-First Post   Rent-seekers playing the politics of tokenism are targeting the movement against corruption led by Anna Hazare. An array of political forces – from leaders of the Muslim community to Dalit leaders to jholawallas – is stepping out to criticise the atmospherics of Anna’s movement as well the Jan Lokpal Bill that Team Anna is campaigning for. On Monday, the Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, criticised Team Anna’s campaign,...

The government, no doubt, has been rightly accused of mishandling the Anna Hazare protest and, worse, of misjudging the public mood. But it is equally true that even the worst critics of the government in Parliament want nothing to do with the central demand of Team Anna: Parliament must consider their ‘Jan Lokpal Bill.' After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement on the emotive subject of Mr. Hazare's arrest — and the...

-The Hindustan Times   Unidentified assailants killed a woman Right to Information (RTI) activist in front of her residence here around 11am on Tuesday. She was scheduled to attend a signature campaign in support of Anna Hazare's agitation a couple of hours later. Shehla Masood, 39, was shot in the neck point blank as she was getting into her car parked in front of her house in the upscale Koh-e-Fiza locality in...

-The Hoot   Scores of journalists and non-journalists, governed by the respective statutory Wage Boards, are up in arms against the alleged ‘malicious campaign’ unleashed through the Indian Newspapers Society (INS) by a few Media Houses opposing the recommendations of the latest Justice G.R.Majithia Wage Board constituted by the Centre.   They are awaiting with bated breath the verdict of the Supreme Court bench that had, on July 18, 2011, informally directed the...

The (word) games we play to avoid dealing with the problems of some of the poorest Indians. It's strange season again in the corridors of planning and power — the run up to the 12th Five-Year Plan. This is when myriad Planning Commission committees review the (somewhat predictable) non-implementation of policies intended to benefit some of the poorest Indians, and recommend changes, only to repeat the exercise five years later. Forgive my...