Indian Democracy

Tuesday, Apr 16, 2024 | Last Update : 11:37 PM IST

In this Thursday, March 28, 2024 file photo Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal leaves the Rouse Avenue Court where he was produced in the excise policy-linked money laundering case, in New Delhi. A Delhi court Monday sent Kejriwal to judicial custody till April 15. (PTI Photo/Atul Yadav)

Aakar Patel | With CM in jail, Opposition accounts frozen, election not free and fair

Allegations of election rigging raise concerns about the integrity of India's democracy.

02 Apr 2024 12:05 AM

Landmark elections amidst inequality: examining democracy's duty beyond the ballot box. (PTI File Image)

Sunanda K. Datta-Ray | Inequality and democracy: Can it ensure a better life?

Amidst the electoral fervor, the stark realities of economic inequality cast a sobering shadow over the celebration of democracy.

28 Mar 2024 12:04 AM

We in India have equality in the sense implied in a democracy. We have periodic free and fair elections — at least reasonably free and fair, an independent media, an independent judiciary and all of us enjoy all the freedoms we believe to be essential to be a free people. (Photo: PTI/Representational Image)

Mohan Guruswamy | What ails our democracy? Power flows from the top

No party seems without some blame attached it, for this seems to have become the norm these days

19 Dec 2023 2:38 AM

Freebies become the fig leaf that corrupt politicians and political parties use to cover their sins of omission and commission while seeking electoral support. (Representational Image/ AP)

AA Edit | Freebies: It’s not courts’ call

The leading question the judiciary may have entertained is whether any political party would agree to curbs on freebies ahead of polls

13 Aug 2022 12:16 AM

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses the 'Ideas for India' conclave in the United Kingdom. (PTI Photo)

Indian democracy is global public good; if that cracks, it will cause problem: Rahul

Rahul said that there are two different designs of governance at play in India, one that stifles voices and the other that listen

21 May 2022 12:41 PM

The universities were the breeding ground of Opposition ideologies and several seniors in the current crop of leaders had their baptism by fire in that period. (Representational Image/ PTI)

AA Edit | Univs should be open to all ideological discourse

If the universities had ended with being a platform for exchange of ideas, India’s course of history would have been different

21 May 2022 12:50 AM

It is both problematic and dangerous to play this game for just that reason; in a democracy the rule of law is the core and most sacred value to ensure a society is civilised and modern. (Representational Image/ PTI File)

AA Edit | Bulldozer raj is wrong, laws must be followed

There is a certain irresistible appeal for the frontbenchers amongst the cineaste to whistle at such a Robin Hood approach

15 Apr 2022 12:11 AM

When we look back at the last decades of our existence as the world’s largest democracy, what is apparent is that democratically elected leaders have more often than not chosen power over principle in the running of the State. (Representational Image/ PTI)

Pavan K. Varma | Sans wall against despotism, govt cherrypicking dharma

In this process, the interests of the State become conterminous with the personal interests of the political leader

03 Apr 2022 3:23 AM

One of the more common ways in which voting is understood here is through the concept of “anti-incumbency”, which is not a phrase that is used in other democracies. (Representational Image/ PTI)

Aakar Patel | Why voters still re-elect govts despite failures on jobs, growth

This piece is not about the parties and elections but about the voter, and why they vote in the way they do

08 Mar 2022 3:32 AM

Mohan Guruswamy | On secularism, conversion and the nature of religion

The acceptance of democracy as a way of life implies that we accept that we hold certain rights to be inalienable

23 Feb 2022 2:36 AM

Can democracy survive the Big Tech onslaught?

Big Tech, in a way unimaginable even a couple of decades ago, today has a stranglehold on information dissemination & has become ubiquitous

28 Jan 2022 3:22 AM

However casual and cavalier it may have sounded, Mr Modi’s November 19 address could mark a new beginning. (PTI)

Sunanda K. Datta-Ray | Will repeal of farm laws mark a new beginning?

The manner in which the three laws were hustled through the two Houses of Parliament suggested little respect for parliamentary niceties

24 Nov 2021 3:43 AM

Thomas Babbington Macaulay’s codification of Indian law came into effect and the Indian Police Act introduced uniform police service throughout India. (Twitter)

Mohan Guruswamy | Good governance means long-term government!

Clearly, we need to restructure the government and administration in each of India’s 590 or so districts

23 Nov 2021 2:05 AM

Patralekha Chatterjee | ‘Tit for tat’ is an attack on rule of law & democracy

Mr Khattar does not stop with advocating 'tit for tat' as a strategy

07 Oct 2021 1:10 AM

Indian Parliament (Image credit : Wikipedia)

Ashwani Kumar | Reassert ‘core’ values & halt democracy’s decay

As the highest forum of democracy, Parliament too cannot escape its share of responsibility for our faltering record on human rights

09 Jan 2021 7:21 AM

Nothing can be achieved if minorities are not offered an opportunity to lead the country.

Ensuring Representation of Muslims

Majority of the political parties are approaching Minorities only as monolith voters rather than as potential candidates.

14 Apr 2019 4:53 AM

The police has recovered a large cache of arms and explosives from their possession, said sources.

Delhi: In last 8 years, 10 booked under sedition charges

The Delhi police earlier claimed that the left-wing extremists and ISI were planning to strike in Delhi-NCR.

18 Mar 2019 7:20 AM

Special House book put on hold: Sources

Parliament put on hold its ambitious volume to commemorate 70 years of Indian democracy.

17 Dec 2018 6:21 AM

Didi should be ruler of Indian democracy, says Ram Jethmalani

Jethmalani to support TMC chief in the task.

17 Mar 2018 12:52 AM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Justice of India, Justice Dipak Misra and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at valedictory session of the National Law Day, 2017 function in New Delhi on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)

Govt, judiciary, bureaucracy must boost each other, work for new India: Modi

Modi also emphasised on the Indian Constitution's important role in the country's overall development after independence.

26 Nov 2017 8:56 PM

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Columns

Aakar Patel

Indian democracy