-The Hindu SC to hear petitioner next week In a time of deep political polarisation, refusing to comply with the RTI Act seems to be one of the few issues that has united national parties across the ideological spectrum. Despite a June 2013 ruling from the Central Information Commission (CIC) that they fall within the ambit of the transparency law, parties insist that they cannot be considered public authorities under the Act. Six years...
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The electoral bonds scheme is a threat to democracy - Gautam Bhatia
-Hindustan Times From a constitutional point of view, the scheme fails the tests of rationality and non-arbitrariness Earlier this month, the Supreme Court indicated that it would hear the long-pending constitutional challenge to the electoral bonds scheme. The electoral bonds scheme, which was introduced by the government in early 2018, provides new channels for private funding of Political Parties, and has been subjected to severe criticism, including by a former Chief Election...
More »Repeat MPs' assets rose 142% -Devesh K Pandey
-The Hindu Financial details of 153 sitting MPs analysed by ADR-National Election Watch The average financial assets of 153 re-elected Lok Sabha MPs grew by 142%, from ?5.5 crore in 2009 to ?13.32 crore in 2014, according to an analysis by National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms. E. T. Mohammed Basheer of the IUML declared the highest jump of 2,018% (an almost 22-fold surge), followed by the TMC’s Sisir...
More »Another Rs 2,000 per farmer won't swing the election -SA Aiyar
-The Times of India blog The hyper-patriotic heat over Indo-Pak aerial battles is diminishing. Other issues are getting more attention. The Election Commission has notified polling dates, so its model code of conduct for Political Parties is in force. This says no new projects or welfare schemes can be announced or implemented before the election. What does this imply for the pre-election PM-Kisan scheme, announced in the budget? Pre-election budgets are usually...
More »SC seeks EC's response on opposition's VVPAT petition -Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday took less than a minute to seek the Election Commission’s response to a joint petition filed by leaders of 21 non-NDA Political Parties pleading for mandatory counting of VVPAT paper slips in at least 50% of EVMs in each assembly segment in the Lok Sabha elections even though it may delay declaration of results. Senior advocate AM Singhvi, who played a...
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