-PTI   The lokpal Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha last week, has been referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee for in-depth scrutiny. The bill has been sent by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari to the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice which has been given three months to submit its report, a Parliament source said. Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi, who is a senior advocate, was only recently...

After a four-decade battle, Indian lawmakers took the first formal step toward creating an independent anticorruption agency on Thursday, introducing a bill in Parliament that would appoint a powerful ombudsman, or lokpal, to investigate wrongdoing by government officials. But the draft of the law, which exempts the prime minister, members of Parliament and many other officials from the lokpal’s jurisdiction, was roundly rejected by many of the people who had...

The Centre today took the extraordinary step of advising media to be “responsible” and not to “demonise” a different point of view, reflecting an assessment that the prevailing sense of drift was severely affecting legislative and administrative processes. Three senior cabinet ministers — Salman Khurshid (law), Kapil Sibal (telecom) and Ambika Soni (information and broadcasting) — appealed to the media to put things in perspective instead of sensationalising every issue without...

The Union Government has announced that it would bring the lokpal Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament which is expected to pass it in the winter session. The all-party meeting held on the lokpal issue damned the civil society and passed a one-line resolution: “The all-party meeting agreed that the government should bring before the next session of Parliament a strong and effective lokpal Bill following established procedures.” The...

The battle lines are drawn: it is the government versus "civil society" in India now. A controversial anti-corruption bill has been tabled in parliament, and a showdown with "civil society" representatives, backed by an energetic section of the media, looms. After months of wrangling with activists led by folksy anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare, the government says it has cobbled together the best possible legislation. It is called the lokpal bill but Mr Hazare...