ANTICORRUPTION BILL PROVOKES AN OUTCRY IN INDIA

[A political showdown now looms over the Lokpal issue, possibly determining whether the Congress Party can reverse its sagging political fortunes midway through the government’s five-year term. Critical elections scheduled for early next year in five states will be closely watched as a barometer of the public mood.]

By Jim Yardley

NEW DELHI — India’s government introduced long-awaited legislation on Thursday to create an independent, anticorruption agency, provoking a loud outcry from opposition parties and some civil society activists who attacked the measure from all directions.

India’s national government, led by the Congress Party, has spent the past year mired in ugly corruption scandals or stumbling from self-inflicted political miscues. The pressure for creating the anticorruption agency, known as a Lokpal, was driven by nationwide protests this summer led by the campaigner Anna Hazare.

A political showdown now looms over the Lokpal issue, possibly determining whether the Congress Party can reverse its sagging political fortunes midway through the government’s five-year term. Critical elections scheduled for early next year in five states will be closely watched as a barometer of the public mood.

“Legislation cannot be made on the street or through agitation,” said Pranab Mukherjee, the government’s powerful finance minister, as he introduced the bill in the lower house of Parliament. He argued that the government bill reflected the “sense of the House.”

But the shape of the Lokpal legislation has been contested and negotiated for months. Even before Thursday, Mr. Hazare had made it clear that he considered the government’s bill to have been watered down too much. In particular, Mr. Hazare was upset that the Central Bureau of Investigation, which investigates corruption cases, was not placed under the direction of the Lokpal but remained under the control of Parliament.

“This bill will not end corruption,” Mr. Hazare said during a televised appearance. “This bill is very weak.”

This summer, after staging a 12-day hunger strike that drew huge crowds, Mr. Hazare forced the government to agree to place bureaucrats under an anticorruption agency, to create a citizen’s charter to expedite public corruption grievances and to establish state-level anticorruption agencies. The public campaign effectively forced the government to put the Lokpal issue at the top of its legislative agenda.

But Mr. Hazare’s dissatisfaction with the final result of the legislation is expected to lead to more demonstrations in coming days. He has vowed to organize protests, beginning on Dec. 27, and has threatened a civil disobedience campaign in which his supporters would voluntarily go to jail.

Often, government leaders have bent to many of Mr. Hazare’s demands, but the Congress Party’s president, Sonia Gandhi, appeared to draw a line in the sand on Wednesday. Trying to rally the party’s members of Parliament, Mrs. Gandhi said the Congress Party would fight for passage of the government’s Lokpal and not be dissuaded by critics or opposition leaders.

Government leaders have extended the winter session until Dec. 29, so that lawmakers can debate the Lokpal bill next week.

On Thursday, opposition leaders were quick to attack the bill.

“This bill is very disappointing,” said Sushma Swaraj, leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the lower house.

Actually, under the government bill, several demands made by Mr. Hazare are included. For example, government leaders initially sought to exclude the office of the prime minister from the purview of the Lokpal; under the bill, the prime minister is included, with some caveats. The bill also states that members of the lower bureaucracy fall under the Lokpal’s jurisdiction.

Besides the contested status of the Central Bureau of Investigation, another point of dispute is the selection process for choosing the members of the Lokpal itself. The government bill says the selection committee will be appointed by the prime minister; the speaker of the lower house, the Lok Sabha; the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha; a member of the Indian Supreme Court and another “eminent jurist.”

Mr. Hazare has objected, saying politicians would have too much sway over the selections.

But some lawmakers were concerned that the Lokpal could be so powerful as to threaten the checks and balances of the country’s democratic institutions — and the primacy of Parliament.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting

@ The New York Times

IN RUSSIA, THE BHAGAVAD GITA HAS A DATE IN COURT

[But like Hindus today, other religious groups and their texts have been targeted in Russia, the list shows. Since it was first published, the list has expanded to include 1,057 items, according to the Web site of the Ministry of Justice.]

By Glenn Kates

European Press photo Agency 

Activists from  the right-wing organization Vishwa Hindu 
Parishad held a copy of the Bhagvada Gita during a 
protest outside the Russian consulate in Mumbai 
on Wednesday.

A Russian group’s demands that the Bhagavad Gita be labeled “extremist” and banned has prompted outrage in India and terse discussion between diplomats from both countries.

While the notion of banning the ancient text may seem far-fetched in India, modern Russia has a robust history of outlawing religious books and groups.

In 2007, the country’s Federal Registration Service published its first list of banned books, videos and compact discs, promising to update it every six months, according to Kommersant. The original list was composed of mostly nationalist items, including “The Eternal Jew,” a Nazi-era propaganda film and “Music of Whites,” a skinhead rock album.

But like Hindus today, other religious groups and their texts have been targeted in Russia, the list shows. Since it was first published, the list has expanded to include 1,057 items, according to the Web site of the Ministry of Justice.

Authorities have labeled the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian denomination that opposes blood transfusions and shuns religious holidays, an extremist organization, and the group has been banned in several cities, including Moscow. In 2009, the Russian Supreme Court confirmed a decision to ban the group in the western city of Taganrog because of 34 publications included on the government’s list of banned literature, according to state news agency, RIA Novosti.

This past April, a court in the Siberian city of Gorno-Altai acquitted a local religious leader of extremism, charges he faced for passing out pamphlets, magazines and books that included 48 instances of “ethnic hatred.”

In order for a publication to be added to the official list, a federal criminal or civil court in the jurisdiction of the “discovery, distribution or organization of production” of the material in question must rule that the content is “extremist.”

This July, a Moscow court ruled that several books by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology movement, should also be banned for promoting extremist activities. This followed an earlier ruling overturning a decision in Siberia to ban the books, according to The Associated Press.

A Siberian court will hear arguments for and against banning the Hindu scripture on Dec. 28.

The author is a Moscow-based reporter with The New York Times.

@ The New York Times