After forming syndicates, the liquor mafia in Nizamabad district is now targeting young workers of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( MGNREGS) to rake in more moolah. Towards this end, the powerful mafia succeeded by roping in village development committees (VDCs) to help them open more belt shops in villages. Though it was illegal, a majority of these belt shops are being run in residential colonies, slum areas and...

This is India’s Tahrir square, read one of the tweets soon after the campaign against corruption succeeded last week and forced the government to accept the demands of social activist Anna Hazare to announce a committee for considering a new Lokpal Bill against corruption. After watching widespread public demonstrations in Tunisia, Egypt and other Middle-East countries to rid their countries of dictators, there was a frisson of excitement among our socially...

So we had a Gandhian morphed into an advocate of Sindoor and Shivaji, who led a crowd that raised a slogan created in Bengal, with some desh bhakti songs thrown in. This was India’s modern revolution? Anna Hazare is a good man. After taking part in the spectacle at Jantar Mantar for three days I have concluded that he is a good man who obviously believes in the glory of...

That accountability is vital in a democracy was reinforced at a National Convention of the National Campaign for the People's Right to Information held in Shillong recently… If governments do not investigate corruption, people should have the right and power to do so themselves. When the idea of a people's legal right to information took initial shape in the dusty villages of Rajasthan nearly two decades ago amidst people's struggles for...

Indian social activist Anna Hazare has begun what he has called a "fast unto death" to pressure the government to act on corruption. The 72-year-old campaigner says he will refuse all food and drink until the government enacts a comprehensive anti-corruption law. The government has set up a committee to consider a bill, but Mr Hazare wants civil society included in the process. India has recently been hit by a series of high-profile...