The right step would be for Manmohan Singh to visit Jantar Mantar without further loss of time to persuade the Gandhian to call off his fast, and also explore a compromise. Jantar Mantar in New Delhi is a hot favourite of the average tourist in the summer season. As the temperatures soar this year, the monument is drawing even greater crowds, mainly to savour the electric atmosphere generated by a 72-year-old...

Egypt, Tunisia and now — Jantar Mantar. That’s what a gaggle of school students felt Anna Hazare’s protest site had become. “Tunisia, Egypt and now India,” said one banner. Teenager Ankita, who held aloft the poster, said she could not hold herself back. “A revolution is on. And I wanted to pitch in,” said the Class XII student of a reputable city school. Schoolmate Ashish Parikh nodded. “It is the tipping point.” They were...

It's Sharad Pawar's old habit of indulging in corruption. Yes, I am levelling charges. Take me to court, I will prove the allegations," said activist Anna Hazare in New Delhi, as he began his fast unto death strike against corruption on Monday. Hazare's is campaigning for a compressive Lok Pal Bill to give wider powers to the ombudsman to check corruption attracted a huge crowd of over 3,000 people at Jantar...

The new Lokpal Bill panel will have equal representation from civil society, but it will remain an informal committee, the Union government told social activist Anna Hazare on Thursday, whose 'satyagraha' for a stringent anti-corruption legislation entered its third day. Hazare's supporters are disappointed there will be no formal notification issued on this committee which would have made it binding on the government to go by it. The deadlock, therefore, continues though...

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...