-IANS The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left Wednesday demanded an explanation from the government on former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom's revelations on the Bofors payoff scandal, including the safe passage to main accused OTTavio Quattrochchi. The BJP said it had always questioned the safe passage to Italian businessman Quattrochchi in the Rs.1,500 crore Bofors gun deal in the 1980s. "The entire government of late Rajiv Gandhi was out to secure...

-PTI BJP Parliamentary Party on Wednesday decided to rake up the Bofors pay-offs issue in Parliament in wake of fresh allegations that the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi may have soft-pedalled the probe to protect Italian businessman OTTavio Quattrocchi. Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley spoke during the Parliamentary Party meeting about the allegations related to the Bofors scam made by former Swedish police chief Sten Lindstrom in an interview. "The...

-The Hindu   ‘Colourful' is a word much associated with elections in India. The Election Commission of India has just reinforced that association, and also given new meaning to that phrase ‘pink elephants' — no longer is it an allusion only to alcohol-induced visions, or the fantasy land of ‘Dear Jessie' in the Madonna song. But seriously, can there be the slightest doubt that the EC's order to cover up all statues...

Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai in his address to recruits at the National Police Academy sought to enlist them in his campaign. BAGEHOT'S classic explains why and how a genre of civil servants mushroomed in India latterly as executive power, authority and prestige declined. None of them had earlier revealed a particularly strong spine. T.N. Seshan bared his traits once he was appointed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). Others need not...

-The Hindu   Chaos prevails at the Government Rajaji Hospital where slogans were raised Hundreds of angry Dalits gathered at the Government Rajaji Hospital here on Sunday and raised slogans against the State government and the police for the firing on Dalits at Paramakudi in which five persons were killed. Chaos prevailed at the hospital as the protesters raised slogans after six Dalit youths — Siva, 19, Paramasivam, 20, Senthil Murugan, 23, Chaturagiri, 22,...