Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may claim that peace prevails everywhere in West Bengal since her party came to power in the state, but police records say a different story altogether. The state, according to the police records, has witnessed 642 political clashes, including those of student politics, across the districts in the first five months and eighteen days after Banerjee assumed power. A total of 926 political workers that include 128 students...

His crime: he complained of corruption in rural job guarantee scheme Dhuraram Kuldiya, former Sarpanch of Somalsar Panchayat in Nohkha teshil of Bikaner district, did not sign an SOS he sent to Rajasthan Chief Secretary on Monday in the form of a letter. Instead, his son Bhanwarlal inked it. Not that Dhuraram is illiterate. Admitted to a private hospital here in the State capital now, he cannot use his hands for both...

In an extraordinary effort at resolving policy disputes, the Union food ministry pleaded before the Supreme Court on Thursday to order the Planning Commission to release funds for reforms in the Public Distribution System (PDS) and to order the rural development ministry to provide details of how many people in the category of poorest of poor had been left out of PDS.  In its affidavit filed in court, the ministry also accused...

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s Report on the 2G Spectrum has created a great deal of controversy and his role is being questioned. The Public Accounts Committee could not finalise its report due to the splitting on the issue on party lines. The JPC currently examining the matter has taken an unprecedented step of taking evidence of a junior officer of the CAG’s set up, since retired, and quizzed the...

The PM, Raja, TRAI, telecom firms... the apex court lets no one off the hook The Supreme Court’s stinging judgement against the government in the 2G spectrum scam case is an extremely significant attempt by the country’s highest court to curb the corrupt nexus between business and politics and will further damage the UPA’s already battered credibility. The court’s decision will not merely have far-reaching consequences on India’s political economy,...