Judges are fierce in using the word [“independence”] as a sword to take action in contempt against critics. But the word is also used as a shield to cover a multitude of sins, some venial and others not so venial. Any lawyer practising before a court will, I am sure, have a rather long list of these. I have chosen seven. The first is the sin of “brushing under the carpet”,...

Tamil Nadu has stopped using banks to pay workers employed under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), turning the clock back on the programme that was expected to eliminate layers of middlemen in reaching money to the poor. Rural development ministry officials at the Centre confirmed the development, but termed it “a temporary setback”. However, Tamil Nadu is not alone. Andhra Pradesh too has asked some of its poorest...

Failure of crops due to continuing dry season spells doom in agency The Damning trend of farmer suicides seems to have arrived even in the agency areas of Adilabad district following the failure of cotton crop this season. As many as six of the 13 cotton farmers to have committed suicide since August 29 belong to the Banjara and Gond tribes. This is the first time when so many suicides among tribal...

Two days after a mob of 300 Trinamool workers and supporters stormed a police station in the heart of Kolkata, assaulted policemen and vandalised government and private vehicles, the police have filed a preliminary report of the rioting — and indicted their own men. The mob, comprising members of two clubs in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s south Kolkata neighbourhood, fought street battles with policemen from Bhowanipore police station who had asked...

-The Hindustan Times   Of the 72 students of Budhamunda Village Primary School in Belpada block, just half line up for morning prayers in their crumpled, unwashed uniform. What about the rest? “Many of my friends have migrated with their parents to work in brick kilns. I will also follow them in a few days,” said Dipakanta Pradhan (10), a student of class 3. The scene was the same at an anganwadi (mother and child)...