India

Condom Madam

Priyanka Borpujari

How one sex worker reformed a brothel in Sangli by counting condoms collected in a bucket

That Film of Memory

Rahul Pandita

...and what I learnt of life, reporting from Bastar and other Maoist areas

He is accused of having abducted and killed lawyer Jaleel Andrabi in Srinagar in 1996. He has also been named for the murder of at least a dozen other men. He fled the country, and was back in the news after his wife reported him for domestic violence in California in February this year. A court has ordered the Ministry of External Affairs to ensure his extradition, but no action is being taken. Speaking to Open, the Major says if his extradition is actually initiated, he will never be allowed to return alive, he knows too much and he will not keep quiet

The Will of the Trust

Anil Budur Lulla

Sathya Sai Baba wrote in his own hand that Satyajit, his caregiver, be included in the Central Trust. But the trust members are unwilling to

The Munde Muddle

Haima Deshpande

Why the OBC leader wants to leave the BJP, but can’t

Left Unity Makes Sense

Dhirendra K. Jha

The CPM and CPI need to leave doctrines aside and face practical realities

The Murky World of Crime Reporting

Haima Deshpande

Mumbai’s police-underworld-media nexus is as venal as it is formidable. On his chosen turf, J Dey’s reputation of integrity would have been enough to make him a marked man

Advantage Buddhadeb

Dhirendra K. Jha

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat’s hold on his party is getting feebler by the day. His peace overtures at the recent Central Committee meeting in Hyderabad notwithstanding

What Gandhi would tell our serial fasters

Srinath Perur

Chances are he might have gone on a long unconditional fast himself to convince them that their ways weren’t kosher

Can’t Get Its Act Together

Jay Mazoomdaar

The Left Front has been the biggest advocate of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), but its own former rule in home state West Bengal saw its worst abuse as well. Forest villagers dependent on tea garden jobs are indifferent to the Act. Families inside the Buxa tiger reserve are keen to surrender their rights for Rs 10 lakh each. But away from tea gardens and outside the tiger reserve, forest communities have bigger demands than the FRA allows. And a desperate forest department twists the Act to retain control.