Even as anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare appealed to his supporters not to pay attention to “disinformation and distractive campaigns” being unleashed against him, the Congress on Wednesday said no initiative, however genuine, should undermine democracy. The veiled message came from Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari in response to a query as towhether the party believed that Mr. Hazare should contest elections. Mr. Tewari said, “I have no comments to make on an individual's...

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Tuesday suggested widening the scope of the Lokpal Bill by also going into the issue of corruption in the corporate sector and NGOs as part of a comprehensive package against graft. “The anti-corruption law in the U.S. can look into the functioning of the corporate sector and the NGO sector and it should be considered,” he told journalists here. Describing anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare as a...

In a veiled attack on non-government organisations (NGOs) that supported Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday suggested the Lokpal Bill should also cover “corporates and NGOs”. He also supported the idea of social activists, who are in the joint committee, declaring their assets. The Congress general secretary took a dig at Hazare for his controversial remarks that people vote for Rs 100 or a sari or a...

The Jan Lokpal Bill should be modelled on the lines of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act. That's the firm belief of Lokayukta Justice Santosh N Hegde whose inclusion in the 10-member committee to draft the bill was suggested by Anna Hazare, the Gandhian who recently led the popular movement to include civil society in the process. Justice Hegde said the state Act has all the necessary elements to ensure success in the...

After the Lokpal bill, Anna Hazare will turn his attention to the “right to recall a corporator” he had been advocating, supporters say. Hazare has been saying that the provision for “right to recall a corporator” should be made in the state government’s Area Sabha Act now under review. Vijay Kumbhar, president of the Surajya Sangharsh Samiti, said Hazare and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal are members of the special study group...