Bourgeois Inspirations

Aruna Roy and Ruchi Gupta (Also published in The Tribune) In a span of mere weeks, the Corporate Affairs Minister, the Law Minister and the Prime Minister have all fired salvos at the Right to Information Act. The popularly acclaimed RTI Act 2005, brought in by their own government, has been charged with “transgressing into … Continue reading »

On the 13th day of Anna’s fast, the Parliament agreed to a “sense of the house” resolution, endorsing in principle, all three demands of the Anna camp. Anna called off his fast, and announced that it was time for jashn. Newspapers too cheered. “People’s Democracy” proclaimed one headline; “Anna Wins It For the People”, declared … Continue reading »

Published in the Seminar, July 2011 The past couple of months have seen a renewed attack on the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC has been decried as an unconstitutional, undemocratic, “super-cabinet” where unaccountable “jholawalas” hatch harebrained schemes guaranteed to run the government aground. Another line of criticism has focused on the process of the … Continue reading »

Nikhil Dey and Ruchi Gupta, MKSS  Published in The Tribune on May 16, 2011  Note: This review is based on the JLP ver 2.2 dated Apr 20, 2011 For many who quite rightly guessed that the Lokpal Bill drafted by the Government would be a non starter, the alternative merited automatic support. However, little was … Continue reading »

The Standing Committee on IT has invited comments on “Paid News” – as usual, the window for comments is a short two weeks, and the deadline is on Jan 1. Some preliminary thoughts: Paid news is the outcome of structural incongruence – lack of regulation of a powerful profit-making (and seeking) industry. Efforts to plug one … Continue reading »

Edited Version Published in EPW (Oct 2-Oct 8 ) UID Resources – For Other UID updates RS Sharma (DG, UIDAI) in his article “Identity and the UIDAI: A Response” (EPW, Aug 28, 2010) claims that Usha Ramanathan’s article “A Unique Identity Bill” (EPW, July 24, 2010) reflects some “fundamental misunderstandings on the objectives of the … Continue reading »

Please see note below There is natural tension between the State and the public on the question of transparency. Authoritarian states by definition limit access to information. In democratic states, democracy manifests itself as elections, which reduces incentive for routine oversight (to delay judgment) and in case of ruling government’s culpability, creates a disincentive for … Continue reading »

I was in a small village in Rajasthan on January 26, the Indian Republic Day.  Children ran through the village shouting in chorus, “Mahatma Gandhi ki jai, mera bharat mahan” and the like.  These are children who will see little opportunity in their life; barring exceptions, each will spend his life as unskilled labor, marginalized … Continue reading »