Anti graft fever grips national media

As team Anna and action shifts to the Ramlila Grounds today , quite a few Delhi newspapers have also frontpaged pictures of last minute preparations underway at the sprawling maidan being made to ensure that all was in fasting order by the time Anna Hazare arrives to begin his 15-day hunger strike. “Ramlila Grounds Govt”, is the arresting headline of Economic Times which quite sums up the quandry of team Manmohan.

Talking of U-turns and traffic snarls leading upto the weekend, the Hindustan Times has asked supporters of team Anna to respect traffic rules and public space to ensure that the agitation does not spill over on the streets blocking traffic and throwing the city out of gear. The newspaper editorial writes in a rather exasperated tone that while there is substantial support for the movement against corruption, not everyone has the choice of dropping everything else and joining the agitation.

The Times of India has attributed the success of the ant-graft movement to the participation of the middle classes in an opinion piece on its edit page while the newspaper’s editorial has urged the Prime Minister to seize the initiative and introduce more economic reforms which can be a powerful anti-corruption tool and also spur growth. On its front page the Times of India has also hinted at the possiblity of team Anna softening its stand and letting judiciary stay out of Lokpal. The Anna campaign is joined on the front pages by the news about Rajya Sabha overwhelmingly voting against Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court setting the stage for Justice Sen to become the first-ever-judge to be so removed. The vote against Justice Sen is again being seen by analysts as another example of law makers bowing to the national mood against corruption. Anna has been the flavour of the season all week and the trend looks like spilling over to the next week as well as the anti-graft fever shows little signs of cooling off.

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