The Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill would help fight corruption only at the centre and not in states where the magnitude of graft is alarming, cautions former Supreme Court judge Justice N. Santosh Hegde amid the escalating hype over the proposed legislation. Hegde, also the ombudsman for Karnataka, is part of the 10-member committee set up by the government to draft the new bill following the hunger strike by reformer Anna Hazare that...

A few weeks ago, I received a call from Mayank Gandhi, Mumbai coordinator of ‘India Against Corruption’, invting me to be part of a panel in Mumbai to address a press conference on the then upcoming fast by Anna Hazare. “Your name has been suggested to me by Swami Agnivesh. We want Muslims like you, not fanatical Muslims. So please join us and suggest other Muslim names”, I was told. Great,...

On fast for over a decade, demanding repeal of AFSPA Irom Sharmila, who has been on a fast-unto-death since November 2, 2000 demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958, has charged the Government of India with adopting “double standards.” She pointed out that the Centre had yielded to the demands of social activist Anna Hazare on the Lokpal Bill after he had been on hunger strike...

Misleading data cited in a seminar paper on the situation of the minority community in the State tend to detract from the Left Front government's exceptional record on this count. Abusaleh Shariff, the Chief Economist of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, who was the Member-Secretary of the Sachar Committee, presented a paper on the socio-economic development of Muslims in West Bengal, at a seminar organised by the Institute of...

A court on Wednesday put on trial the first set of officials and businessmen indicted in the country's biggest corruption case, a multi-billion dollar telecoms scandal that has weakened the government and put off some foreign investors. The graft scandal is one of several to have emerged in the past few months, tarnishing the reputation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whose government has gone on the defensive against an emboldened opposition. While...