By Chandra Bhan Prasad It is true that corruption is a menace that must be uprooted and a new law enacted in the changing circumstances. India has seen an explosion of wealth post 1990 which has resulted in rampant loot. But who will make the new law? Members of Parliament or the Anna Hazare-led battery …
Memorandum of Views & Suggestions on Lokpal Bill: Samvidhan Bachao Andolan
by Samvidhan Bachao Andolan To, Shri K P Singh, Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat 201, Second Floor, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi – 110 001 MEMORANDUM OF VIEWS AND SUGESTIONS ON LOKPAL BILL 2011 (BILL NO 39 OF 2011) Sir, This is in reference to the Newspaper advertisement No davp 31202/11/0019/1112, where in Parliamentary Standing Committee …
Irom Sharmila’s heartfelt letter to Anna Hazare
Irom Sharmila, the Iron Lady of Manipur as she is often called, has been on a fast for the last ten years protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that is in place in parts of Manipur and the north east and gives the Army and the paramilitary forces the power to shoot or …
Bahujan Lokpal Bill: some suggestions
Dinesh Maurya [Presenting the Bahujan perspective i.e., the views of the SC/ST/OBC and religious minorities, on the proposed Lokpal legislation, the writer makes some useful suggestions to make the bill more inclusive- Round Table India] We want to submit some suggestions regarding the Government of India’s proposed Lokpal Bill. Like Anna’s Lokpal Bill, our …
A Lokpal Critique
by Vaibhav Wasnik The following is a collection of points from online debates that I have been part of, consolidated as an article. That corruption is a problem in India or most developing economies is not anybody’s secret. But the rampant misusing of the power of suggestion by a “corporations” backed media to counter the …
Tired of Democracy?
by GAIL OMVEDT Why are such masses of people (apparently: in our village some came out for a morcha organized by the Maharashtra Navnirman Samiti) following Anna Hazare, when it is now clear that his Lokpal is an authoritarian, centralized and undemocratically pushed proposal? Several articles, including those by Arundhati Roy and Aruna Roy, have …
Hindu, savarna, urban, elite media: an X-ray, CT Scan, ECG, MRI report
By Dilip Mandal As expected, large sections of the media, especially the Hindu (sorry, Hindi) newspapers have adopted the policy of turning a blind eye towards the ‘Save the Constitution’ rally led by Dr.Udit Raj held on 24th, August in Delhi. A few newspapers seemed to be merely going through the ritual of reporting it. …
Corruption, an empty signifier: the need for a Bahujan Lokpal Bill
Khalid Anis Ansari I agree broadly that a caste slant will not help much even when it is writ large in the agenda of the forces that are supporting Anna. This is out and out a populist movement and populism has coexisted along with formal democracies right since its inception. In a way populism …
Jan Lokpal or Janvirodhi Lokpal?
By People for Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights (PCDHR, Nagpur) Recent stir by Anna Hazare (Original name unknown/ Education unknown) & Co. for an Ombudsman for corruption in the name of Jan Lokpal is an ‘extra-constitutional method’, bypassing the Parliamentary process which is at the heart of Constitutional Democracy which ‘We the People’ of India …