Bloody Finale
In life, Phoolan Devi combined the brutal underbelly of India with political fame and glamour. Gunned down in Delhi, her death could become the occasion for a new round of caste conflict in Uttar Pradesh. Phoolan
is being reinvented posthumously.
A report.

Rule Of Outlaw
Dons and politicians enjoy a symbiotic relationship in Uttar Pradesh.

Back To The Trenches
Determined not to let up on its Kashmir-centric agenda, Pakistan has stepped up violence in the Valley. Indian security forces gear up to deal with the situation.

Revenge Of Badla People who lent money to stockbrokers for financing speculators through the badla system find themselves at the receiving end of yet another scam. And with little evidence to nail the accused, chances of recovery are dim.

The Peacenik
S.B. Deuba's rapport with the Maoists helped him become prime minister. Now he has to deal with their radical demands about the monarchy and secularism.

FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

Phoolan Devi, in the life she lived and the death she died, magnified an overwhelming Indian paradox. The dispossessed village girl to the avenging bandit, criminal to member of Parliament, her story was an awesome saga of violent crime, social defiance and the triumph of expediency in a democracy. A bestselling subject immortalised in books and movies, a needlessly glamorized Phoolan legend travelled all the way to the sanctum sanctorum of Indian democracy, the Lok Sabha. Some reviled the depths that the political system had fallen to by taking a convicted dacoit to India's highest seat of policy making. But many read her ascent as a challenge to the caste system, a triumph of the underclass. The romance of Phoolan had takers from the class she belonged to as well as the radically fashionable who are otherwise scathing about criminals in politics. That's why the story of her murder in Delhi has captivated the popular imagination. The killing was sensational enough to abruptly halt the high-pitched debates between the Government and the Opposition on the Agra Summit and the fiasco at the Unit Trust of India. While that may have given a breather to the Government, it will have to answer many questions on the grave lapse of security in a high-security zone. At the same time, frenzied attempts are on to draw political mileage out of the murder-a dangerous game that could have far-reaching consequences in an Uttar Pradesh that is deeply divided on caste lines.

India Today has followed the Phoolan saga for the past two decades. We were there at her much-publicised surrender; we reported her life as a prisoner and we followed the story of her growing celebrity status, culminating in her election to Parliament. This week, India Today's team spread out all the way from the scene of the crime in Delhi to Mirzapur where she was cremated, and Behmai near Kanpur where she killed 22 people in 1981. In the past, the story of Phoolan, while gripping in itself, never featured as an India Today cover. In death, she had the last word.

(Aroon Purie)

MetroScape

Looking Glass

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Bangalore Rock Concert: Scorpions

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by mismanagement, pilferage and irregularities, Punjab's civil aviation is in an utter mess. INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak reports in
Airsick