Books that get straight to the point are refreshing. The author works hard to separate the grain from the chaff, letting the reader quickly reach the crux of the matter. India that is Bharat: An Introduction to the Constitutional Debates by P Rajeeve is one such book.
Rajeeve is current...
The Karnataka Cabinet approved and then put on hold a Bill mandating reservation in private sector jobs for local residents. The Bill not only makes the State unattractive for investments, but may also violate the Constitution.
The Bill defines a local candidate as anyone who was born in Karnatak...
Delhi churns every five years. The general election results decide the political fate of incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs), and there are new public representatives and their ideas for the country. Besides its broader impact on Parliament and governance, this churning has a personal dimension. E...
A contested election for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker is a sign of a broadening divide between treasury and opposition benches. Before Independence, contests for the position of president (equivalent of modern-day Speaker) were quite common. In the first election in 1925, Vithalbhai Patel defeated ...
The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha will start on Monday. Before the House can begin its legislative functioning, the newly elected members will have to take the oath of Members of Parliament (MP), which is provided in the Constitution.
The day will begin in Rashtrapati Bhavan, where Bha...
In the recently concluded general elections, voters did not give the Bharatiya Janata Party a complete majority. The BJP, with its 240 Lok Sabha seats, is forming the government along with its coalition partners of the National Democratic Alliance.
Coalitions at the national level came to public ...
Three days after the 2024 Lok Sabha election results, in a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Friday (June 7), Prime Minister Narendra Modi was unanimously elected as the coalition’s Parliamentary Party leader. The event took place at the Cent...
The Lok Sabha elections are in full swing. The third voting phase, scheduled for May 7, is a crucial milestone. This phase will witness all 26 seats in Gujarat and the remaining half of 14 seats in Karnataka going to polls. Once this phase concludes, voters will have exercised their franchise for mo...
Elections are the heartbeat of a democracy. When India became independent, sceptics thought a poor and illiterate nation would fail to keep democracy alive.
Elections are the heartbeat of a democracy. When India became independent, sceptics thought a poor and illiterate nation would fail to keep ...
In 1920, Delhi resident Abdul Majid came to the attention of the British government. He was someone who would ordinarily not be on the administration’s radar. His description varied from petty trader to sweetmeat seller and confectioner. In November that year, he filed nomination papers to con...
What led to SC’s judgment on legislators & bribes? What had SC said earlier? What are the implications?
Supreme Court has overturned its 1998 judgment on the PV Narasimha Rao bribery case. The earlier judgment protected MPs and MLAs for accepting bribes to vote ...
Last month, the Election Commission of India (ECI) held polls to fill 56 Rajya Sabha seats from 14 states. Without the vibrancy of a direct election, Rajya Sabha polls are usually lacklustre affairs. There are no big political rallies or a large electorate that candidates need to reach out...
Financial support to political parties has a chequered history in India. The striking down of electoral bonds scheme by Supreme Court is opportunity to rethink the framework regulating corporate contributions in our political process. Before this, taking stock of developments over the last 75 years ...
North-South politics hogged the limelight towards the end of the 17th Lok Sabha. First, Congress MP from Karnataka, D K Suresh, said that the people of South India might have to demand a separate country if “the injustice of not providing the rightful share of taxes (to the southern states) co...