Contrary to the finance minister’s assurance in the Budget speech, amendments to the Finance Bill ensuring anonymity to the donor as well as the receiver will only add opacity to political donations. The current government must be commended on its consistency and persistence, though in a perverse way. Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget speech had a separate […]
Past efforts at out-of-court resolution of Ayodhya dispute have been non-starters It is neither possible nor advisable to disregard the Supreme Court of India since Article 141 of the Constitution says, “The law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India,” and also because the authority, and […]
पांच विधानसभाओं के चुनाव अंतिम दौर में हैं। आखिर, चुनाव आयोग ने अब जाकर धर्म-जाति के आधार पर भड़काऊ बयान देकर वोट मांगने वालों को चेतावनी है। क्या चुनाव आयोग का कर्तव्य चेतावनी के बाद समाप्त हो जाता है? या फिर, इसके अलावा वह और भी कुछ कर सकता है? पांच राज्यों में विधानसभा चुनावों […]
While the Budget’s effort to include electoral funding issues is commendable, a closer look at the provisions tells a different story. In a significant departure from past practice, the Budget announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 1 had a separate section on ‘Transparency in Electoral Funding’. The ‘Key Features of Budget 2017-2018‘ put out […]
An attempt is being made to change the narrative so that the proposal is seen as something the Election Commission wants rather than an agenda the Modi government is actively pursuing. On October 6, the Hindustan Times reported the observations of election commissioner O.P. Rawat in Bhopal in response to questions on the possibility of holding simultaneous elections […]
When a government which says it wants to remove black money tries to defend acceptance of foreign money by political parties and opposes transparency of political funding, doubts arise about its actual intentions. In the middle of the prime minister’s ongoing campaign against black money, an appeal filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress […]
The demand that political parties function democratically must come from the people Suhas Palshikar gave sound advice to those who wish to set up and run political parties in an appropriately titled article, ‘How to have a good party’ (IE, October 24). The article was followed, the next day, by Sanjaya Baru advising “an institute of management education” […]
If concurrent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were to be a reality, it would go against the political diversity essential for addressing the social diversity of India. Though spoken about for quite a few years, simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies seem to be fast on their way to becoming a matter […]
Election Commission doesn’t have full authority to avert another pen fiasco in Rajya Sabha polls, by Jagdeep Chhokar (Congress suffered a blow in the recently held Rajya Sabha polls after an independent candidate backed by it lost the elections. At the centre of the controversy was the usage of a pen, other than the ink […]