-The Statesman Assembly elections in the States of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Puducherry to be held between 27 March and 29 April come at a time the prestigious US-based Freedom House report has lowered India’s rank from a “free” to a “partially free” country and Sweden’s V-Dem Institute which once described India as the world’s largest democracy as an “Electoral autocracy.” The government can either...

-The Hindu NGO seeks stay on scheme ahead of Assembly elections in key States Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde agreed with advocate Prashant Bhushan on Thursday to urgently hear a plea by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms to stay the sale of a new set of Electoral bonds on April 1, before Assembly elections in crucial States such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Responding to an urgent mentioning made by...

-The Indian Express The minister said that the proposal would require amendments to existing laws and is “under the consideration of the government.” The government is considering a proposal to link Electoral roll with Aadhaar with a view to “curb the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person at different places”, Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad informed Lok Sabha in a written reply on Wednesday. “Electoral roll database system...

-Scroll.in The report by Varieties of Democracy Institute said India is as autocratic as Pakistan in censorship and worse than Bangladesh and Nepal. India has turned into an “Electoral autocracy”, an analytical research project by Sweden-based Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute said. The research institute had said last year that the Bharatiya Janata Party now closely resembles a “typical governing party in an autocracy”. A report of the organisation, which conceptualises and measures democracy,...

-The Hindu It is critical that the Supreme Court immediately adjudicates on the Electoral bonds scheme The Election Commission of India has announced dates for elections to five Legislative Assemblies. It is a matter of grave concern that the petition challenging the Electoral bonds scheme, which deals with the vexed issue of election funding, continues to languish in the Supreme Court. The delay in adjudicating on the case filed in September 2017...