In India, the fight against corruption easily becomes an alibi to undermine democratic processes and institutions. In the spurt of enthusiasm for Anna Hazare’s fast and the subsequent surrender to it by the government, what has been overlooked is the need for someone/thing like the Lok Pal to fight corruption. The simple point is that there exist within the Constitution enough processes and institutions to safeguard against corruption. The Indian...
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Jan Lokpal will be a ‘super' government, feels Congress by Aarti Dhar
It can seek the resignation of Constitutional authorities Areas of disagreement surface The Congress sees as a “super” government the institution of the Lokpal as proposed in the draft Jan Lokpal Bill — it would virtually run a parallel government. It will be a “demi-God” with supreme powers to run the government, sources within the Congress party feel. It can seek the resignation of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and...
More »The Indian exception
Many Indians eat poorly. Would a “right to food” help? “LOOK at this muck,” says 35-year-old Pamlesh Yadav, holding up a tin-plate of bilious-yellow grains, a mixture of wheat, rice and mung beans. “It literally sticks in the throat. The children won’t eat it, so we take it home and feed it to the cows.” Mrs Yadav has brought her children to a state-run nursery in Bhindusi village in rural Rajasthan. The...
More »New laws for old: Forest rights and red-tape wrongs by Shankar Gopalakrishnan
It is a little known fact that in roughly a fifth of our country’s land area, a different legal system operates. In some of these places, if you are caught with certain items, it is up to you to prove that you are innocent of a crime — and whether you go to jail depends on whether a government official kept proper records years earlier. If you are using some...
More »Auditing an ambitious scheme
Local communities without proper training might affect the outcome of the social audit planned for MGNREGS One criticism against the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is that the scale of the programme defies its effective monitoring. In a country as diverse and large as India, monitoring huge social sector schemes often leads to the creation of an additional layer of Bureaucracy. That may be about to change for...
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