-The Times of India   It was a climb down for the government on Friday as not only a law enacted less than a year ago was repealed but a bill moved on Thursday to exempt some categories from land ceiling limits was referred to a select committee by the treasury benches. The opposition staged a walkout demanding the bill`s withdrawal, saying it was not in interest of the state. Rising to...

-Agence France-Presse He may dress, talk and fast like his hero Mahatma Gandhi, but critics say anti-graft activist Anna Hazare has only managed to co-opt the style, not the substance, of India's independence icon. The figure of Gandhi looms large - and literally - over Hazare's anti-corruption campaign, with a giant photograph of the apostle of non-violence providing the backdrop to the 74-year-old's public hunger strike. Hazare's speeches are peppered with Gandhian references...

-IANS   A group of 20 youngsters enter Delhi Metro, shouting 'Vande Mataram' and urging commuters to sing along. As their voices begin to fade, a middle-aged woman announces, "They don't know a thing about Lokpal, corruption has brought them together." This statement, addressed to nobody in particular, pretty much sums up what the movement is all about. It's not the Lokpal bill, it's not a 74-year-old man on fast who has turned...

The National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) said on Saturday that while it fully backed anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his team on their right to agitate for a Jan Lokpal Bill, it had strong reservations over the methods adopted by the group and disagreed with the provisions of their Bill. The NCPRI objected in particular to the ultimatums flowing from Ramlila Maidan — where Mr. Hazare is fasting...

-The Hindu   Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Law and Justice who had a “very frank, intense and productive” discussion with social activist Anna Hazare on the Lokpal Bill are amazed that he after, giving them an impression of being “satisfied” with the interaction, said “something else” to the media. The meeting ended with the Committee asking Team Anna to send its Jan Lokpal Bill to it for further discussion so that...