-The Indian Express Elections are short term contests, but the political project of democracy is a long game. Democracy is not just a set of institutions but also a set of values. The institutions are, minimally speaking, free and fair elections, an elected Parliament containing an executive and an Opposition to hold it accountable, an independent judiciary, a nonpartisan bureaucracy, a free media, and security of existence for all citizens. Democratic values...
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RTI amendment: Usurping powers from Legislature and States -M Sridhar Acharyulu
-Down to Earth The National Democratic Alliance government's move is an assault on the independence of information commissioners, writes former Central Information Commissioner M Sridhar Acharyulu Alas! I thought the Narendra Modi government is strong enough after its re-election. But now it is scared of the Right to Information (RTI) and the Chief Information Commission (CIC), as if they are monsters who can harm the power of the powerful rulers. The Information Commissioner...
More »Save-RTI plea to President Ram Nath Kovind
-The Telegraph Call to Kovind to back law he helped draft New Delhi: Former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has started an online petition to persuade President Ram Nath Kovind to stand by the transparency law he helped draft as a member of a parliamentary standing committee in 2004. While the petition, started on Friday, is finding traction, more such letters are being planned to appeal to the President’s conscience so that he...
More »Government keeps options open for more fuel price hikes -TCA Sharad Raghavan
-The Hindu Finance Bill provides for rise of Rs.5/litre While the Budget has effected a hike in the Duties and cess on petrol and diesel amounting to Rs.2 per litre, the government has given itself the leeway for a further increase of levies by Rs.5 per litre, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey said. While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a Rs.1/litre increase in the Special Additional Duty (SAD) on petrol and diesel...
More »Lessons that Delhi journalists can learn from local media at Muzaffarpur -Umesh Kumar Ray
-Newslaundry.com There were those who milked the AES outbreak for TRPs. And there were those who helped out while carrying out their journalistic Duties. Even as Bihar mourns the deaths of over 150 children owing to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), a section of the media milked the grave situation to boost TRPs. Some journalists irresponsibly barged into the ICUs of one of the hospitals treating most of the children for live...
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