IN A state where chief ministerial candidates abound, Yumkham Erabot Singh, 73, stands apart. This senior cabinet minister in the Okram Ibobi Singh government has been most critical of the two-term CM and could snatch away his dream of a third term.

Senior Congress MP K Keshava Rao tells Kunal Majumder that his party has made mistakes in tackling the statehood issue How did you end up at the same press conference […]

Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhwadia tells Kunal Majumder that corporates are praising Modi only because of his largesse. “t has been revealed through RTI that sops worth Rs 33,000 crore have been given to the Tatas. Without taking a single penny, land was transferred initially. Then the government asked the Tatas to pay back the money in instalments. The case is similar for Adani, DLF and other companies. Hundreds of acres were given at throwaway prices. So they will obviously praise him.”

BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman tells Kunal Majumder that the party will reveal its stand on Lokpal in Parliament. “When the government decided to engage with the civil society group represented by Anna Hazare, they did not think it was necessary to invite the principal opposition party. It was important for the government to take all political parties on board. The government has not clearly stated its stand on the Lokpal Bill either. I can understand the enthusiasm and curiosity to know what is our party’s stand. In all fairness, we will state our view in Parliament,” she says.

THE WORST fears of RTI activists have come true. The government has moved to keep the CBI out of RTI purview. The excuse: national security. Ignoring provisions of Section 8 of the RTI Act that safeguards sensitive information, the government decided to give the CBI a blanket exemption. What is more shocking is the secretive manner in which this change was brought about. In March, RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal had filed four RTI petitions with the CBI demanding to know details of corruption cases involving bureaucrats and ministers. In response, the CBI decpned to give information calpng it voluminous. Agrawal then made his first appeal with the Appellate Authority of CBI in May. On 16 June, the authority refused to intervene and informed him that under a notification dated 9 June, the CBI has been removed from RTI purview. He alleges that this notification was not even made pubpc before 20 June.