Students of Rabindra Bharati University decorating the photo of Rabindra Nath Tagore on his 147th birth anniversary at Jorasanko Thakur Bari, the ancestral home of the Tagore family in Kolkata on Thursday-PTI
Strikes down law that forced him to step down; sack-Ramadoss demand gains momentum
In a big blow to Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, the Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated noted cardiologist P Venugopal as Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The verdict is a personal defeat for Ramadoss who had made sacking of Venugopal as his personal agenda and used the entire might of the DMK to force the UPA Government to fall in line.
Remorse, guilt, shame and similar emotions are unlikely to ever cross the mind of Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. Being a publicity hound, the one-man demolition squad who has systematically destroyed India's premier medical institution, possibly revels even in the hate mail he receives. His latent sadism appears to feed on the all-round denunciation of his misplaced Gestapo-style activism against smoking and drinking apart from obsessive AIIMS-bashing. Even as the country's ramshackle public health system collapses into an abyss under his wilful neglect, Ramadoss viciously pursues his pet peeves, imposing his agenda on a frightened Union Government that trembles even before a minor party like the PMK. His arm-twisting forced a pusillanimous UPA to amend the AIIMS Act with the sole purpose of evicting its internationally renowned director, Dr P Venugopal, a piece of legislation that was bulldozed through Parliament in unseemly haste.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Union Government to consider holding an archaeological survey to ascertain whether the Ram Setu can be declared an "ancient monument". The court also asked the Centre to examine the possibility of carrying out the project through other alignments.
The arrest of Maoist leaders -- Gopal Bhatt, Prashant Sanglikar, Anil Kumar Chaurakoti, Niluballabh and Jeevanchandra Arya -- in recent months from Kumaon has rung alarm bells in the State administration and security agencies as Uttarakhand has a 240-km border with Nepal and a sizeable migrant labour force from that country.
With the Samajwadi Party (SP) launching a scathing attack on the CPI(M), the emergence of a third alternative before the general elections suffered a major setback on Thursday. The immediate provocation was the Left's support for introducing the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha, but there seemed to be a bigger picture in the SP's bitter criticism of the Left Front's "big brother".
Endangered wild cats will now get a chance to fly.
Hoping to minimise the trauma of a pair of tiger cubs being translocated to Sariska from Ranthambore National Park, the Rajasthan Government wants a chopper to transport them.
We must admit that the existing system of financial allowances does not let us honourably pay those carrying out their military duties in the most responsible jobs. Russia's new Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
The weakening of rupee against the dollar is due to global uncertainties . RBI Governor YV Reddy
