Admitting that there was "growing feeling" amongst people that present systems were ineffective in dealing with corruption, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said he hoped to bring the more stringent anti-graft Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill in the monsoon session of parliament. Addressing bureaucrats of the country at a function here, Manmohan Singh stressed that his government was accelerating its efforts to create a systemic response to curb graft practices in India. "Our...

The political class may be evil and corrupt but that’s whom Shanti Bhushan and his son Jayant Bhushan turn to when they want a farmhouse each — for a song. In his declaration of assets last week, Shanti Bhushan, also co-chairman of the drafting committee of the Lokpal Bill, mentioned a 10,000 sq m farmland plot in Noida. What he did not mention was the discretionary manner in which the Mayawati government,...

A fresh controversy involving anti-corruption campaigner Shanti Bhushan broke out today over allotment of priced farmhouse plots to him and his son Jayant in nearby Noida and demands have cropped for the lawyer's resignation from the joint committee to draft the Lokpal Bill. Congress and Samajwadi Party questioned the allotment of farmhouses to Bhushans and suggested that Shanti Bhushan should withdraw himself from the Joint Committee to draft Lokpal Bill. The controversy...

Given the scale of corruption in India, the constitution of a Jan Lokpal will be a welcome initiative. But the proposed Lokpal has the makings of a super-monster. After 42 years of hesitation and uncertainty, an institutional mechanism to deal with the all-pervasive incidence of corruption in India is in sight. What apparently moved the state machinery was the agitation spearheaded by Anna Hazare, which drew spontaneous support primarily in the...

The Prime Minister's Office has been directed by the Central Information Commission (CIC) to provide details of the expenditure incurred on the PM's relatives accompanying him on visits abroad. The CIC rejected the PMO's argument that it did not have such records. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Protocol Division of the External Affairs Ministry have both stated they do no have these records with an RTI application shuttling between the...