Sruthisagar Yamunan deserves to be complimented for his informative article that brings out a hidden dimension of the electoral bonds used to make anonymous donations to political parties in India. Headlined “controversial electoral bonds are not only opaque, they come at a cost to the Indian taxpayer, the article asserts that there’s an invisible […]
Author: Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar
RTI amendment: A case of people’s power compromised
The passage of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 by both houses of Parliament is a very significant event. It has implications for several critical areas of governance in the country. It can be interpreted in the following ways: It is (a) a struggle of power between the Executive and the Legislature, […]
सूचना कानून पर मंडराता खतरा: आम लोगों को सशक्त बनाने वाला कानून को कमजोर करने की कोशिश
[ जगदीप एस छोकर ]: सूचना अधिकार कानून यानी आरटीआइ में संशोधन का एक और प्रयास शुरू हो गया है। यह प्रयास पहले किए गए प्रयासों से कुछ हटकर है। अब तक किए गए प्रयासों में संशोधन प्रस्ताव का मसौदा बनाकर विभिन्न वर्गों और जनता के बीच चर्चा के लिए रखा जाता था। वर्तमान संशोधन प्रस्ताव […]
What Happens if the 2019 Elections Lead to a Hung House?
There needs to be a broad national consensus on what to do if no party gets a majority. Trying to predict election outcomes is fraught with uncertainties. The current Lok Sabha election arguably is even more so. Still, a commonly held view seems to be that no party is likely to get to the half-way […]
Electoral Bonds: The SC’s Interim Order Puts It in a Catch-22 of Its Own Making
The provisions implemented under the scheme entail that parties do not know who their donors are. As a result, it leaves the apex court’s order open to non-compliance. The Supreme Court of India (SC) pronounced a significant “interim order” on April 12, 2019, in what might be called the electoral bonds case. These “group of […]
Electoral bonds damaging democracy, choking opposition funds: ADR
Noting that electoral bonds pose a grave threat to transparency in political fundings, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Wednesday said that they are ‘extremely damaging to the Indian democracy’. “The Finance Minister had said these bonds will be in the nature of a bearer bond, the identity of the donor will be kept […]
Implementing NOTA in the right spirit
Maharashtra and Haryana have shown the way In People’s Union For Civil Liberties v. Union Of India (September 27, 2013), the Supreme Court had ruled that a None of the Above (NOTA) option “may be provided in EVMs” so that voters are able to exercise their “right not to vote while maintaining their right of […]
The case of the missing voters
Two ex-CECs have been quoted as saying that the UIDAI had lobbied long and hard to link voter IDs and Aadhaar as a way to legitimise the controversial biometric ID project. In early 2018, about 6.6 million voters-out of a total of 50 million-were found missing from the Karnataka electoral rolls. More than 1.5 million […]
The Supreme Court Seems to Be Vacillating Between Being Progressive and Regressive
When it comes to cases of a political nature, the phenomenon of vacillation seems particularly pronounced as seen when the SC ruled against debarring persons with criminal cases pending against them from contesting elections. The Supreme Court of India seems to be vacillating between being progressive and regressive. Of course, the nature of the issue […]
Capping Political Parties’ Poll Spends: Will It Work?
The Election Commission of India is reported to have “proposed to the Law Ministry that a ceiling may be stipulated on election expenditure by political parties towards Parliamentary or Assembly elections.” Limits on what a candidate can spend on her/his election have been stipulated for a long time. Candidates are required to submit the expenditure incurred on […]