The huge support for what Anna Hazare espoused came against the background of widespread corruption and government inaction. THE Anna Hazare mania that gripped large sections of society for five days from April 5, resulting in the government capitulating to his demand for including civil society activists in the committee for the drafting of an anti-corruption law, has baffled many people. The groundswell of support for his cause took the...
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Lokpal Bill will tide over personal attacks, say civil groups by Gargi Parsai
Campaign against Bhushans seen as a bid to scuttle the formulation of the same Even as the Finance Minister and chairman of the joint drafting committee on Lokpal Bill, Pranab Mukherjee, said on Friday that the controversy surrounding some panel members would not impact the formulation of the Bill, several civil society groups and organisations condemned the smear campaign as an attempt to scuttle the proposed Bill. The National Alliance of People's...
More »Anti-labour union by TK Rajalakshmi
The UPA-II government introduces with BJP support two anti-labour Bills, the Pension Bill and the Labour Laws Amendment Bill. ON March 24, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government managed to do what it had not been able to do in its first term – it reintroduced the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill in Parliament with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The objective of the Bill is...
More »Bribes: a small but radical idea by P Sainath
To ask a people burdened with systemic bribery to accept bribe-giving as legal is to demand they accept corruption and the existing structures of power and inequity it flows from. Let's get this right. The Chief Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, wants a certain class of bribes legalised? And says so in a paper titled “Why, for a Class of Bribes, the Act of Giving a...
More »Media support crusade against corruption
There can be little question that the news media, print as well as television, have contributed significantly to bringing the issue of corruption to political India's centre stage. The focus on the corruption of elections through ‘cash for votes' comes in tandem with the proactive intervention by the Election Commission of India during the April-May elections to State Assemblies. There can also be little doubt that the U.S. Embassy Cables,...
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