According to Transparency International, India ranks 87 in the 2010 corruption index in a list of 178 countries, ranked from very clean to highly corrupt. Ranked with India at 87 are Albania, Jamaica and Liberia. India slipped from 84 in 2009. In our country kickbacks, bribes, public swindles and land-grabbing is now virtually institutionalised. Clean politicians, bureaucrats and police officials are now seen as a rare, endangered species. And it’s...

The CNN-IBN-Outlook State of the Nation poll on corruption in the run up to Republic Day does nor bring good news for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government.   The poll has found Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to have been rather weak in his tackling of the numerous Scams and corruption cases that the UPA -II has been facing.   The corruption-hit UPA is facing an image crisis and 57 per cent say they...

Besieged as it is by a spate of Scams, the Centre has revived the 40-year-old proposal of setting up a national ombudsman called the Lokpal to probe political corruption. But, far from overcoming the existing deficiencies, the latest draft Bill – which could be promulgated any time soon as an ordinance - provides a legal veneer to them so that crooked politicians will continue to enjoy almost as much impunity...

Battling a string of Scams, the UPA government is likely to introduce a bill in the Budget session of Parliament to rein in corruption. "We are bringing a separate bill on corruption in accordance with the UN convention," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters here. He said the government intended to bring the legislation in the next session itself. "In that direction, we are proceeding," he said. "We have agreed to the...

While there will be general agreement that the judgement in Binayak Sen's case represents a gross miscarriage of justice, most people will attribute it to the overzealousness of a lower judicial functionary, or, at the most, to the prevailing atmosphere in the state of Chhattisgarh. If the trial had been held elsewhere, they would argue, Binayak would not have got the verdict he did. They are probably right, just as...