‘Demos’ in Greek means the people, which is why democracy means the rule of the people. Autocracy means the rule of ruling elite, monarchy means the rule of a sovereign and mobocracy means mob rule, i.e., virtual anarchy. But what exactly are th....
There is a story, alleged not to be apocryphal, about one of the districts of old CP and Berar (later Madhya Pradesh) in which the police was investigating a major case of house breaking. The police had detained a suspect and the Superintendent of P....
A recent incident in Kolkota has set alarm bells ringing. A rowdy crowd from the ruling Trinamul Congress in West Bengal blocked a public street during some celebrations. This led to clashes with workers of the opposition and the police intervened,....
One expected that with the British agreeing to the partition of India and creating at the behest of the Muslim League the country called Pakistan, India and Pakistan would be able to follow their different paths of government and development. Both c....
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold, Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” (The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats) June 25, 1975 was the day on which a state of Emergency was declared by Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister un....
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 ....
‘Vimarsha’, VIF’s monthly series of public discourse on contemporary subjects, was held on September 30, 2011 to discuss an issue of utmost national importance - the implications for social harmony of a proposed legislation titled 'Preventio....
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....