As per hallowed newsroom traditions, the bad news first. 1. We have a government and a ruling party that have displayed tactical, strategic, policy and moral incapacities. 2. We have a main Opposition party that, despite witnessing such government and ruling party incapacity, has displayed its own incapacity to do anything intelligent or meaningful. 3. We have a core group of agitationists led by Anna Hazare which has displayed, at best,...

The Anna Hazare agitation is showing signs of becoming a political and social monster. There are several disturbing elements already in evidence, perhaps more disturbing than the awfulness of corruption. Whatever one thinks of the anti-corruption bill drafted by the government, the agitation, by the day, is growing scarier. There is a combustible mix here of hero worship, cult propagation, populist absolutism and irrational exuberance, mass hysteria, de-politicization, militarization, and,...

-The Economic Times   Manipur's 'Iron Lady' Irom Sharmila Chanu, who has been on a fast for over 10 years in support of her demand for scrapping the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, on Tuesday extended her support to Anna Hazare's anti-graft mission. Sharmila has written a letter to Anna Hazare, expressing her solidarity with his movement. Sections had derided Hazare's hunger strike, comparing it with the Manipur Iron Lady's anti-AFSPA agitation,...

-PTI   A breakthrough in the deadlock over Lok Pal continued to elude Team Anna and government despite hard negotiations with differences persisting over seven issues, including bringing the Prime Minister under its ambit. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight candidly admitted that the government was in a "bind" from which it has to come out with "practical and pragmatic" solutions. Singh's comments came after Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid and three key members of...

In the current hullabaloo about the Lok Pal bill and the Anna agitation, one question has frequently been raised, both by protagonists of the Congress and the government and by constitutionalists and legal experts: however laudable the goals of Anna and his supporters, aren’t the methods adopted by them illegitimate? Doesn’t a fast unto death amount to blackmail of the legislature? Isn’t it an attempt by the unelected to usurp...