Do we, the Indian middle class, see the corruption within us? I was too busy being corrupt to join Anna Hazare’s camp last week. For four days, I heard nothing but stories of our Tahrir Square-like revolution against the corrupt unfurling right under our noses in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. But it was school admission time and I had some serious palm-greasing, document-fudging, string-pulling, weight-throwing and tout-chasing to do. I had...

There can be little question that the news media, print as well as television, have contributed significantly to bringing the issue of corruption to political India's centre stage. The focus on the corruption of elections through ‘cash for votes' comes in tandem with the proactive intervention by the Election Commission of India during the April-May elections to State Assemblies. There can also be little doubt that the U.S. Embassy CABles,...

She lost a limb after she was thrown out of a running train; Railway promises all help for her rehabilitation Distressed over the incident in which national volleyball player Arunima alias Sonu Sinha was thrown out of a running train causing her to lose a limb, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for a detailed report from the Railways. With Dr. Singh away in China attending the BRICS summit, the Prime Minister's...

Marked 7 in severity and reclassified as a ‘major accident' The nuclear radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan was reclassified on Tuesday as a “major accident” with the same worst-case rating as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. However, Japanese authorities quickly sought to reassure the international community about the continuing efforts to end the Fukushima crisis that was mainly triggered by natural disasters. Chernobyl, in contrast, was seen more primarily...

The people's hero Anna Hazare caught in further political cross fire over his praise for Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumars style of governance specifically because states like Gujarat have had no Lokayukta for the last nine years. "Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar are two chief ministers who have performed well," said Anna Hazare. Ironically though, Gujarat, unlike many other states in the Union, does not have a Lokayokta. The state enacted a...