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.

NEIGHBOURS: SRI LANKA

Varying Interpretations

The economy is just one of the worries of the Government. It described the attack as a revenge strike to mark the July 1983 anti-Tamil riots. Security forces routinely step up vigilance in July anticipating LTTE attacks in the capital and in the embattled northern and eastern parts of the island which the rebels claim as a separate homeland for the minority community. But diplomats interpret the strike as a retaliation for the air strikes earlier this month at suspected LTTE positions in Pooneryn across a lagoon from the key city of Jaffna. The Government had defended the shelling saying the militants were massing combatants in Pooneryn to pounce on Jaffna. The rebels in turn accused the Government of irreparably damaging the peace process by mounting the aerial offensive.

Peace seems to be the first casualty of the latest strike. Analysts view the LTTE's assault as sounding the death- knell for the 15-month-long Norway's bid to broker peace. The effort, strongly backed by India, the US and Britain, ran into rough weather when Sri Lanka said it would not lift its ban on the separatists as a prelude to negotiations. Lifting the three-year-old ban would be "difficult and unwise", President Chandrika Kumaratunga had declared last month. The LTTE made the revocation a precondition for participating in the talks to end their decades-long struggle. Ominously, the group had warned on several occasions that it had desisted from attacking Colombo only because the Oslo peace bid was being actively pursued.

His bodes ill for the beleaguered Government. Kumaratunga already had her hands full when the rebels hit. The Opposition had closed ranks and raised the stakes in its battle to topple the minority People's Alliance Government by vowing to impeach the President. For the first time since her December 1999 election victory, the Kumaratunga regime is under serious threat. To save the nine-month-old Government, she hurriedly prorogued the Parliament on July 10 ahead of a no-confidence move. The ruling coalition had lost its slim majority after seven Muslim legislators defected in June.

To compound matters, the police crackdown on July 19, when thousands of opposition and trade union supporters poured into Colombo to protest against the proroguing of Parliament, invited widespread censure. Police resorted to firing after tear-gas shells and a baton charge failed to contain the crowd. Two people died and 80 others were wounded in the violence. The seven opposition parties, led by the United National Party, are now gathering steam to defeat Kumaratunga's controversial August 21 referendum on a new constitution. The President might have reaped a measure of sympathy after the LTTE attack, but it might evaporate quickly unless she brings back political stability and ends the war of attrition which the Tigers have shown they are quite capable of sustaining.

MetroScape

Looking Glass

Kolkata Restaurant: Ambi

Bangalore Rock Concert: Scorpions

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