A band of tribal women from rebel-hit Jehan village, 125km from the state capital, are keeping their men off liquor since the past one-and-half years. An unlikely crusader leads rural homemakers, numbering about 60, under the self-named outfit Nehru Mahila Samiti. She’s a 29-year-old primary schoolteacher, Basanti Tirkey, a Ranchi’s Nirmala College alumnus from the batch of 2004. The mother of a three-year-old son, her husband Antonis Lakra works in the...

Stories abound in Bhopal of the life and death of Shehla Masood. But among those who knew her, there appears agreement on one point: something was so uncharacteristically passive, so un-Shehla-like, they say, about the dead body slumped in the driving seat of the silver-grey Santro on the morning of August 16, with no evident signs of struggle and a bullet hole in the neck. Some crude clues to the extraordinary...

Comprises Lokpal Bill, laws on poll reforms, public disclosures and accountability of judges The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is planning to introduce a slew of anti-graft laws in the winter session of Parliament: apart from the Lokpal Bill, which is with a Standing Committee of Parliament, in the works are laws on electoral reforms, public procurement, service delivery to citizens, public disclosures, and accountability of judges, among others. Union Ministers and...

-The Hindu   They will weaken anti-corruption regime As CAMPAign against corruption gathers momentum, the Central Bureau of Investigation will tell the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Law, Justice and Personnel that both the civil society's Jan Lokpal Bill and the government's Lokpal Bill appear “unworkable” and will weaken the anti-corruption regime. In a presentation scheduled for Thursday before the committee, CBI Director A.P. Singh will present the agency's views on the Bills. As for the...

Arvind Kejriwal is part of the brains trust behind the Anna Hazare movement, which has the potential to further undermine the Delhi order. The engineer-turned-civil servant-turned-RTI activist is now a mass CAMPAigner for the Jan Lokpal bill and plans to expand the movement. He spoke to Saba Naqvi about his ideological convictions, faith in “the people”, dealings with the Aruna Roy-led National CAMPAign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) and...