-The Times of India   Sometimes, nonsense verse captures it. The film character Anthony Gonsalves, inspired by George Bernard Shaw, sang, "The whole country of the system is juxtapositioned by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere - because you are a sophisticated rhetorician, intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity." Few words apply better to the current Lokpal Bill stand-off. For this to break, the rhetoric must stop with ground being...

The Lokpal is designed to be a comprehensive anti-corruption institution independent of the government, empowered to effectively investigate corruption of all public servants. But most of the critical elements in this vision have been rejected. The latest draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on hydrocarbon production sharing contracts and the transfer of oilfields to Reliance is only the latest of the mega scams to surface in...

-The Telegraph   Sonia Gandhi today sent a terse reply to Anna Hazare’s complaints about a “conspiracy” to defame him, the response setting the tone before a last-ditch bid to resolve differences on the Lokpal bill. The Congress chief’s reply to a letter from the Gandhian came a day ahead of a scheduled meeting of the joint committee of government representatives and social activists set up to draft the proposed anti-corruption law. Sonia’s...

-The Times of India   Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Sunday created a flutter by endorsing civil society's demand to bring the prime minister and the higher judiciary under the ambit of Lokpal, taking the government and his party colleagues by surprise. "My view is that the prime minister, judiciary, NGOs and industrial houses should also be brought under the ambit of Lokpal. But there should be a system to ensure...

Assam Governor J.B. Patnaik on Tuesday said the annual declaration of assets by Ministers, parliamentary secretaries and all officials would be made compulsory and the institution of Lokayukta would be strengthened in the State. In his customary address at the ongoing inaugural session of the 13th Assam Assembly the Governor also announced that four new services — Assam Rural Service, Assam Economic Service, Assam Revenue Service and the Assam Information Service...