The UPA has succeeded in putting the draft report of the public account committee (PAC) in limbo. That was only expected: after all, the committee headed by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi had focused on the role of the prime minister’s office (PMO) in the 2G scam. No wonder, then, that the Congress and DMK members in PAC did what they did – with or without the help of SP and BSP.
It has cost and continues to cost the economy tens of billions of dollars. It has immiserated the poor. It should come as a surprise to no one, and yet, with each revelation, senior officials express consternation. Federal min
I feared this ever since Anna Hazare started mobilising us against corruption. It has happened to all previous torchbearers against any kind of corruption in India. Those who showed courage to question the powerful have ended up on the side of sufferers. Be it the Tehelka expose, cash-for-votes revelations in parliament, the L N Mishra whispers, the Bofor issue, the fodd
Discrimination can take many forms. An opinion piece in the New York Times some time ago spoke of the gender discrimination at the Oscars since there are separate categories for men actors and women actors. Why not bring them together, suggested the writer, because after all, no one would take kindly to another kind of discrimination which pit Morgan Freeman, for example in a group comprising W
So now girls have to wear skirts to play badminton. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) expects Saina Nehwal to do a Maria Sharapova and Jwala Gutta to do a Serena Williams for the sport. It is quite a peculiar situation where women, instead of being asked to dress `conservatively` as they usually are especially in India, are being asked to dress, ah
The dirty tricks department of the Congress and the government it leads is out in the full force. Look at the speed with which it has acted to discredit Anna Hazare and his associates in the drafting committee on Lokpal bill personally. The real motive is to discredit the anti-corruption crusade and through it, the move to set up the Lokpal. In quick succession, property deals an
Congo, a central African country, recently got its first rehabilitation centre, called `City of Joy`, for rape victims. Congo is ripped with ethnic conflict and mass rape has been a characteristic of the eastern part of the country, reports Reuters. According to the United Nations estimates, at least 160 women are being raped every week in Congo`s eastern provinces of no
Anna Hazare ended his hunger strike by lauding the victory of the people and stated that the real fight begins now. One can say with reasonable certainty that the fight Hazare was referring to had perhaps nothing to do either with the controversy that has emerged regarding the constitution of the joint committee or with the crossfire being exchanged between the opposition party, the ruling gove
Start with the premise that we are all corrupt. Everyone of us. If we don’t do that, we can never win. It is just that we are petty in our corruption so we resent it when the experts rake it in and we don’t. Corruption is an absolute. You cannot be partly corrupt, like you cannot be partly pregnant. So, whether you buy a cinema ticket in black or get your administrative pa
Dear Anna, I saw you on TV sitting at Jantar Mantar. You were on a fast that time. How are you now? I would like to congratulate you for creating a sense of awareness among people and making them stand for themselves. I too kept a fast on the very first day of the movement. But, I am sorry, I discontinued it. You must be thinking “why?” Anna, let me clarify my stand
Anna Hazare’s sitting on indefinite fast in Delhi has galvanised the middle class, which is most vocal against corruption but also the one responsible for most corruption in this country. Corruption is a very contentious issue. Our morals tell us to oppose it but for convenience we often make a compromise, always giving ourselves the benefit o
Like hundreds of people, I too went to Jantar Mantar, where Anna Hazare is on an indefinite fast protest. Like many of those people going to Jantar Mantar, I too am not an activist, neither a journalist nor an intellectual. I would not describe myself as a “concerned citizen” either - just a young professional. But now I am beginning to think like `a concerned citizen`.
Anna Hazare’s fast-unto-death against corruption has, predictably, unnerved many. The ruling clique is annoyed but has used mild language to denounce him. The spokespersons of the Congress, which leads the UPA government, have described the fast as “unnecessary” and “premature”, never mind 42 years of prevarication in setting up a Lokpal that Anna wants to
April 7 is World Health Day. It is shocking that government spending on health remains less than two per cent of the GDP in a country with some of the worst indices on health. For instance, India has the highest number of children dying in the world: approximately two million children under the age of five die every year in India of diseases and conditions that are easily preventable and e
The indefinite fast by 72-year-old social activist Anna Hazare is the beginning of a new phenomenon, which is, insistence of the civil society to have a decisive say in the way laws and policies are framed and finalised in the country. His fight is as much to bring about this shift as to fight corruption. For quite some time, civil society activists, including some of the Na
The Indian captain may be receiving a gleaming red Ferrari 599. But as he plans to scorch the streets of Ranchi, his financial planners would be well advised to apportion 30 per cent of the estimated $600,000 price tag as income tax. That’s a cool Rs 1-crore by way of tax that MSD will have to pay under Section 56 of the Income Tax Act (ITA) for the custom-built gift, as income from other
There has been a great deal of debate around how should have the international community responded to the Libyan situation? Differences arise because there isn’t a consensus that may legitimately be termed "international". A few major powers support the military intervention but then there are other nations that have condemned it and called for a ceasefire. India is one of them
