The 130th Amendment Bill’s framing betrays its political motive. Ajit Ranade on why it’s not about keeping criminals out of power In late February, a Delhi court discharged all 23 accused in the excise policy case, ruling there was “no overarching conspiracy or criminal intent” in the policy at issue. One of the accused had spent 530 […]
Author: Ajit Ranade
Mumbai civic poll is latest theatre of freebie politics
Cash transfers fundamentally alter the relationship between the state and the voter. They create a one-way flow — the government gives, the citizen receives. Gratitude begins to substitute accountability. After years of delay, Mumbai is finally headed for a municipal election. For nearly half a decade, India’s richest city has been governed not by elected […]
Ajit Ranade: Cash handouts are politically popular but what do they imply for inflation, welfare and fiscal health?
Bihar’s pre-poll handouts were part of a political pattern in India. So what do cash transfers mean for price stability, welfare outcomes and fiscal management? Conditional cash transfers are found to work, but a universal basic income (UBI) deserves consideration too. What happens when a helicopter drops a large amount of cash on a local […]
India’s sunshine law: Clouded by the data privacy bill
When poll sops trump fiscal prudence
From this maximum city, the nation collects a whopping disproportionate share of direct taxes comprising corporate and personal incomes. Mumbai’s real estate is more precious than gold Maharashtra, at 14%, has the biggest share of the nation’s economic output. Its capital Mumbai is also the commercial and financial capital of the country. From this maximum […]
Transparency in poll funding could lead to a national clean-up
Let’s aim for transparent funding trails and reduced influence of money on poll outcomes While “political party” is not entirely absent as a mention in India’s Constitution, it finds space only in the 10th Schedule, which was added in 1985, brought about by the introduction of an anti-defection law. Otherwise, could it be that the […]
Does the long-awaited Election Commission reform through legislation pass the smell test?
The GoI was prodded after 73 years to table a Bill when the March 2023 SC judgment constituted a three-member bipartisan selection committee comprising the PM, CJI and LOP to appoint the CEC and ECs. But the Bill’s selection panel comprising the PM, LOP and a Union minister allows the Executive to retain control over […]
Karnataka: A thumping victory and some concerns
The problem of cleansing politics has a supply side and a demand side. The latter aspect means that voters need to choose clean candidates. Demand for tainted politicians should decrease. It is a record broken after thirty-four years. Both in terms of numbers of seats and vote share, the Congress Party’s victory in the elections […]
Not freebies, criminals in politics should be EC’s focus
If a candidate makes an outlandish election promise, it is for the voter to decide whether to buy it or not. While the central poll panel labours over what is essentially a policy matter, an election practice that is actually problematic is not getting its attention In 1999, the Association for Democratic Reforms filed a […]
Opinion: Ensuring basic rights is not freebie culture
Promises of welfare spending should not be equated to a reckless freebie culture or a race to the bottom. It must be understood that welfare spending is essential to partly redress the widening inequality in Indian society India has been managing the world’s largest and longest running free food programme since April 2020. This is […]