-The Times of India Even as Red menace continues to be a major internal security challenge affecting almost one-third of total districts in the country, West Bengal — parts of which was once a hotbed of Maoist activities — has shown a remarkable improvement with none of its naxal-affected district reporting any casualty in the first seven months this year. Bihar comes next, reporting significant improvement in terms of reduced incidents and...

-The Indian Express Firebrand leader who rose swiftly till downfall She rose swiftly through the ranks, having made her mark as a firebrand leader who had saffron politics as part of her legacy. Mayaben Surendrabhai Kodnani, convicted of murder, conspiracy and spreading communal hatred, is the daughter of a staunch RSS worker who had suffered the pains of Partition, moving from Tharparkar in Sind province to Deesa in Gujarat. Kodnani, the first sitting...

-The Times of India The prime minister will personally see every government decision to refuse permission for probe against an officer of the rank of joint secretary and above. The decision to involve the PM to oversee a veto of CBI request for probe against top officers appears an attempt to neutralize allegations that the cover of government sanction was being misused. Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act makes it...

-The Hindu Houses belonging to weavers’ community were torched on June 23 A row of kuccha and pucca houses lie in a rubble of mud, stone and bricks. Those that stand have blackened walls, dismantled roofs and half-doors. Some have no doors. Ashes of hay and grains are strewn outside the granaries. The local mosque looks desolate; its gate is oddly locked. An eerie sense of calm surrounds the place. This is the...

-The Hindustan Times The country is once again dangerously adrift in a stormy sea of competitive hate politics. The signs are both ominous and familiar — the systematic creation of hatred against people because of their ethnicity or religion; rumours and hate propaganda choking the internet; the public moral justification of violence against targeted communities on grounds of ‘larger’ alleged wrongs; and weak-kneed State action against people and organisations which preach...