-The Economic Times   The single most significant achievement of the government's midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his fellow protesters at Delhi's Ramlila Grounds has been to dent its own credibility. Its critics are entirely right to ask why, if the fasting Baba is a charlatan as the government now claims he is, more ministers were sent to receive him at the Delhi airport than has been assigned to greet...

-The Hindu   “Crackdown smacks of British action at Jallianwala Bagh” “I have a feeling June 2011 is going to become another turning point in the country's history” Wants President to take cognisance of all the events in the last six months Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani on Sunday described the arrest and removal of Baba Ramdev from the site of his hunger strike and the crackdown on his supporters as “naked...

The Congress-led UPA is on bended knee trying to placate Swami Ramdev in the run-up to his fast but it’s the Sangh Parivar, specifically the RSS, that could hold the cards. On May 27, eight days before the scheduled start of the fast on June 4, a written circular, signed by RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi, went out to provincial organisers. The note specifically asked them to instruct swayamsevaks to support...

Expectations of changes resulting from a movement bereft of a clear political and ideological thrust would be far-fetched. FROM the vacuum left by mainstream politics to the confusions of ideology and practice emerging out of half-baked socio-political engagement – the political trajectory of Anna Hazare's “anti-corruption” satyagraha movement demanding early introduction of the Lokpal Bill in Parliament can well be summed up thus. The wide support that the movement received from...

72-year-old Hazare, who has lost 1.5 kg in the past three days, said there was no need for anyone to worry about his health as he can go with the fast for another seven days As his fast-unto-death on the Lokpal issue entered the third day, Gandhian Anna Hazare on Thursday stuck to the demand for a joint committee of civil society members and government representatives to draft a strong Lokpal...