised the issue of RSS support to the activist and cautioned him that those around him were keeping him in dark.  Singh, who had yesterday questioned Anna Hazare on why he was not attacking the BJP, enclosed a letter from RSS general secretary Suresh (Bhayya) Joshi to him, extending...

With tribals accounting for about 14 per cent of the total population in the state, the Congress party is organising a one-day conclave at Kevadia Colony in the tribal-dominated Narmada district on October 15 to discuss the issues of interest to them. Aimed at wooing the tribal heartland for 2012 assembly elections, the party has decided to focus mainly on the issue of allotment of forest land. The issue of forest...