-Hindustan Times An analysis of parliamentarians’ attendance suggests a correlation between their regularity and the troika of moveable wealth, education, and criminality. Showing up to work is the least we can expect from our Members of Parliament (MPs). Yet, very few MPs do this with regularity — only 20% of standard (non-minister) MPs that served a full term in Lok Sabha between 2009 and 2014 attended Parliament at least 90% of the...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Jaitley's Electoral Bonds Pose A Major Threat to Indian Democracy -Prabhat Patnaik
-TheCitizen.in It’s a powerful means of centralising power and crushing opposition NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had outlined a scheme of electoral bonds in his budget speech on February 2, 2017. Now, exactly 11 months later, the notification of the scheme and some details of it have finally been announced in a Press Information Bureau release on January 2, 2018. Along with this release Jaitley himself has also written an explanation-cum-defence of...
More »The illusion, the reality check -Pranab Bardhan
-The Indian Express Three years after the Modi government assumed office, the promise of job creation is unmet. The demon of corruption is not yet slayed As the triumphal march of the Modi-Shah juggernaut continues, smashing the feckless and disorganised Opposition on its way, it is useful to ponder over at least two of the grand hoaxes of the current regime over the last three years that have been impressively successful with...
More »Swim against funding tide -Charu Sudan Kasturi
-The Telegraph New Delhi: A clutch of legal amendments the Narendra Modi government has introduced to allow corporate political donors to mask their contributions drags the world's largest democracy against global currents of rising transparency in electoral funding, analysts and activists have warned. From Brazil to Bangladesh, and Croatia to Cyprus, countries of diverse sizes and varied histories with democracy have over the past decade adopted laws and rules aimed at making...
More »No one loves the farmer -Ashok Gulati & Siraj Hussain
-The Indian Express They are the largest constituency in UP. Yet, all parties have overlooked their issues Next month, Uttar Pradesh (UP) will have a new popular government, hopefully with a clear mandate. If UP was a country, with a population reportedly of more than 214 million in 2015 (as per UN population projections), it would have been the fifth most populous country in the world after China, India, US and Indonesia....
More »