-DNA The state government’s proposal to let farmers circumvent the agriculture produce market committees and sell their yield directly to consumers — which essentially means whoever they wish to sell it to — needs to be welcomed even by those of us in the cities who may not be conversant with agricultural practices. While the middlemen who control the APMCs are bound to raise howls of protest about the attempt to overturn...

-IANS   Question: Why did Mamata Banerjee cross the road? Answer: To see if the chicken were making fun of her! In mid-April, the chief minister of West Bengal went viral with a vengeance. Hundreds of tweets (like the one above by @harqblack) carried the trendy #arrestmenow tag. Courting arrest got a new meaning. Now, Mamata is not the first to go viral. But such speed is usually found in other celebrity and entertainment domains. But...

There has been a veritable deluge of criticism of Mamata and the Trinamool on the arrest of a Jadavpur professor for circulating through email a gentle spoof on Mamata's sacking of the Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.   From life imitating cartoons to Mamata suffering from certifiable paranoia – this has been the refrain in the mass media. By this single act, Mamata and her regime have subjected themselves to far greater ridicule...

Before being a cartoonist/graphic novelist, I am a citizen first. A citizen with the freedom to have feelings — if not the freedom of free speech. Now, the former is far easier than the latter. I have the freedom to have feelings and the freedom to deal with those who hurt my feelings. And on that note, I want Sarojini Naidu arrested. Posthumously, but so be it. In an All India...

Union minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh will be touring 12 backward districts in Madhya Pradesh over the next four months to review the working of the flagship schemes of the central government. Speaking at a state-level party program here, Mr. Ramesh assured leader of opposition in the state assembly Ajay Singh that he would personally tour districts like Jhabua and Sidhi among others to review the working of the centre's...