-PTI Sports Minister Ajay Maken has accused former minister Mani Shanker Aiyar of playing an "irreparable obstructionist role" in the Commonwealth Games projects resulting in cost escalation. These comments were made by Maken in his report sought by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after media highlighted letters by Aiyar wherein he had warned about the squandering of Money by the Suresh Kalmadi chaired Organising Committee. The communication now made public under the RTI Act...

Anna Hazare’s fast is over, but the conjuncture of which that fast was an episode is not: Hazare’s own movement, or other similar movements, are bound to recur in the coming months. The question naturally arises: what are these movements all about? And to start with: what was Hazare’s own movement all about? It was certainly not about “corruption” in any definable sense. That word meant different things to the...

-IANS   The Delhi government's scheme replacing the Public Distribution System with cash transfers is a "total fraud" as the poor will not benefit from receiving a fixed sum when prices of essential items are rising, NGO Rozi Roti Adhikar said on Tuesday. The NGO kicked off a 20-day yatra across the capital to galvanise opinion against the government's decision. According to a statement, the yatra will move through various parts of...

Anna Hazare's campaign may lead to a new Lokpal Bill, but it has legitimised middle-class vigilantism and other kinds of civil society mobilisation. NOW that Anna Hazare has declared victory, it is time to take stock of one of the most powerful recent mobilisations of people in India, focussed on influencing policy or lawmaking processes. The victory, however, is largely symbolic. The original demand of the movement, carefully built around Hazare's...

Interview with social activist and Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal. THE organisational abilities of Arvind Kejriwal exhibited during the recent Jan Lokpal Bill movement earned him the sobriquet “Field Marshal of a peaceful agitation”. The social activist and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner played a significant role in conceiving the slogans, the symbolism and the trajectory of the movement. He is credited with anticipating some of the moves of the government...