Shyamal Chakravarty, central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), told The Hindu that he “welcomed the step taken” by the Governor and expressed the hope that it was a “pioneering” one that would show the way for similar moves to be taken in the future.

“He [the Governor] stays in a palatial place which he could let go off given the housing problem faced by the people and choose instead to live in a more modest quarter as do the Chief Minister and several Ministers,” Mr. Chakravarty said.

“Fifty per cent of the salary the Governor earned could be given to the needy as it might be more than what is required by a small family like his. He could also choose to walk the distance to inaugurate a function he might be invited to and save petrol which has become dear,” Mr. Chakravarty who is also president of the CITU said.

People’s welfare and quality of life are indices to measure human rights too, he said in a lecture at the Beijing Forum on Human Rights.

He observed that the railway line may have had some negative impact on the region’s environment and wildlife, but that some accounts on this aspect were exaggerated.

But it is essential that the international community not send out wrong signals on the question of civilian control over the military.

The internal political dynamics of Nepal first need to recover from the shock the electorate has delivered.

Consider the three political formations as they now exist — the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, and the yet to concretise third alternative.

The opposition needs to declare its prime ministerial candidate, not the ruling party........When that possible new leader is a young and untested member of the dynasty it also calls attention to the party’s bankruptcy.

Indira Gandhi earned her spurs. Sonia Gandhi has proven her worth. Rahul Gandhi cannot talk meritocracy and rely on aristocracy.

For all but the most fanatical, Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen’s announcement that she would remove from her book Dwikhandita the portions critical of Islam that were regarded as objectionable should bring to a close the controversy that sparked violent protests in Kolkata and earlier in Hyderabad. [ The Hindu, Dt. 12/05/2007]

Similar protests followed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s disputing the existence of an ancient bridge between India and Sri Lanka across the Palk Straits as described in the Ramayana......

The increasing use of Section 295A in the recent period has underlined the dangers of competitive intolerance curtailing the space available for freedom of expression. The section is clearly not in consonance with democratic and constitutional values and it is time it was removed from the statute book.

At no point did the Left parties ask him to support their viewpoint, he said

For example, in recent years the Bharatiya Janata Party and the saffron brigade have called for, conducted, and got away with several attempted bandhs. A case in point is the August 27, 2007 Hyderabad bandh protesting against the terror strike at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat. And what about other forms of protest actions? Will the Supreme Court rule on what kind of constitutional animal is a ‘rail roko,’ of the kind the BJP State unit staged in Hyderabad in September 2007 against the Sethusamudram project? Does it fall under the definition of a general strike or a hartal or a bandh? Is it constitutional? As political leaders have observed, the logical consequence of the Supreme Court’s unevenly implemented ban on bandhs will be a ban on all protest actions and the right to strike. If that happens, the highest court in the land will itself be responsible for the trampling on fundamental rights that its 1998 judgment warns against.

It is not our practice to reproduce “indecent remarks” (as one reader described it) by anyone. Often it is best to allude to them. We don’t reproduce all the remarks made by Narendra Modi or Uma Bharati against Muslims or Christians or the unrestrained attacks on individual political leaders by Subramanian Swamy.

The policy of not publishing abusive or wounding comments is laudable. But it needs to be followed uniformly, whether it is a Chief Minister or an unknown BJP ex-MP (whose remarks were published with the Hindi words and English translation). The clarification makes it clear that some of Mr. Karunanidhi’s remarks on the Ramayana were highly sensitive. The editorial was an opportunity to make this point. Readers noted that there was no disapprobation. On the other hand, the editorial said the remarks were “wildly misrepresented.” Mr. Karunanidhi had not said so but had made further comments.

Abusive phone calls, persistent physical and emotional incursions and unprecedented trauma, some banks have woken up to the spate of criticism and resorted to regulatory intervention like these.

Almost all senior BJP members including Leader of the Opposition Jaswant Singh,Deputy Leader Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi, Arun Shourie, former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, AIADMK new leader in the House Dr V Maitreyan, and Samajawadi Party's Amar Singh and Janeshwar Mishra were among signatories asking for the discussion to be raised.