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 […]
केन्द्रीय सूचना आयोग के फैसले को डस्टबिन में डालने के बाद सरकार राजनीतिक दलों को सूचना अधिकार कानून 2005 के दायरे से बाहर करने की जुगत में है। सरकार के इस प्रस्ताव पर लेफ्ट-राइट किसी के भी ऐतराज करने की गुंजाइश नहीं है। पारदर्शिता और खुलासा हमेशा से ‘पड़ोस’ की वस्तु रहे हैं और राजनीतिक […]
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 […]
The recent advertisement by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat House Committee reiterates that our ‘public’ representatives and ‘public’ servants do not consider public money to be their own, and thus show little accountability in its expenditure. The issue of salaries for members of parliament (MPs) and members of legislative assemblies (MLAs) has been a matter of […]
The government appears to be seeking to counter news reports that are critical of the planned amendment to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Since The Wire broke the story of the proposed surreptitious amendment of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 (FCRA) to let the BJP and Congress off the hook for illegally accepting donations from foreign companies, there has […]
Given the obvious conflict of interest, the party MPs must make the honourable decision to opt out of voting on the amendments. It was reported in December 2015 that a “proposed amendment to section 2 (1) (h) of FCRA, 2010, has been sent to the law and finance ministries for their comments,” which would “make funding easier […]
The problem of NPAs points to banks’ vulnerability to political pressure P. Vaidyanathan Iyer, in ‘Govt plans to defuse ticking bank bomb’ (The Indian Express, February 01), deserves congratulations for bringing out in public a proposal to set up an asset reconstruction company (ARC) with equity contribution from the government and the RBI, to deal with the […]