While campaigning for the by-election in Hisar Arvind Kejriwal, of RTI fame, made the amazing statement that Anna Hazare was right in saying that he was above Parliament, because as a citizen he is sovereign. I tried to excuse this as election rh
The one single tract which guides our democracy is the Constitution of India. The Preamble of the Constitution establishes two specific conditions of government in India. First and foremost is the statement that sovereignty vests in the people and
This paper will begin with two stories, neither of which is apocryphal. Both relate to Neemuch Sub Division of Mandsaur District (Neemuch is now a separate district), both are from 1960 and the officer who figures in them is Manish Bahl, a 1957 batc
The Constitution of India prescribes the basic framework within which government is to function and also mandates that government will promote a welfare state which will have its moorings in socialism. This is given in the Preamble to the Constituti
India has a federal structure in which, unlike the United States of America, the Provinces were an artificial creation of the British for administrative convenience, which gained semi autonomous status under the Government of India Act, 1935. The Pr
The Governor of Gujarat has appointed a retired High Court Judge as the Lokayukt of the State without consulting the Chief Minister and after consulting the Leader of the Opposition. The Gujarat Government has strongly objected to this act of the Go
Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011 is an affront to the Indian civilization and tradition which since thousands of years believed in peaceful co- existence and respected the pluralistic values
The Arab Spring pollinated the rejuvenating purpose of the Anna Hazare campaign, even though the context of the street movements in the two cases is different. The movements in Tunisia and in Egypt that caused the downfall of entrenched dictators viv
As a Visiting Fellow of Vivekanand International Foundation I had promised myself that in writing any papers for the Foundation the use of the first person singular would be avoided. So far that has happened, but perhaps the time has come to make on
As early as 1809, Sweden created an Ombudsman whose main job was to provide a forum for ventilation and remedy of public grievances against government and its officials for their inaction or unjust actions. Obviously corruption was not so much an is