Expressing concern over the "menace" of corruption in the wake of a series of scams, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said it demeans and dents India's image. "Corruption strikes at the roots of good governance. It is an impediment to faster growth. It dilutes, if not negates, our efforts at social inclusion. It dents our international image and it demeans us before our own people," Manmohan Singh said, addressing the second...

Besieged as it is by a spate of scams, the Centre has revived the 40-year-old proposal of setting up a national ombudsman called the Lokpal to probe political corruption. But, far from overcoming the existing deficiencies, the latest draft Bill – which could be promulgated any time soon as an ordinance - provides a legal veneer to them so that crooked politicians will continue to enjoy almost as much impunity...

Maharashtra home minister R R Patil refused to provide police protection to RTI activists but he was quick with a special security cover for former Shiv Sena leader Kiran Pawaskar, soon after he joined NCP. With this, Pawaskar joins a club of 25-odd politicians, who don't hold any official post, but have been granted special security by the home department run by an NCP minister. Like Pawaskar, all those who...

The CBI's record in the Jain hawala case was disappointing. But there are powerful elements in favour of unravelling the truth in the 2G scam. On December 16, 2010, the Supreme Court (Justices G.S. Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly, ) ordered a comprehensive and thorough investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into what has become notorious as “the 2G scam.” The investigation, into spectrum allocation from...

Congress President Sonia Gandhi's five-point plan to counter corruption, announced during the recent plenary session of the party and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the spectrum scam are, on paper, reasonable measures aimed at reversing the toll the series of scams and controversies have taken on the government. But without concrete action and setting up of mechanisms which can effectively implement counter-corruption...