The best thing about Indian politicians is that they make you feel you are a better person. Not surprisingly, Indians often derive their moral confidence not through the discomfort of examining their own actions, but from regarding themselves as decent folks looted by corrupt, villainous politicians. This is at the heart of a self-righteous middle-class uprising against political corruption, a television news drama that reached its inevitable climax in Delhi on...

The Lokpal Bill is in danger of skidding off the rails. As it is introduced in Parliament, eminent activist Aruna Roy tells Shoma Chaudhury why we should not rush into it. THE LOKPAL BILL is now being debated in Parliament, almost 40 years after the idea was first mooted. Unfortunately, parented on one side by decades of wilful government inertia and, on the other, by the panicked hustle of ‘Team...

-The Indian Express   In yet another attack on RTI activists in Gujarat, a Porabnder-based lawyer-cum-RTI activist, Bhagubhai Devani, was grievously stabbed near his home on Friday. Devani, who suffered severe blood loss from multiple stab wounds, has pointed fingers at the former minister. An FIR has been lodged against six unidentified attackers and the activist has been admitted to the Sir Bhavsinhji Hospital. The attack came a day after the hearing on...

A judicial inquiry has been ordered by the Nitish Kumar government into the police firing in Forbesganj on June 3 in which four Muslims were killed and several others injured. The Government would await its findings before taking action against anyone, said senior Janata Dal (United) leader Shivanand Tewari here on Tuesday. Talking to journalists, Mr. Tewari virtually justified the lack of any immediate compensation for the relatives of those killed,...

On June 12, Ravi Shankar Ratnam helped Ram Krishna Yadav resume eating after Yadav had fasted for a week. This wouldn’t have made the headlines of every Indian newspaper the next morning if it hadn’t been for the fact that both men had achieved a state of demi-divinity through the tried-and-tested process of Hindu name-inflation. Ram Krishna Yadav became Swami Ramdev when he took sanyas and after his extraordinary success...