22 eminent persons, including former Army Chief V K Singh, on Thursday appealed to Team Anna to call off their indefinite fast as the activists are said to be considering announcing a "political alternative" before ending their stir.
Anna Hazare's team on Tuesday described Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's sadhavana fast as one held for his "personal political gain". The anti-corruption activist's aides also said the country does not need more yatras and fasts but effective steps to fight corruption, including the Jan Lokpal bill, for which they were fighting. Prominent lawyer Prashant Bhushan said, "It was done for personal political gain."
A Congress member of Parliament on Wednesday withdrew his privilege notice against associates of Anna Hazare alleging hey were using it to gain "cheap publicity" and justify their statements against parliamentarians.
Members in both Houses of Parliament have given Privilege notices against actor Om Puri and civil rights activist Kiran Bedi for using "derogatory and defamatory" language against politicians and the matter is under consideration of the Chair.
The Delhi CM said he refuses to be drawn into the ugly battle and will continue to focus on Delhi.
Team Anna met in Noida on Monday amid a rift between them and yoga guru over the treatment meted out to Arvind Kejriwal in public and differences within them over attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices on a public interest suit challenging the role of the central government and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in the deal between Cairn India and Vedanta Resources.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to "consider" a plea for an independent probe into the killings of top Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and scribe Hemchandra Pandey in an allegedly staged gun battle by the Andhra Pradesh police, who were given clean chit by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Anna Hazare and his team on Thursday met the Election Commission in a bid to raise the pitch for electoral reforms and demanded that the 'right to reject' option be included in electronic voting machines.Hazare, along with his close associates Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, discussed the matter for about an hour with Chief Election Commissioner S Y Qureshi. According to Team Anna, the meeting was "very useful".
Silent support for the movement, which has recently turned its guns against industry, has come from India Inc as well, mainly from Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy, who made donations of Rs 25 lakhs (Rs 2.5 million) in 2011.
For the second time in two days, Annie Kohli, an Anna Hazare supporter, confronted Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday asking how some members of his anti-graft movement were dubbing her as an "agent" of political parties.
Political parties were quick to condemn the attack on yoga guru Ramdev but also used the opportunity to score points over each on the increasing frequency of such incidents and the issue of black money and corruption.
Amid "confusion" on how to take the movement forward, Team Anna's Core Committee met in Ghaziabad on Monday sans ailing Anna Hazare to decide on their future strategy.
"The attack (by Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan), which was made under a well-planned conspiracy was not on an individual but on Congress and its leadership. It was alleged that the blackmoney of Congress was invested in it. If such an allegation is made, a clarification will certainly come from Congress," party spokesperson Rashid Alvi told media persons.
Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is mired in controversy after charges of corruption were levelled against by him by Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan.
Congress has rejected demands for a probe against Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, in the wake of allegation by civil society activists Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan that he was favoured by realty major DLF.
India Against Corruption on Friday came down heavily on Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The Supreme Court reserved its verdict on petitions challenging the appointment of former bureaucrat P J Thomas, who is facing a corruption case in a Kerala court, as Central Vigilance Commissioner.
The "opaque" electoral bonds scheme for funding political parties will "destroy democracy" as it promotes corruption and does not allow a level playing field between the ruling and opposition parties, the petitioners challenging the validity of the scheme told the Supreme Court, which on Tuesday observed election funding was a "complicated issue".
The apex court on December 14 last year dismissed a clutch of PILs, including the one filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, saying there was "no occasion to doubt" the decision-making process of the Centre in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France.
The government on Thursday placed recorded tapes containing the conversations between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others related to the 2G spectrum allocation case before the Supreme Court in a sealed cover. While placing the recorded conversation before the bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said that it is a hard disc drive directly downloaded from the server which contains the conversations.
Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the government to respond to the plea for preserving the tapes containing conversation between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others relating to the 2G spectrum scam.
Team Anna on Friday saw a "conspiracy" behind the attacks on Prashant Bhushan and volunteers by members of a right-wing group, saying they did not feel that the lawyer's controversial remarks on Kashmir were the provocation for the assault.
Social activist and close aide of Anna Hazare, Prashant Bhushan, said that the move would help their cause and will let people know the truth.
"How can the judge go into postmortem report etc. We are hearing a bail matter, we do not want to prolong.This way of going into merits and going into wounds etc. is unnecessary for the question of bail," the bench observed.
The court was hearing two pleas including one alleging delay by the Centre in clearing the names recommended by the collegium for appointment and transfer of judges.
Within the Hazare group, serious differences have cropped up with Justice N Santosh Hegde and Swami Agnivesh wanting him to withdraw the fast, saying it was now counterproductive. But others like Bedi and Kejriwal, who are seen as hardliners with their own agenda, are said to be resisting the move and not allowing the 73-year-old social activist from Maharashtra to break the fast.
Team Anna on Friday made it clear that a mere discussion in Parliament will not serve any purpose and the Gandhian will not call off his fast till Parliament passes a resolution that the cleared Lokpal Bill will include the three contentious points raised by them.
Politicians, legislators and bureaucrats from Maharashtra played a major role in facilitating talks between Team Anna and the government, reports Toral Varia
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed two pleas challenging a Delhi high court judgment that upheld the Centre's Agnipath scheme for recruitment into the armed forces.
A fresh PIL was filed on Thursday in the Supreme Court challenging the Centre's decision to block a BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Civil society members of the joint committee on Lokpal will seek a referendum on the points of difference with government representatives including the issue of bringing the prime minister and the higher judiciary under the ambit of the anti-graft ombudsman.
The charge against Sibal is that, in February 2011, he reduced the penalty on RCom for violation of the United Access Service Licences agreement from Rs 50 crore to Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) per telecom circle.
The Delhi police on Tuesday refused permission to activist Anna Hazare to hold a one-day protest at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday.
Talks on the Lokpal Bill are not progressing as expected and if the attitude of the government does not change it may spell disaster soon, said Prashant Bhushan, one of the five members of the Anna Hazare-led civil society group, who is on the drafting panel of the Bill.
The issue of corruption will be tested when the results of Tamil Nadu assembly elections would be declared on May 13.
"It is very easy to fling allegations and letters," an anguished Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said on Thursday while clarifying that the bail plea of Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Kumar Jain in a money laundering case was listed before a bench headed by Justice Bela M Trivedi as Justice A S Bopanna was unavailable due to illness.
In an interview with Vicky Nanjappa, S R Hiremath of the Samaj Parivartana Samuday claims he has irrefutable evidence that the Reddy brothers are involved in illegal mining. Hiremath had filed a petition in the Supreme Court for a probe in illegal mining in Bellary district.
Seeking to put Team Anna members on the back-foot, the activist's former blogger Raju Parulekar has accused the "gang of four" in Anna Hazare's core team of using the activist as a "demi-god" to further their interests and hold the government to "ransom".
Plagued by controversies, Team Anna is approaching retired judges requesting them to become part of a committee to be set up by the civil society group to probe allegations against its key members.
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