ReutersA magazine stand on a railway platform in Mumbai.In a piece in Tehelka titled “Moment of the Muckraker,†Ashok Malik examines the role of activists like Arvind Kejriwal in Indian public life.  Mr. Malik compares them to the so-called muckrakers who emerged in America a century ago, in response to the excesses of the Gilded Age â€" writers and activists who delivered caustic critiques of corrupt institutions and powerful people.  Such attacks were loathed by the political leadership of the time, but the muckrakers served a purpose by keeping crony capitalism and graft in check.  Mr. Malik poses a timely question: while the allegations made by Arvind Kejriwal and India Against Corruption in the past few months have shed light on various issues, have they served any lasting purpose?
The author writes:
Indian politics finds itself at an astonishing crossroads. The only choice is an absence of choice. As a decade of high growth and cocky ambitions, of rapacious resource handouts and robber-baron capitalism ends, the mood is somber and angry. Between the docile, enervating and eventually self-defeating slogan of “Ma Maati Manush†and the grasping ferocity of “Zan Zar Zameen,†surely India deserves something better and more enlightened. That something better and more enlightened may not be Arvind Kejriwal and IAC - but if he has triggered a process of fear and loathing, maybe, just maybe, that's what we needed.
In Down To Earth, Jyotika Sood has an in-depth analysis of the battle over the Cauvery River. Farmers in drought-stricken Karnata ka are protesting because water from the river is being diverted to the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu by order of the Supreme Court. Ms. Sood examines the genesis of the conflict, which she says has its origins in agreements signed in 1892 and 1924 between the Madras Presidency and the state of Mysore.
The problem is exacerbated by the reliance of both states on rice, a water-intensive crop. Â While water for agriculture is the main issue, the supply of drinking water is also a source of anxiety, she writes. Looking ahead, the author argues that the issue can only be resolved in the short term if farmers from both states are educated on how to put the available water to the best use.
This week in Open, a piece titled “Opposition in Snooze Mode†analyzes the failures of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra. The writer, Haima Deshpande, argues that the party's two key leaders in the state, Eknath Khadse in the legislative assembly and Vinod Tawde in the council, should be working to best  the government but are letting the opportunity slip. With the next election coming up in 2014, the two  leaders are unlikely to topple the Democratic Front, an alliance of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, she writes.
The author writes: Over a decade of occupying opposition benches seems to have deadened the instincts of the saffron combine. At a time when both the Congress and NCP are faced with corruption scandals, reportedly due to the dubious dealings of state cabinet ministers, the opposition is fumbling for a strategy to gain a political advantage.
The Shiv Sena, the BJP's ally in Maharashtra, has lost its power, Ms. Deshpande argues, and the opposition alliance itself is fractured, with leaders from each of the two parties vying for the position of chief minister. Â The opposition is unable to hold the government to account or change its course, she says, and unless it produces new leaders, the Democrat ic Front is likely to remain in power.
