Only 15 regional parties received donations through electoral bonds, the highest amount being BJD’s Rs264 crore. For the Opposition parties, electoral bonds pose the fear of omission (being starved of funds) and the fear of commission — being traced and harassed by the ED and CBI. How would you like to play a game in […]
The Election Commission recently mooted connecting electoral expense limits to population and inflation; but will that create a level playing field between rich and poor candidates? “Indian politicians start their legislative careers with a lie — the false spending returns they submit? – Atal Bihari Vajpayee” Achchhe din (Good days) are here for at least one category of persons in India: […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were first conceived by the Election Commission of India (ECI) as a replacement for the ballot paper and the ballot box in 1977. The design and development of the machine was entrusted to a public sector undertaking, the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) in Hyderabad which developed a prototype by […]
Unless we disqualify criminal candidates from standing for elections, our legislatures will keep getting more and more tainted The Supreme Court this week came down heavily on criminalisation of politics. It asked political parties to explain why they need to give tickets to people with criminal backgrounds. The court also asked them to publicise widely, […]
General Elections 2014 marked social media platforms as a major tool to impact the dynamics of politics. It is no news that social media played a key role to spread fake news, hate speech, and paid news to mislead voters. Hence, prior to the Lok Sabha 2019, Election Commission of India (ECI), along with the […]
In disallowing voters from knowing the identity of donors, the scheme is even more opaque now Last month, an investigative series on electoral bonds by independent journalist Nitin Sethi, with the help of Right to Information (RTI) activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), exposed how the BJP leadership misled the Election Commission (EC) and Parliament on […]
The idea of social media as a force-multiplier in politics has gained virality in our minds, especially in last four years. According to Datareportal’s Digital 2019: India report, 1 out of total population of 1.361 billion, around 41% i.e. 560 million Indians are active users of internet and total no. of active social media users […]