Why celebrity young men such as Prince William of England, or young leading politician Rahul Gandhi of India, decide to spend a night at a place where the “poorest of the poor” in society spend their entire lives? Publicity? However, such symbolic acts do catapult homelessness, poverty, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency, family breakdown, and other social issues into limelight in the celebrity-oriented media. The Hindustan Times stated: “Rahul Gandhi may spend night in...

India witnessed peaceful general elections in which the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) won a decisive victory. It was a personal triumph for Sonia Gandhi (photo above), President of the Congress Party, and her son, Rahul Gandhi, an alumni of Rollins College in Florida, who spearheaded the election campaign. India election results topped trend on Twitter worldwide. (See here…) Mr Manmohan Singh will take fresh oath this week, only the second Indian Prime Minister since...

At least 13 persons, including four lawyers, were killed and 60 injured when six bombs went off in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on Friday. Three court complexes in the capital city Lucknow and the towns of Faizabad and Varanasi were the target. India’s leading newspaper The Hindu says that loaded on bicycles parked outside the lawyers’ chambers in the three towns, the bombs were synchronised to explode shortly after 1.15 p.m. “All the explosions occurred in the courts where...

Indian police said Friday they had foiled a plot by Islamic militants to kidnap a top politician reported to be Rahul Gandhi, scion of the country’s famed Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, says AFP. “NDTV, one of India’s leading news outlets, said the three militants planned to abduct the telegenic 37-year-old federal parliamentarian to bargain for the release of scores of imprisoned comrades.” Police identified the three suspects as Pakistani nationals and named them as Mohammed...

(Photo courtesy the Outlook magazine) The detractors of Sonia Gandhi, said to be ‘the real power behind India’s political throne’, have reasons to smile. The country’s Supreme Court has reopened the old debate by asking the government for its opinion on whether a ‘registered’ citizen of foreign origin could hold constitutional posts like those of the President and the Prime Minister, says a news report. In November last year, the Delhi High Court had said the...