Insisting that there was no wrongdoing in the arrest of Anna Hazare, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the government would deal with him "administratively and politically" but made it clear that his Jan Lokpal Bill was not acceptable.
The Congress on Monday dared social activist Anna Hazare to contest from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat in New Delhi after the latter released findings of his team's survey in Union Minister Kapil Sibal's constituency on the Lokpal issue
With is top leader Ranjan Daimary holed up in jail after his arrest in Bangladesh last year, the anti-talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland is sending out feelers about its willingness to hold dialogue with the government and restore a peaceful atmosphere in the state.
Shekhawat has filed a defamation case against Gehlot for accusing him and his family of being involved in the alleged Sanjivani Credit Cooperative Society "scam".
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has stated that there is a need for evolving a general consensus among various political parties at the national level to resolve the Kashmir issue. Mufti said, "Strengthening of democratic institutions and emergence of a strong civil society is a good sign and the country has to respond to the prevailing positive atmosphere in the region'.
'The courts should not dishearten the people that might end the hope of last justice'
A meeting between Sonia Gandhi and Anna Hazare is expected soon despite differences between Congress and the civil society over the issue of Lokpal Bill. An indication to this effect was given by a senior party leader who declined to be identified.
Do not defend corruption by advancing specious arguments as to who is authorised to speak for the people.
'Nehru remains central to the polemic between the Congress and the BJP, or stated ideologically, between secular and Hindu nationalism.' 'The reason is that Nehru represents what is optimally possible as a secular politics along with liberalism and democracy in a country like India.'
Union Minority Welfare Minister Salman Khursid, a key member of the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill, on Monday defended the government's approach as 'sensitive and lenient' and said none could be above the existing parliamentary system.
The ongoing slanging match between the civil society group and the government poses a danger of stalling the Lokpal Bill and derailing the movement against corruption.
Justice Kohli said the advent of artificial intelligence has caused some concerns amongst the legal fraternity.
In its complaint against Shah, the Congress told the EC that the home minister claimed in a speech in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon on October 16 that "...Bhupesh Baghel's government, for appeasement politics and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh's son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed..."
With the issue of bringing the prime minister within the ambit of the Lokpal remaining a ticklish affair, the government is expected to soon call an all-party meeting to seek views across the political spectrum.
Anna Hazare on Thursday threatened to go on hunger strike from August 16 alleging "backtracking" on Lokpal bill but the government refused to yield, saying it cannot allow creation of a "parallel" structure.
Dodging immense political heat that Congress is facing from the opposition and the civil society members, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi is reportedly on a visit to her hometown Italy.
The Congress has launched a campaign to counter the anti-graft movement by Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev and accused a section of civil society of trying to weaken democratic institutions.
Civil society activists led by social activist Anna Hazare on Monday boycotted the meeting of the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill saying government's intentions raised serious doubts about having a strong anti-corruption watchdog and protesting against the police crackdown on Ramdev.
According to an expert, if the government seriously pursues the matter then it should take about a year to bring back the black money stashed abroad.
While the United Progressive Alliance ties itself up in knots, two out of every three Indians say the prime minister and the higher judiciary should be brought under the purview of the Lokpal, an issue that has seen the UPA government differing with civil society representatives.
Advocate Nandita Rao speaks to rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore about why she wants Baba Ramdev to come clean on how he built a Rs 1,100 crore empire, how he got huge plots of land in some Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states and why he is claiming to be apolitical when he is openly seeking support from the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
'Let us start the debate in 2012 in favour of a directly elected executive with a civil society-based Electoral College as a check for a directly elected strong leader in the mould of a Narendra Modi with civil society as a check which serves the national interest far more than an indirectly selected, weak but acceptable prime minister vulnerable to pressure from regional parties and outside groups that may have propped him or her up,' argues Shashi Shekhar.
Worried over Baba Ramdev's indefinite fast from Saturday, the government on Wednesday took an extraordinary step to woo him by deputing Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and three other senior ministers to the airport for talks but he appeared not to relent on his plans.
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.
A K Bhattacharya wonders if Kisan Baburao Hazare get his timing wrong, or is Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee trying hard to get his timing right?
A compilation of quotes of those who participated in the debate on the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, 2011, in Rajya Sabha on Thursday
The petitions will also be sent to different international human rights organisations like Amnesty International.
The negotiations on a draft Lokpal Bill on Monday gained momentum with government and civil society members agreeing on a number of basic principles of the proposed law and deciding to meet more often.
Aggrieved by being referred as "tainted" and being listed in the category of "men who shamed India" by the media, former Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas has approached the Supreme Court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into alleged distortion in the reporting of his case.
Asserting that it was for Parliament to take a final view on inclusion of Prime Minister under the ambit of Lokpal, Parliamentary Standing Committee chairman Abhishek Singhvi on Wednesday said the panel was not meant to reach out to or please Team Anna or any other group.
We must keep our counsel and let the drafting committee do its best; keep faith in the civil society nominees till they prove otherwise, Mahesh Vijapurkar.
