Sections within civil society have reservations about Anna Hazare’s movement but the government’s failure to tap them may have lent credence to the impression that his group was speaking up for the entire nation. Although leaders like P. Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal have argued that no single group could claim to be the sole representative of civil society, the Centre has not seriously tried to open channels of Communication with other...

Facing an impeachment motion, Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen, who appeared before the Rajya Sabha today, claimed that he was being made the “sacrificial lamb to cleanse the judiciary”, and that the allegations of misconduct and misappropriation of funds against him were part of a predetermined move to remove him. Pointing a finger at former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan for recommending his impeachment, Sen said: “The real...

• Without a clear definition of ‘public purpose’, the land acquisition bill is meaningless • The bill’s definition of ‘fertile land’ can potentially harm the agriculture sector • Government’s role in defining land will create economic and political problems in future As Parliament debates this month it will, hopefully, move beyond issues of corruption in high places to important economic legislation. Two such pieces of legislation are the land acquisition bill and...

-The Times of India   The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed unhappiness over the progress of investigations into irregularities in the purchase of intelligence equipment and recruitments by the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), which was set up in 2004 to provide crucial data on threats to the nation. A bench of Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik asked solicitor general R F Nariman about the status of the probe into...

-The Business Standard   The controversy surrounding the arrest of Anna Hazare and his team has generated more heat than light about the issues at stake. Mr Hazare and his supporters not only insisted that their views be taken on board in drafting a Lok Pal Bill, but also demanded that only their version of the Bill be accepted and, in fact, placed in Parliament by the government. No government can accept such...