At the peak of Anna Hazare’s fast in Delhi last year, some of his former aides in Maharashtra had cautioned that he should not get carried away by the hype. Last week, at Mumbai’s thinly populated MMRDA Grounds where his latest agitation flopped, there were a few lessons for Hazare and his team. One being: never take people for granted. Some of Hazare’s former associates suggest that the craze that the Lokpal...

-EPW Graft is a major issue in people’s lives, but it is unlikely to figure in voter choice in the assembly elections. A mini-general election will be upon us in February as fivestates go to the polls. Given the high-pitched outpouringson the electronic media around the anti-corruption campaign and the live coverage of the proceedings in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on the Lokpal Bill, we have been led to...

-The Economic Times   The Trinamool Congress on Sunday reiterated that its support for the Lokpal bill will be contingent upon the removal of the Lokayukta provision from the proposed legislation. "Trinamool Congress is not going to compromise on the federal structure of the Constitution and amendments put forward by the party have to be accepted," Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy said. He was reacting to a statement of home minister P...

Though Anna Hazare gets much of the credit for focusing the national spotlight on corruption, India was only too aware of the problem even before his agitation. According to a Pew Research poll in October 2010 (six months before Hazare emerged on the national scene), 98 per cent of Indians indicate corrupt political leaders as a “very big” or a “moderately big” problem. Hazare’s campaign did not attune Indians to...

-Express News Service   The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011 was passed in the Lok Sabha with several amendments but the opposition BJP remained far from satisfied. The legislation now faces an uncertain fate in the Rajya Sabha where the UPA is in minority. Under attack from the opposition and allies like the DMK and Trinamool Congress over the inclusion of Lokayuktas in the bill — what they called an assault on India’s...