The Nitish Kumar government has proposed that the electorate be given the right to recall corporators. This is yet another of recent experiments from Bihar, after the cash-transfer schemes for bicycles and school uniforms, and the abolition of the MLA Local Area Development Scheme. We discuss the me...
India is widely lauded as a model for emerging democracies around the world. An unlikely survivor as a democratic nation, it has managed to maintain and strengthen its democratic traditions over the past six decades. However, the Indian Parliament, which is expected to reflect and give shape t...
After the washed out winter session of Parliament, the big question was whether the budget session would function effectively. The session started out in a promising way as the government agreed to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into the allocation of 2G telecom spectrum....
The idea is not to attempt to solve problems that are intensely political in nature, by throwing technocratic solutions at them. So perhaps an appropriate thing would be to first find a way to collectively acknowledge and articulate the frustration of several MPs, of the presiding officers, and of m...
The annual budget is the foremost expression of government’s policy priorities. No matter what is said in the President’s address to Parliament or the speeches of other members of the cabinet, the promises may remain just that unless adequate financial resources are made available.
Ca...
