Newly-appointed Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president Kantilal Bhuria and state BJP president Prabhat Jha are on warpath. Addressing mediapersons here on Saturday, Mr Bhuria described the state BJP government as “most corrupt” and said he would do everything in his command to uproot it.

Evidently inspired by the huge success of Anna Hazare and his hunger strikers at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, a little known Punjabi politician has perched himself on a tall eucalyptus and refuses to climb down until his demands are met by the government.

Welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision to grant bail to civil rights activist Binayak Sen, the CPI on Saturday demanded drastic amendments to the sedition law and review of all such cases by the state governments to ensure that innocents are not put behind bars on similar charges.

Former bandit queen and aspiring politician Seema Parihar will now follow in the footsteps of Anna Hazare.
Ms Parihar, who was recently appointed the head of the women’s wing of the National Corruption Eradication Council, plans to launch a public awareness campaign against corruption.

The revised draft of the Jan Lokpal Bill, put forth by the civil society at the meeting of the joint drafting committee on Lokpal on Saturday, has amendments to the original bill and provides for inclusion of Prime Minister and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha in the committee to select Lokpal and its members. It also proposes to give the body power to intercept telephones and internet communication.

A day after the co-chairman of the Lokpal Committee, Shanti Bhushan, who is caught in a new CD controversy, filed an FIR under a cognisable offence at the IP state police station in Delhi, sources on Saturday pointed out that the Delhi police has made an arrest in connection with the case.

Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia has cautioned the judges against accepting any political patronage, interfering with the lower court’s administrative issues and stop being “super legislature”. He also asked the political class not to protect the corrupt judges. Though asking the judiciary to be prepared for fair criticism of judges and judgments, the Chief Justice also expressed concern over illegitimate and irresponsible criticism meted out to the issues involving judiciary.

The Congress has clearly indicated that there will be no poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party for the coming Assembly polls.
The Samajwadi Party has already ruled out any such possibility.

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has praised party leader and Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan for acting against corruption. In an article in the latest issue of party organ People’s Democracy, he said that issues like price rise and the popular outrage against corruption has worked in favour of the Left Democratic Front

Trinamul Congress leader and minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy on Friday called on Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi and complained about “violence” being resorted to by CPI(M) cadres in Nandigram. Later, in the company of his colleague and minister of state for health and family welfare Dinesh Trivedi, he also called on Union home minister P. Chidambaram over the same issue.