-IANS   Talks between the government and Team Anna continued to be hindered by three 'sticking issues' Wednesday, when Anna Hazare's fast for a strong Lokpal bill entered the ninth day amid concerns that his health was deteriorating and time was running out. 'Another round of talks are on between Salman Khurshid (law minister) and Team Anna,' former police officer and Team Anna member Bedi tweeted ahead of an all-party meeting on the...

The substitution of one man for the people, and the reduction of the people's role merely to being supporters and cheerleaders for one man's actions, is antithetical to democracy. The Central government's flip-flops on Anna Hazare are obvious: it went from abusing him (through the Congress spokesperson) for sheltering Corruption, to extolling him for his idealism; from arresting him, without any justification, and getting him remanded to judicial custody for a...

In the current hullabaloo about the lok pal bill and the Anna agitation, one question has frequently been raised, both by protagonists of the Congress and the government and by constitutionalists and legal experts: however laudable the goals of Anna and his supporters, aren’t the methods adopted by them illegitimate? Doesn’t a fast unto death amount to blackmail of the legislature? Isn’t it an attempt by the unelected to usurp...

Ardent admirers of the Supreme Court will credit it with starting three revolutions in the past three decades. In the 1980s the public interest litigation (PIL) movement opened the doors of the court to every citizen, especially those who could not reach it due to poverty, illiteracy or backwardness. Around the same time, the court sowed the seeds of citizens’ right to know in a few judgments, asserting that sunlight is...

-The Hindu   Following is the text of letter written by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to social activist Anna Hazare over his indefinite fast against Corruption at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi. "Over the last few days, I have watched with increasing concern the state of your health. Despite the differences between the Government and your team, I do not think that anybody is or should be in any doubt about the deep...