-The Hindu Subsidies on cooking gas, kerosene and diesel have resulted in perverse outcomes not envisaged when they were introduced With the Aadhaar-based direct cash transfer scheme facing so many glitches in implementation, any hopes that the country’s energy sector can soon dismount the subsidy tiger it has been riding so dangerously have receded into the background. Had the Aadhaar scheme worked satisfactorily, the next logical step would have been to extend...

-The Hindu Turmoil took over the pre-trial proceedings of the Delhi gang rape trial on Monday when some lawyers objected to a few advocates coming forward to defend the accused. The disruptions did not die down even after Metropolitan Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal entered the courtroom at 12.30 p.m., when the five accused were to be produced. Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma said the relatives of some of the accused had asked him...

-The Indian Express We must ask hard questions of these mobilisations, before we declare them a new politics It is certainly not an easy task to enter into an argument with Yogendra Yadav. His plea to understand the “new politics” of urban protests (‘This new politics’, IE, January 2) makes persuasive reading but begs for a critical review of some issues. His point about the need to avoid two extreme approaches to...

-The Hindu An independent all-woman criminal justice system for acts of violence against women would stand a better chance of enabling equitable justice than one dominated by patriarchal insensitivity. What more can I say about the unconscionable event that took place on the night of December 16 in Delhi that has not already been said or written about over the last fortnight? Every conceivable aspect of the brutal rape and the reactions...

-The Indian Express Our reactions to the current protests triggered by the gangrape in the capital reveal a paradoxical state of mind. We welcome the spontaneous nature of these protests, underline the fact that most of the ordinary women and men who joined these protests were not mobilised by any organisation and caution against the entry of “political elements”. At the same time, we criticise the protesters for the lack of...