An argument between a Dalit and a Jat over the former’s dog led to near-unbridled violence in a village in Hisar district which was tense throughout Thursday after an 18-year-old physically challenged Dalit girl and her father were burnt alive on Wednesday. The Dalits refused to cremate the bodies, demanding a CBI probe and compensation, apart from sacking of the Jat tehsildar of Mirchpur village where the violence began. Angry...

Violent clashes have erupted between people in the Muslim community and tribespeople in the Birbhum district of India's West Bengal state, police say. Officials say at least 50 houses in three tribal villages were set on fire after a businessman from the Muslim community was murdered. Tribal villagers retaliated with arrows and set fire to houses in Muslim areas. Tribespeople are trying to stop illegal stone quarries opening - the...

CBI has registered more than 200 cases of corruption against government employees, including some senior officials, between January and March this year. “The CBI has registered 2,439 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act against public servants including senior officers during the last three years (2007, 2008, 2009) and the current year (upto March 2010),” minister of state for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Prithviraj Chavan told Lok Sabha in a...

So, Shashi Tharoor has gone. Lalit Modi may follow. Or not.   Cricket’s great jamboree may be cleaned up. Or not.   Does it matter so much?   The Indian Premier League (IPL) brouhaha could not have come at a worse time. India was, finally, if reluctantly, starting to focus on long-festering-but-urgent issues that prevent this country from being a just, equitable democracy. As Tharoor and Modi self-destructed, the circus around them diverted all...

A priest and three others have been arrested for allegedly sacrificing an old woman to appease a tribal god in Jharkhand's Latehar district, police said. Budhani Devi, 60, a resident of Khaira Jagir village, was abducted April 9 by Bhuneshwar Baiga, the priest, and his accomplices -- Balram Mistry, Basuwa Oraon and Mahendra Singh. "Prima facie, it appears the tribal priest instigated people to abduct Budhani and later she was...