So why is the UPA hell-bent on killing its unique success story: the NREGA? Here's the inside narrative of the conspiracy. It took 47 days of a protest sit-in at Jaipur to make the state budge(1). It's notable that the objective of this protracted protest was not to coerce the Rajasthan government for an extra share of the state's resources, but to hold the government accountable to the Constitution and its...

The social audit of development works under MGNREGA in Todgarh panchayat, Ajmer district asserted and endorsed the Rs 56 lakh embezzlement found by the district administration in a recent enquiry, whose findings were read out at the social audit gram sabha yesterday. It may be recalled that only recently, panchayat resident Bikam Chand Jain who was seeking information  on MGNREGA and other panchayat works in Todgarh had his legs cut...

There is nothing sinister or diabolic about Union minister Kapil Sibal’s latest argument regarding the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India pertaining to the loss to the exchequer from 2G telecom licences in 2007. The basic argument pertaining to the erroneous notion of “presumptive loss” has been made before and Mr Sibal’s arithmetic is credible. Too much need not be made about this being a ministerial...

In post-globalisation India, middle-class heroes are usually entrepreneurs who make a fast buck, stars that glitter brightly and talk glibly, cricketers who hit the ball hard. In an aspirational world of consumer goods, fine dining and malls, values such as service, integrity, simplicity are becoming rare. Perhaps that is why the story of Binayak Sen, the skilled doctor who turned his back on material success to work among the poor...

Accusing Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal of “trying to whitewash” the 2G spectrum allocation scam, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday said that the people of India would not buy the Minister's argument that the Comptroller and Auditor-General's (CAG) finding on the loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore was “utterly erroneous and without any basis.” “Now we understand why Kapil Sibal has been put in charge of...