The Editors’ Guild, one of the most powerful media organizations in the country, today approached the Information and Broadcasting ministry to seek sweeping reforms in the country’s defamation laws. The guild urged the government to repeal provisions of the current defamation rules under which editors of newspapers and TV channels may be put in jail […]
Congress General secretary and son of Congress President Sonia Gandhi has made a statement in the Parliament today on the ongoing anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare. Rahul Gandhi, widely seen as Congress’ Prime Ministerial candidate after the term of Manmohan Singh, thanked Anna Hazare for “articulating” the anti-corruption sentiment of the people. “The real […]
The Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said she has received 7 to 8 proposals from the members of the house to hold discussions on the Lokpal issue. However, most of the requests, including those from senior congress leaders like Jagdambika Pal and Sandeep Dikshit are calling for a no-vote discussion, while two private members have […]
Team Anna has dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s proposal to widen the scope of the Lokpal bill, calling it a “five year plan” and impractical. Some even called it a possible delaying tactic. Most of Anna Hazare’s supporters are not impressed by Rahul Gandhi’s seeming earnestness in tying the Lokpal issue with a lot of others such […]
Five major political parties have offered their full support to the three demands raised by the Anna Hazare group yesterday, movement leader Arvind Kejriwal said. The three demands are 1) Entire bureaucracy must be within under the Lokpal’s scope, including the lowest level clerk or peon 2) There must be a citizen’s charter associated with […]
The Bhartiya Janata Party, which had expressed its great displeasure after the Congress Party ‘back-stabbed’ it with a surprising statement by Rahul Gandhi, has been persuaded not to insist on a vote on Lokpal bill tomorrow. According to Parliamentary Affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, the BJP and the government have agreed to have a simple […]
Even as minutes remain for the beginning of the debate in the Indian Parliament on Anna Hazare’s three demands for Lokpal, uncertainty remains over whether or not there will be a vote on the three specific demands. A vote-less discussion is likely to simply postpone the current conflict and agitation by a few weeks or […]
Minutes before the Parliament starts a debate on veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare’s demands on Jan Lokpal, the 74-year-old sent a clear signal that he is willing to fight on if the legislature tries to wriggle out of the situation. Speaking on the 12th day of his marathon fast, he tried to lay to rest the […]
Medha Patkar, one of India’s biggest mass leaders and part of the Anna Hazare group, has confirmed that Team Anna is giving feedback to the Government on the statement to be made by leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee in a few minutes. Patkar said a team of Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi […]
Over the last five days, conversations in the national capital are increasingly about a 72-year-old son of a factory worker from Maharashtra, Kisan Baburao Hazare or Anna Hazare. While the majority of the Indian middle-class and the rural residents seem to be in favor of his agitation (going by the polls), many, especially the urban […]
The Parliament will not give a binding directive to the standing committee to go by the consensus that may emerge at the end of discussions today, according to the statement made by Pranab Mukherjee to start off the discussion in Lok Sabha today. Kicking the discussions off, Pranab Mukherjee, the senior most Congress leader, said […]
I do have a strong set of issues with the supposed ‘intelligentsia’ response to the Anna Hazara / IAC movement / Jan Lokpal bill – I use the terms loosely and interchangeably. The key stands, summarising Nitin Pai, Amba Salakar, Arundhati Roy et al seem to be: 1. “We (the civil society experts / bloggers […]
Leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has lent strong support to passing a “strong and effective” Lokpal bill as soon as possible. She also lent support to Anna Hazare group on all three questions which were subjected to debate in the Parliament today. 1) On the issue of including the Judiciary, […]
India’s active mobile subscribers are only aorund half of the gross subscribers reported by the mobile operators, according to a survey by Juxt Consult, one of India’s pioneering mobile and Internet research agency. According to Juxt Consult, India had only 48.7 crore (487 million) mobile subscribers in June this year, compared to the 85 crore […]
India will get a new media regulator in less than a month, Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni said at a CII conference on Friday. The minister said that industry-government body meant to recommend the structure of the new body has finalized its proposals and the same are about to be forwarded to the Cabinet. […]
India’s major opposition parties, including the right-of-centre Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communists and regional parties have come together to determine the oppositions’ next move on the Anna Hazare agitation. Minutes after both houses of the Indian Parliament were adjourned after a shouting match between the opposition and the governing sides, leaders of opposition parties […]
The government seems to have been taken by surprise by the outpouring of support in favor of anti-corruption crusaders led by Anna Hazare. According to sources, it is considering holding talks with the group once again. Meanwhile, Anna Hazare has been reportedly moved to the Tihar jail after he refused bail conditions including not calling […]
The Delhi Police have detained 1,400 followers of Anna Hazare, police commissioner BK Gupta said. He said Anna has been arrested under the preventive arrest provisions of the Indian Criminal Procedure Code. Anna has been produced before a Magistrate and is currently in a police office. He has been ordered to 7 days in judicial […]
The Government has sent a huge police force to scatter would-be marchers from the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement in Delhi. According to an appeal by Prashant Bhushan, one of the top leaders of the anti-corruption agitation, many protesters were turning up at the Pragati Maidan metro station in New Delhi for a mach. The Pragati […]
The main opposition, Bhartiya Janata Party, has mocked the government’s defence of cracking down on Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption protests. Senior leader and leader of the opposition Arun Jaitley mocked the argument that Hazare was arrested because he refused to limit his supporters to 5,000 in number. Jaitley said the Congress Party led government is crushing […]
