From all accounts, Team Anna is going through a bad time. Kiran Bedi is struggling to explain her allegedly less-than-honest actions in presenting inflated travel bills, Arvind Kejriwal has been accused of financial impropriety and high-handedness by erstwhile members of the team, Prashant Bhushan is under fire for his comments on Kashmir and Santosh Hegde seems to perpetually have half a foot outside the team door. The decision to campaign...

-PTI   Questions were raised on Sunday about the use of funds donated by the public to Team Anna with Swami Agnivesh alleging that money was deposited in the trust run by Arvind Kejriwal from which the names of major team members were missing, a claim dismissed as made “out of anger”. Besides Team Anna detractor Swami Agnivesh, another former member ‘Waterman’ Rajinder Singh also raised the issue urging Mr. Kejriwal to come...

Vilas Bhagwan Pote grins as he recalls his election as sarpanch of Ralegan Siddhi, Anna Hazare’s village in Ahmednagar district, 11 years ago. “I was the traitor, the bad guy,” he jokes. “I openly defied Anna because I felt he was wrong.” Pote, a Dalit charmakar (cobbler) then in his 30s, had been unhappy as the 2000 panchayat polls drew close. As always, Anna had nominated a new executive body for the...

-PTI   Anna Hazare’s team today found itself at the wrong end of the graft-and-transparency stick with a former group associate, Swami Agnivesh, raising questions about possible funds diversion by Arvind Kejriwal. Team Anna member Manish Sisodia claimed Agnivesh was acting “out of anger” at being removed from the team after a video clip purportedly showed him asking a person to deal strongly with Hazare. According to Agnivesh, around Rs 80 lakh that supporters...

-The Hindu   Signalling an end to the practice in rural Maharashtra of naming a girl child Nakusha (unwanted), especially if the family was expecting the birth of a boy, the authorities will “rename” 266 such girls as Aishwarya (wealth) on Saturday. “The Government has identified 266 girls named Nakusha in Satara district and organised a renaming ceremony tomorrow [On Saturday],” Satara District Collector N. Ramaswami told PTI over telephone. The function has been...