It wasn’t merely independence from subjugation by a foreign power that India achieved 70 years ago. With an independent democracy, its citizens also won the right to shape their own destiny. Seventy years later, where does that freedom – the freedom to move forward on the path of democracy – stand? Seventy years ago, India […]
The Election Commission of India has taken a logical and commendable stand in two of its depositions before the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. In one it has said that the “introduction of electoral bonds a retrograde step” and in the other it has said that it does “not support state […]
Contrary to the finance minister’s assurance in the Budget speech, amendments to the Finance Bill ensuring anonymity to the donor as well as the receiver will only add opacity to political donations. The current government must be commended on its consistency and persistence, though in a perverse way. Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s Budget speech had a separate […]
Past efforts at out-of-court resolution of Ayodhya dispute have been non-starters It is neither possible nor advisable to disregard the Supreme Court of India since Article 141 of the Constitution says, “The law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India,” and also because the authority, and […]
The Finance Minister has redefined these terms and now there’s a completely opaque system of political funding in place. This is the question that the Finance Minister has placed squarely in the public domain since February 1, 2017, when he presented the Budget 2017 in Parliament. The Finance Minister seems to think they, do but […]
पांच विधानसभाओं के चुनाव अंतिम दौर में हैं। आखिर, चुनाव आयोग ने अब जाकर धर्म-जाति के आधार पर भड़काऊ बयान देकर वोट मांगने वालों को चेतावनी है। क्या चुनाव आयोग का कर्तव्य चेतावनी के बाद समाप्त हो जाता है? या फिर, इसके अलावा वह और भी कुछ कर सकता है? पांच राज्यों में विधानसभा चुनावों […]
For the government to truly fight black money and ensure complete transparency in political funding, the ambit of the Right to Information Act must be expanded to include political parties. The political funding reforms proposed in the Union Budget by the finance minister are a smokescreen designed to evade the real issue of bringing complete transparency in […]
While the Budget’s effort to include electoral funding issues is commendable, a closer look at the provisions tells a different story. In a significant departure from past practice, the Budget announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 1 had a separate section on ‘Transparency in Electoral Funding’. The ‘Key Features of Budget 2017-2018‘ put out […]
An attempt is being made to change the narrative so that the proposal is seen as something the Election Commission wants rather than an agenda the Modi government is actively pursuing. On October 6, the Hindustan Times reported the observations of election commissioner O.P. Rawat in Bhopal in response to questions on the possibility of holding simultaneous elections […]
Although the BJP says demonetisation will target unaccounted money, it and other national parties have in the past failed to submit their income tax returns and disclose sources of donations. With its recent move to demonetise high-value currency notes, the government claims to be fighting the problem of black or untaxed money that has become […]