On August 27, Parliament should have passed a resolution on the Lokpal issue in the established manner. The so-called ‘Sense of the House' resolution was a perplexing move. After the failure of discussions between members of a committee comprising Union Ministers and the civil society team, Anna Hazare declared on July 29, 2011 that if the government did not act on the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by the team by August...

-The Hindu   Chaos prevails at the Government Rajaji Hospital where slogans were raised Hundreds of angry Dalits gathered at the Government Rajaji Hospital here on Sunday and raised slogans against the State government and the police for the firing on Dalits at Paramakudi in which five persons were killed. Chaos prevailed at the hospital as the protesters raised slogans after six Dalit youths — Siva, 19, Paramasivam, 20, Senthil Murugan, 23, Chaturagiri, 22,...

-PTI   The barriers erected by villagers to cordon off South Korean steel major Posco's proposed steel plant in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district have been removed, paving the way for site preparatory activities to resume on the much-delayed Rs 52,000 crore project. Work at the project site resumed on Saturday, after a gap of 25 days, when locals removed two bamboo gates erected by them at Gadakujang and Nuagaon following talks with state government...

-The Telegraph   The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and the All Assam Students Union today launched statewide protests against the movement of turbines meant for lower Subansiri hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh. Two Bangladeshi vessels, carrying the NHPC turbines, which had remained stranded for months at Bongshichar in Dhubri district following anti-dam protests, had yesterday set sail for Jogighopa in Bongaigaon district to offload the consignment. In Guwahati, about 200 KMSS members, led by...

There are structural aspects to a problem as complex as corruption. These cannot be tackled through punishment alone. Just as our society tends to latch on to holy men for miracle cures, in recent weeks, the urban middle classes have placed great hopes on an anti-corruption movement led by a pious man in a Gandhi cap. (The other claim on leadership by a holy man in red robes did not...