-The Indian Express   After the Supreme Court lawyer and leading light of Anna Hazare’s agitation, Prashant Bhushan, was attacked in public view by thuggish “patriots” for his support of a plebiscite in Kashmir, one would have expected some solidarity from his teammates. Or at least common human sympathy, expressed even by those who have deep and running disagreements with Bhushan. But Anna Hazare offered lukewarm consolation about how it was “wrong...

A draft Bill aimed at redressing complaints against junior government officials is likely to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament to check graft at the lowest level, where most citizens interact with the administration. The proposed Public Services Grievance Redressal Bill will be available to the public for comments and feedback before it’s introduced in Parliament, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said. The proposed law comes at a time when...

-The Times of India   Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday endorsed the concerns of his ministerial colleagues over Right To Information (RTI), saying the transparency enabler should not adversely affect deliberations in the government and deter honest officials from expressing their views on file. While hailing RTI's extensive use and underlining his government's intent to strengthen the law, the PM said there was a need to strike a fine balance between the...

-The Hindu   It speaks to the deeply divisive times we live in that Team Anna activist and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan was savagely assaulted in his own chamber — and in the full glare of television cameras — for the “crime” of saying something that his attackers disapproved of. In the past, intolerant groups who seem to have no problem breaking the law with impunity, have targeted writers, artists, journalists,...

-The Indian Express   Reflecting a rift within Team Anna Hazare, Justice Santosh Hegde has disapproved of the anti-Congress campaign by Arvind Kejriwal during Hisar bypolls, saying it was not the right thing to do and "we jumped the gun". Hegde, who was a representative of Team Anna in the Joint Drafting Committee on Lokpal Bill, also took a dig at Kejriwal for his remarks that Hazare was above Parliament, observing that such...