यह सर्वविदित है कि सर्वप्रथम राजनीतिक पार्टियां गंभीर अपराधों के आरोपित उम्मीदवारों को अपना उम्मीदवार घोषित करती है इसके बाद जनता उस उम्मीदवार को मजबूरन चुनती है, लेकिन, पिछले दिनों चुनाव आयोग ने सभी राजनीतिक पार्टियों को अपनी चिट्ठी में हिदायत करते हुए लिखा है कि वे वैसे उम्मीदवारों को प्रत्याशी नहीं बनाए, जिसके खिलाफ […]
Democracy
क्या आय के स्रोतों के खुलासे से राजनीति में आ पाएगी शुचिता ?
चुनाव प्रक्रिया में सुधार एवं राजनीति में शुचिता के लिए उच्चतम न्यायालय ने पिछले दिनों एक ऐतिहासिक व अहम फैंसला सुनाया था। न्यायालय ने याचिकाकर्ता की याचिका पर सुनवाई करते हुए कहा कि सांसद एवं विधायकों की संपत्ति इतनी कैसे बढ़ जाती है ? यह जनता को जानने का अधिकार है। फैंसले के मुताबिक उम्मीदवारों […]
Reining in platforms like Facebook
In December 2015 the founder and Chief Executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote passionately in The Times of India why it was important to give free access to internet. He was promoting the idea of ‘Free Basics’ launched by Facebook. It would give free access to basic internet services to all Indians. No charge would […]
Time to regulate Facebook now
In the run-up to the 2012 presidential elections in the United States, the Guardian newspaper published a story on how the Obama re-election communities. This style of micro-targeting was borrowed from the methods of marketing and advertising campaigns of successful consumer goods companies. This strategy was a phenomenal success. As the Guardian article said, if the […]
Bihar Elections: Can Bihar Overturn Dismal History Of Women Representation?
A report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a citizen-led, non-political NGO which works on electoral and political reforms in India, reveals that out of 8163 candidates who contested elections in Bihar (Parliamentary, State Assembly and/or Legislative Council Elections) between 2006 to 2016, only 610 or 7% were women. The same report discloses that 20% […]
Emerging Trends in Electoral Behaviour: Why Money, Muscle Power Reign Supreme
The All India Survey on Governance Issues and Voting Behaviour 2018 released by ADR last year brought out some interesting findings. 36.67% of voters (out of more than 250,000 respondents) felt that people vote for candidates with criminal antecedents because they are unaware of his/her criminal records. 35.89% voters are also willing to vote for […]
Owning up to criminalisation in politics
The February 2020 order pushes the envelope further on restricting criminal candidates from contesting elections A February 2020 Supreme Court judgment on criminalisation in politics may have far-reaching consequences for Indian democracy. It will first be implemented in the coming Bihar elections in October 2020. The Court has asked the political parties to state “the reasons for […]
Why the Solicitor General Is Wrong to Call for PILs to Be Scrapped
Tushar Mehta’s remarks calling public interest litigations “self-employment generating petitions” sound like a complete and summary rejection of the concept and reek of contempt. One of the Indian government’s senior-most legal officers, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said in the Supreme Court on April 3, 2020, that “’professional PIL shops’ must be locked down.” This has created […]
MPLADS, its suspension, and why it must go
There are five reasons why the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme must be abolished All Opposition parties have been unanimous in their criticism of the government’s recent move to suspend the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for two years, approved by the Cabinet. The government’s reason is this: to use these funds […]
COVID-19 and Democracy
It is not easy to get down to writing when the country, indeed the world, faces an uncertain future due to the coronavirus pandemic. But this is perhaps a good time to try and explore the impact of the coronavirus on democracy. It is well known that crises bring out the best and worst in […]