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...

During the Emergency, the citizens of India weren’t merely exposed to Indira Gandhi’s 20-point programme. They were subjected to the additional torture of being exposed to the five point-programme of ‘youth leader’ Sanjay Gandhi. One of Sanjay’s more memorable nuggets of wisdom was: “Work more, talk less.” I recall it being carefully painted on a billboard somewhere close to the “Leader is right, future is bright” hoarding in Delhi’s Connaught...

-The Times of India   A day after Parliament accepted in principle the demands of anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare, some voices of dissent over the movement have surfaced. Leading civil rights organization, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has raised apprehensions on the ability of the lokpal bill to tackle corruption. In a public discussion in Jaipur on Sunday, PUCL activists including its former national head Rajendra Sachar and noted activist Binayak...

A day after Parliament passed a resolution conveying the “sense of the House” on the lokpal bill, the Parliamentary Standing Committee which is examining the Bill said today that it has a “challenging task” ahead. Asked what the Parliament’s resolution meant for the lokpal bill, which is under consideration of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, and Law & Justice, its chairman, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, told The Indian Express:...

Congress negotiators and Anna Hazare's associates repeatedly shifted the goalposts through the four-and-half-month stand-off on the shape and structure of the lokpal bill. The Anna group flagged as many as 40 issues during the many rounds of discussions in the joint Lokpal drafting committee set up after Mr. Hazare ended his April 2011 fast in Jantar Mantar here. Of these, 34 were more or less resolved by the time negotiations broke...