-The Indian Express Shanti Bhushan — Supreme Court advocate, Team Anna member, self-appointed representative of civil society and self-anointed crusader against corruption — stares at the prospect of having to speak for himself, and his son Jayant, again. An Uttar Pradesh government audit has resurrected the controversial Noida farmhouse scheme, whereby the Bhushans, along with others, had been allotted farmhouse plots at reportedly a fraction of the market rate. The audit...

Remember the over 100 farmhouse plots allotted in Noida measuring at least 10,000 sq m each without an auction or a draw of lots, including two to Supreme Court advocate Shanti Bhushan and his son Jayant Bhushan? An audit has now found that not only was there no transparency in the allotment of these plots — 101 in all — but that the Noida Authority had fixed a very low rate,...

The Opposition on Tuesday prevented Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal from moving the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, in the Rajya Sabha, claiming it had a “conflict of interest”. As the Opposition members continued to press their “point of order”, quoting rules to prevent the Minister from tabling the Bill, the House was adjourned twice during the day. Even before the Minister could move the Bill, Janata Dal (United) leader Shivanand...

-The Indian Express   The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Muslim clerics have sent several delegations to the Human Resource Development ministry and even threatened to start an agitation if madrasas are not kept out of the Right to Education Act’s provisions. That apart, a delegation of Congress leaders, led by Digvijaya Singh, today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to exempt minority education from the ambit of the Right to...

From the beginning of the proceedings today, speakers from Team Anna appeared to be pressing home one point above all: they had returned to Jantar Mantar with an agenda larger than the (Jan) Lokpal. The Bill must be passed this winter session, or else there would be a “jail bharo aandolan”, said Anna. “Not a single jail will remain empty,” he promised. But the larger goal was another law, or...