-The Telegraph Chhattisgarh police today admitted that the 18 victims of yesterday’s anti-Maoist operation included children and women but sparked fresh controversy by claiming they were all rebel cadres. The admission came after the bodies were laid out in front of a police station to facilitate identification — a routine procedure — and journalists took photographs. It was clear that several of the victims were children and at least one seemed a...

The army is bristling at a fresh move in the government to dilute or revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The AFSPA gives the army extraordinary powers in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast to enforce law and order in aid of the civilian authority. The army is particularly concerned about proposals floated from the Union home ministry to make it mandatory for soldiers to seek permission from a civilian authority...

The State finds a handy tool in a colonial law to quell dissent Wrong Arm Of The Law   Why ‘sedition’ rings hollow in India 2012 The law Section 124(A) of the Indian Penal Code, 1870; non-bailable offence The definition Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government...

-The Telegraph Costlier food items carried inflation up to 7.55 per cent in May, and the price situation could get aggravated further by the government’s decision to raise the minimum support price of paddy, oil seeds and pulses. However, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) deferred a decision to raise urea prices because of opposition by some ministries. Inflation in May last year stood at 9.56 per cent. Overall food inflation rose to...

-The Hindustan Times Home minister P Chidambaram on Thursday got the cabinet’s backing to nudge the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to accept biometric data collected under the National Population Register (NPR) for issuing Aadhaar numbers. The cabinet committee’s advice came in the backdrop of Chidambaram complaining to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week that the NPR project was “almost at a standstill” due to UIDAI’s refusal to accept...