The interview with Satya Pal Malik gives a fair idea of what Malik was being asked to be silent about, but what is of great concern is who asked him to stay silent and what could be the implications of his staying silent and not staying silent. The concern arises because the implications could be […]
Supreme Court has done what successive governments shied away from. Selection of CEC and ECs by government was problematic. With weighty decisions on conducting elections and adjudicating disputes between parties to be made by this high constitutional office, election commissioner selection is best taken out of Executive’s hands On May 17, 2021, the Association for […]
The proposal for remote voting for migrant resident voters (MRIs) is not new has its origins in an older proposal, to allow Non-Resident Indians to vote. There are serious issues with this. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced a new initiative to introduce a ‘remote voting machine (RVM) system’ for migrant voters via its letter […]
With several state elections due soon and the Lok Sabha election due in 2024, many citizen groups are perturbed about the massive money power and the criminal muscle power destroying the very integrity of India’s elections and are trying to build a citizens’ movement to overcome them. A gathering under the banner of the “Karnataka […]
This article is an interview of Prof Chhokar, Founder Member and Trustee of ADR, with Scroll.in. On Thursday, the Supreme Court reserved its judgement on a batch of petitions challenging the appointment process of election commissioners, the officers who comprise the Election Commission – the body responsible for conducting national and state elections. Scroll.in spoke […]
This article is an interview of Prof Chhokar, Founder Member and Trustee of ADR, with Civil Society Online. Promises fly thick and fast during election time. Political parties seek to outdo one another in getting the attention of voters. In the heat of the moment, mostly anything goes and voters are none the wiser […]
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 […]
The problem of defection is not of the legislators alone. Political parties are essential actors in this drama of defection that now plays out repeatedly and brazenly in the political theatre of this country. Haryana has long been decried, and rightly so, for having given the notorious ‘Aaya Ram-Gaya Ram’ phenomenon to Indian politics. However, the Haryana […]
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 […]