The controversy following resignation of Justice Santosh Hegde, the Lok Ayukt of Karnataka, and the subsequent amends purported to have been made by the Karnataka Government has again highlighted the failure of the Lok Pal legislative history at the Centre and equally the passivity and reluctance of all political parties to pass this legislation, which is most urgently desired, if the attempt to control the rapid drift downward to political...

The Supreme Court today told the Centre’s counsel to tell “your minister” it had issued “an order, not a suggestion”, to distribute free foodgrain to the poor. The stinging rebuke drew a measured response that masked the misgivings within the government and amplified the paranoia among parties that any debate could saddle them with the politically suicidal label “anti-poor”. The court was responding to comments attributed to food minister Sharad Pawar that...

There’s suddenly a flurry of activity in Karotia, a nondescript village in West Bengal’s Burdwan district. Lately, a lot of politicians and state government officials have been visiting the village, and they say work on a nearly forgotten 14km irrigation canal is going to start soon. It’s been nearly 36 years since the state government first proposed to dig the canal, recalls Azizur Haque, the local panchayat chief. It was to...

Janardhana Reddy insists he is not a king. No, no, no, he protested, as a servant trotted across the courtyard to deliver a cup of cooled water. Men with machine guns stood outside. An architect waited to discuss the new mansion, while another man hovered nearby, sitting in the grass. “He’s the state minister of health,” Mr. Reddy said of the man in the grass, who stood up, made a little...

India’s monsoon rains were about 3% above normal in July, the highest for the month since 2005, making a repeat of last year’s crop failure and food-led inflation surge unlikely. Heavy rain since the third week of July has brought readings above normal for the first time this monsoon season, according to weather office data, wiping out the seasonal shortfall in almost all major grain areas other than in the east...