To say that no one has elected Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal and the rest to speak for ordinary citizens is to say the obvious. The mostly middle-class people and the chatteratti (film stars, celebrity cops and so on) who have rallied to Mr Hazare’s cause remind one of the people who held hands and lit candles after the November 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai, saying, “Enough is enough”. TV stations...

A section of the government suspects that “bigger forces” are using the fight against corruption to achieve their “not-so-noble goals” perhaps even unknown to Anna Hazare. Although nobody would go on record, senior functionaries said in private that the destabilising games of some corporate and even international players were behind “the entire show”. “The RSS and other anti-Congress elements might have jumped in with their own little vested interests but the real...

Giving in to demands from anti-corruption activists, the government today issued a gazette notification on formation of a joint committee headed by senior minister Pranab Mukherjee to draft an effective Lokpal Bill. The notification, one of the key demands of the anti-corruption campaign launched by Gandhian Anna Hazare, has been signed by V K Bhasin, Secretary, Legislative Department of the Law Ministry. The notification was proudly displayed at the site of Hazare's...

Anna Hazare told his supporters to prepare for a bigger battle against the government, if the Parliament fails to pass the Lokpal Bill, a law that the country has been waiting for more than 40 years. Setting August 15 as the deadline, Hazare said that certain corrupt politicians might not let the bill pass easily and if need be a stronger fight against corruption would be required. "This is the battle,...

Government on Friday night blinked in the battle of attrition with Anna Hazare by agreeing to issue a formal order to set up a joint committee for drafting an effective Lokpal Bill and the Gandhian will end his indefinite fast on Saturday. The announcement of an agreement came from both sides late in the night on the fourth day of Hazare's last-unto-death that triggered a nationwide support for his anti-corruption campaign. "Government...