Victims have not forgotten the following brutal tragedies in the life of independent India, even if the State and political parties may pretend to have. 1984—Delhi: On October 31, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards in revenge for ‘Operation Bluestar’. For the next three days, as Doordarshan telecast the lying in state of her body, over 3000 Sikhs—men and boys—were burnt alive while policemen, politicians and...

Footage of the fracas replayed at ANHAD meeting Old Rafiq Ansari is inconsolable, shocked and quite simply beyond words as he comes to grips with the loss of his seven-month-old grandson — a death he considers almost surreal. Baby Naushad, who died in his mother's lap when two bullets struck him last Friday, was one of the four killed in police firing on protesters. Villagers of Bhajanpur and Rampur were protesting against the...

How effective are India's innumerable social security programmes at reaching out to the poorest of the poor? If a recent World Bank report is anything to go by, they are woefully inefficient. According to the report, titled "Social Protection for a Changing India", leakages and exclusion errors are endemic across the country. For instance, just 27% of the PDS . beenficiaries are the poorest of the poor. The World Bank found...

-The Telegraph   The Left parties have refused to answer government questionnaires on the Lok Pal bill, a stance that arrays them alongside the BJP in trying to corner the Congress-led UPA over corruption. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has written to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee saying his party cannot give its views on the six questionnaires, to be answered in yes-or-no terms. The format even prompted CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan to...

-PTI   A desperate government's efforts failed today to achieve any breakthrough with Baba Ramdev deciding to go ahead with his indefinite fast here from tomorrow amidst indications that a compromise was likely in a day or two. For nearly five hours, two senior union ministers Kapil Sibal and Subodh Kant Sahay negotiated with the yoga guru over his demands on eradication of corruption at a posh hotel, a venue totally different...