Even as the area around Parliament was swamped by crowds of Anna Hazare's supporters, demanding a stronger Lokpal Bill on Wednesday, a small group of environmental activists staged their own demonstration against a different bill, the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill, 2011. Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was scheduled to introduce the controversial BRAI Bill in the Lok Sabha, but the House did not conduct regular business due...

Sushma blasts PM & defends RSS role in stir SUSHMA Swaraj, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday of presenting a “ pack of lies” to Parliament on the Anna Hazare episode even as she mounted a strong defence of the BJP’s ideological mother, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS), and its support to the Hazare- led movement. In an agitated speech, interrupted...

-CNN-IBN   Is Team Anna divided over bringing the Prime Minister under Lokpal's ambit? Two of Anna Hazare supporters - Swami Agnivesh and Arvind Kejriwal - have divergent views on the issue pointing towards a difference in opinion among the civil society members on the issue. "It is not a very sticky point for us. Corruption at the lower level of bureaucracy is the first and the foremost which concerns the common people...

-IANS   The Karnataka Lokyaukta (ombudsman) police Wednesday registered a first information report (FIR) against scam-hit former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in a graft case related to a contract in an irrigation project. The FIR (No.33/1) was filed under section 13(1) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1994 and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 on a complaint filed by Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) Y.S.V. Datta in the Lokayukta court against Yeddyurappa and Dhavalagiri...

Just when they seem to be hurtling towards confrontation, Congress has successfully reached out to the Anna Hazare camp, persuading the civil society activists to appear before the standing committee on law and justice. Activist Arvind Kejriwal confirmed to TOI that he along with his colleagues have accepted the invite from the parliamentary panel led by Congress's Abhishek Singhvi and will attend the deliberations on Wednesday. Gandhian Anna Hazare, former law...