-The Telegraph Mandal politics must be revamped, not renounced Is Mandal politics on its deathbed? This is the question that many analysts have asked after the Bharatiya Janata Party routed the Samajwadi Party in the recent Uttar Pradesh elections. It was the fourth consecutive electoral drubbing for the SP at the hands of the BJP in the Narendra Modi era. Mandal politics cannot defeat the BJP, and the SP needs to finally move...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Mandal vs Kamandal Redux? Caste Is Back as a Major Variable in UP Elections -Gilles Verniers and Christophe Jaffrelot
-TheWire.in BJP has now realised that Hindutva and identity politics by themselves are not enough to win. In post-Mandal India, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempt to build electoral alliances tying upper castes and non-dominant OBCs is not new. This is a strategy the party used in the mid-1990s across North India to resist the consolidation of pro-Mandal parties and prevent the formation of large coalitions of “backwards”. Mid-1990s onwards, the BJP distributed...
More »Aruna Roy, social activist and founder of the MKSS. interviewed by Sneha Philip and Smarinita Shetty (IDR)
-IDROnline.org/ TheWire.in "The problem with Indian democracy is that despite the presence of millions of voters, the pool of decision makers get smaller and narrower at the top." Aruna Roy is a social activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). Her work and leadership led to the enactment of the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005—a landmark act that empowers citizens to demand transparency and accountability from government institutions....
More »Uttar Pradesh shows why MLAs do not matter in politics in states -Gilles Verniers
-Hindustan Times An analysis of incumbency level datasets prepared by the Trivedi Centre for Political Data suggests that becoming an MLA does not bestow much power, at least beyond the current term, to a person in the politics of states. What does it take to win a state election in India? Charismatic chief ministerial candidates or a committed, yet grounded set of MLAs? Logically, the answer should tilt towards the latter. After...
More »Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra no stranger to controversies -Omar Rashid
-The Hindu Lower court acquitted Mr. Mishra in 2004 but the criminal appeal in a murder case is still pending before the Allahabad High Court. The mowing down of farmers in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, in which his son Ashish Mishra is accused of murder, is not the first burning controversy in the life of Ajay Kumar Mishra, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs. Before he entered State-level Electoral Politics, Mr....
More »