The anti-politician feeling generated by anna hazare's agitation, combined with Arvind Kejriwal's association with the Youth for Equality, the organisation that spearheaded the anti-reservation agitation in the AIIMS, has triggered a sense of unease among parliamentarians belonging to Dalit and backward communities. Dalit and OBC MPs on Wednesday lamented the "attack on the supremacy of Parliament and the Constitution". From BJP's Hukumdeo Narain Yadav to JD-U president Sharad Yadav and Lok...

-Agence France-Presse He may dress, talk and fast like his hero Mahatma Gandhi, but critics say anti-graft activist anna hazare has only managed to co-opt the style, not the substance, of India's independence icon. The figure of Gandhi looms large - and literally - over Hazare's anti-corruption campaign, with a giant photograph of the apostle of non-violence providing the backdrop to the 74-year-old's public hunger strike. Hazare's speeches are peppered with Gandhian references...

A day after the All India Confederation of SC, ST Organisations (AICSO) asked Dalits to keep away from Anna’s agitation, parties identified with Dalit politics dubbed the movement as anti-backward classes and anti-reservation. While the Dalit protest was unfolding at India Gate, a corruption debate in Parliament turned into one on ‘protection of reservations’. In Rajya Sabha, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan said Hazare’s campaign was raising doubts and concerns among Dalits...

-IANS   Talks between the government and anna hazare's team on a sweeping anti-corruption law ended in a deadlock Wednesday night, shattering hopes of an early resolution to spiralling political crisis triggered by the social activist's indefinite fast. At the latest round of talks between the two sides, the civil society activists insisted that their version of the Lokpal bill should be passed expeditiously, but the government refused to bypass parliamentary procedures. Hazare's representatives...

Mahesh Kundu paid 2,500 rupees for a driving licence, Rupam Bhatia 5,000 rupees to be admitted to hospital and Vishrant Chandra 6,000 rupees for a marriage certificate. These are the commonplace bribery stories experienced by middle-class Indians who have poured into the streets to say "enough is enough". Corruption in India is as old as the Ramayana, when the evil demon Ravana bribed a guardian of hell to avoid punishment in...