Over the last few days, as a desperate government tried to tide over the Lokpal Bill crisis, it received over half-a-dozen variants of the draft legislation. On Saturday, both Houses of Parliament took up the subject and though the debate was mostly confined to the Jan Lokpal Bill, it made the political point that while an effective law should be devised to tackle corruption, Parliament’s supremacy must be maintained. The...

Social activist and National Advisory Council (NAC) member aruna roy has welcomed the government's move to build a “national consensus” through Parliament for a strong anti-corruption and grievance redress mechanism. But she blamed the government of mishandling Anna Hazare's campaign. “Setting up arbitrary conditions, such as limited number of days and protesters before letting Hazare to proceed, and subsequently arresting him when he refused to comply, were anti-democratic actions by the...

-The Business Standard   There are victors and vanquished only in a war. In a genuinely political engagement everyone must emerge a winner. That is made possible only through compromise, through “give and take”. Through his reasonable statement in Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has opened the door to an honourable compromise between the government and civil society on the issue of the Lok Pal Bill. Dr Singh only stated the obvious...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday restored NAC member aruna roy's place in the Lokpal debate, telling Parliament that along with Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal bill, it would also discuss the drafts by Roy and JP Narayan of Loksatta. The comment came a day after BJP dislodged Roy as the reference point for the new Lokpal bill by limiting the reference to non-government input to Jan Lokpal bill in the resolution...

Hopes of a resolution to the Anna-government standoff flickered from time to time on Thursday but eventually it remained unclear when the Gandhian would call off his 10-day fast. The eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation was continuing till midnight. The Prime Minister first raised hopes by offering to bring the Jan Lokpal Bill, as drafted by Team Anna, for discussion in Parliament. But this was rebuffed by Anna Hazare who insisted on an assurance...