-NDTV   Civil society members of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee are to meet today after sulking for a day, over the events surrounding Baba Ramdev's eviction from his protest fast at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday. Terming the incidents at the Ramlila Maidan as the reason for their boycott on Monday, the five-member team of civil society representatives led by Gandhian Anna Hazare condemned the Centre for the midnight police action on...

-The Telegraph   The Left parties have refused to answer government questionnaires on the Lok Pal bill, a stance that arrays them alongside the BJP in trying to corner the Congress-led UPA over corruption. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has written to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee saying his party cannot give its views on the six questionnaires, to be answered in yes-or-no terms. The format even prompted CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan to...

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it,' quipped Charles F Kettering , the famous American engineer and inventor of the electric starter. Well, the government has done just that! It has appointed an eight-member committee to examine ways to tackle black money. Perhaps that is too cynical! After all, the flurry of activity (the committee is only one of a series...

A caveat: Is the Lokpal the right authority to investigate judges? Legal luminaries think otherwise. Five Points Of Contention Pro-Lokpal Bill activists want the higher Judiciary to come under the purview of the new law. Jurists think otherwise. Point: Nowhere in the world is there an ombudsman to whom the entire higher Judiciary is made accountable Counterpoint: The Lokpal Bill must ensure powers to probe corruption charges against SC and HC judges Independence of...

No one’s buying the government’s desperate arguments to keep the prime minister above Lokpal scrutiny Points Of Friction   Government and civil society representatives have sparred on the question of including the prime minister in the proposed Lokpal Bill on seven key grounds: Point: The Prime Minister is accountable only to Parliament, and to the people of India Counterpoint: Does this mean a PM can never face action for criminal liability, however serious the charge,...