Sometimes a sense of unbridled virtue can also subvert democracy. The agitation by civil society activists over the Jan Lokpal Bill is a reminder of this uncomfortable truth. There is a great deal of justified consternation over corruption. The obduracy of the political leadership is testing the patience of citizens. But the movement behind the Jan Lokpal Bill is crossing the lines of reasonableness. It is premised on an institutional...
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The Politics of migration by Sushanta Talukdar
For 55-year-old Mohimuddin of Goroimari, which falls in the Chaygaon Assembly constituency in lower Assam's Kamrup district, the protection of minorities from undue harassment in the name of identification of foreigners was the prime issue until a few years ago. This time round, he is more worried about the backwardness of his village coupled with price hike. A poor peasant with seven mouths to feed, Mohimuddin says the prime demand of...
More »Lokpal Bill: Anna Hazare continues fast, slams Congress for misleading people
Social activist Anna Hazare, who entered the second day of his indefinite fast, on Wednesday slammed the Congress for "misleading" the people by dubbing his agitation as unnecessary and premature. 72-year-old Hazare, who is demanding enactment of an anti-corruption bill to give wider powers to the Ombudsman, said, "The party's (Congress) statement is misleading people. Why is this agitation unnecessary and how is it premature? 42 years the nation has been...
More »The fatal flaws in the government's Lokpal Bill by Iftikhar Gilani
Anna Hazare’s fast puts into focus the government’s attempts to protect politicians India Against Corruption, a group formed by Anna Hazare and other social activists and former judges, has given 17 reasons why the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde, now the Karnataka Lokayukta, is far better than the Bill prepared by the union government. The Jan Lokpal Bill, hailed as a civil society initiative, provides for...
More »The deception at the heart of ‘Rising India' by Pankaj Mishra
From the Prime Minister down, WikiLeaks has exposed the rotten state of the world's largest democracy for all to see. Food prices become intolerable for the poor. Protests against corruption paralyse Parliament. Then a series of American diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks exposes a brazenly mendacious and venal ruling class; the head of government adored by foreign business people and journalists loses his moral authority, turning into a lame duck. This...
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