-The Hindu In protecting husbands from marital rape and khap panchayats from accountability for sexual wrongs, the government has lost an opportunity to change the way in which our society treats women In its eagerness to demonstrate that it is “doing something” about rape in response to the overwhelming protests over the brutal rape and murder of the 23-year-old Delhi student last December, the government has issued an ordinance that is both...

-The Indian Express A series of arrests has helped investigators establish the links between some of the most high-profile terror cases involving Hindu extremists—from Malegaon 2006 to Modasa 2008. RAHUL TRIPATHI looks at what the investigators have found so far—and what they haven’t One cold December morning, Rambalak Dash left his ashram in Chitrakoot on the UP-MP border for a puja he had been called upon to do at a house in...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has begun retracing the reported trips of a Malegaon inverter dealer to Nashik, Ujjain, Indore and Devas before he was arrested in connection with the 2006 Malegaon bomb blasts as these cities are alleged to be strongly connected to the 2008 bomb blast in the textile town which has been blamed on Hindu extremists. The man, Abrar Ahmed, claims he had heard a...

-IANS LUCKNOW: With security often seen as a status symbol, the Uttar Pradesh government is spending a whopping Rs 120 crores of public money a year to provide security cover to around 1,500 VIPs of different hues, deploying as many as 2,913 police officials, officials records show. Inspector general of police (Law & Order) Badri Prasad Singh admitted that 1,476 VIPs (very important persons) were being given security based on "pre-emptive threat...

-Outlook Gujarat government will be launching `Help Emergency Assistance Rescue Terminal' (HEART), a helpline which would enable women seek police help instantaneously through mobile phones. Additional Chief Secretary, Home, S K Nanda told PTI that the helpline would be launched on March 8. Initially, it would be operated in Ahmedabad on a pilot basis before being tried in other parts of the state. The toll-free helpline number would be announced on the same...