-The Hindu   Civil rights activist Aruna Roy on Sunday termed the notion of parliamentary privilege ‘fundamentally flawed' and said it needed a relook. “The privilege issue, we [the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI)] feel, is fundamentally flawed. We will have to examine it. Not only now, we have raised this over a number of issues [earlier],” she said at an interaction with the media. On Parliament's breach of privilege motion...

While BJP MP Tarun Vijay appeared on TV on Thursday to say that RTI activist Shehla Masood and her event management firm worked closely with the party's affiliated organizations, and that her killing was being politicized, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his government will write a second letter to the Centre demanding a CBI probe into the murder. Vijay, who is also a BJP spokesperson, said he was...

RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal today dubbed as “baseless” the questions being raised about interests of US bankrolling the nation-wide anti-corruption agitation under his Gandhian leader Anna Hazare. In a talk with Business Standard, the Ramon Magsaysay awardee said the NGO, Kabir, he runs along with social activist Manish Sisodia, did receive funding from the New York-based Ford Foundation, but pointed out that it had stopped about two years ago. “How can...

As the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement moves to the legislative phase it has to rid itself of the panacea model. The Hazare group has to realise that it has no monopoly on diagnosis or the cure for corruption. The Lokpal is no magic bullet which will solve the problem of corruption. Corruption needs a more cautious and nuanced problematic and a wider set of solutions. To put it facetiously, Hazare’s...

Amidst much indignation over the need for more transparency to fight corruption, the state government has ordered to keep the Special Police Establishment (SPE) of the Lokayukta and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) out of the purview of the Right to Information Act, 2005, raising suspicion over the motive behind the action. The General Administration Department issued a notification on August 25. RTI activists and civil society groups allege that the government...