Tihar jail today has the largest collection of charged or convicted top officials, a powerful ex-minister, sundry politicians and officials. Maharashtra had a teflon-coated chief minister who was ‘sacked’ to a cabinet post in Delhi after being long untouched by many scandals. Another just exited. A former Jharkhand chief minister is in jail on charges of looting his state treasury and accumulating funds abroad. The powerful founder of the Nationalist...

The Karnataka Lokayukta and Member of Jan Lokpal Bill Joint Drafting Committee N. Santosh Hedge on Monday made a forceful plea for bringing politicians and bureaucrats under the jurisdiction of the proposed Lokpal at the Centre as maladministration and corruption could not take place without the nexus between the two. Speaking at a public meeting at the International Centre Goa (ICG) at Dona Paula near here on Monday on “Role of...

WHILE maintaining her support for a Lokpal institution, Aruna Roy, a prominent civil rights activist and a member of the National Advisory Council, took a critical position in respect of the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by the activists of the India Against Corruption campaign. A recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 2000, she heads the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (a trade union of workers and peasants)...

Anna Hazare's fast puts Jan Lokpal on the nation's agenda, but doubts remain whether it will help root out corruption. A FUTURE historian who browses the archives of Indian newspapers and news websites from April 5 to 10 will be confused over how to characterise the groundswell of public support across the country for the “fast unto death” undertaken at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi, by a social activist not...

Kolkata Consulate: His candidacy 'could offer a possible out from the Hasina-Zia zero-sum game' Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner known in particular for his microfinance initiatives in Bangladesh, appeared to have been aware of the risks and consequences of a move he made to enter the country's politics. He told Henry Jardine, the U.S. Consul General in Kolkata, that he was aware of the “potentially bruising response” it would...