-The Hindu How many bills have been tabled without prior discussions? What needs to be done to improve public consultation in policymaking? The story so far: The Union Government has listed 29 Bills (26 new and three pending) to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament. In 2014, the Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy was adopted, mandating a host of rules, including that whenever the Government makes any law, it must place a...

-The Telegraph As the most inequitable country in the world after Russia, today's India is indicative of this fact The Union ministry of women and child development protested against the downgrading of India from 94 to 101 on the Global Hunger Index, 2021. According to the ministry, the proportion of undernourished population given in the report is “devoid of ground reality and facts, and suffers from serious methodological issues”. The ministry is protesting...

-TheWire.in The biggest tormentor of the people in India is paradoxically the Indian state itself. We are living in times that are both frightening and strange. They are frightening because the Indian society is being driven by a binary system. Either you conform to the majoritarian or official narrative, or you are branded a traitor of some sort – jihadi, urban Naxal, or ISI agent who must be jailed or tormented by...

-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...

-The Hindu Opposition members question government’s commitment to democratic norms The Lok Sabha on Monday passed three Bills in 20 minutes as disruption by Opposition members over the Pegasus snooping controversy and the farms continued into the last week of the monsoon session of Parliament. The government also introduced three Bills in the din, prompting Congress leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Manish Tewari to question the government’s commitment to democratic norms. RSP’s N.K. Premachandran...