THE Election Commission has issued a clarification regarding the BJP’s demand to declare the United National Progressive Alliance (The Third Front)’s decision to abstain from the Presidential elections. The clarification is entirely unconvincing and inconsistent. …
Continue readingMonth: July 2007
More on the Maintenance of Parents Bill 2007
In May 2007, we looked at a short critique of the Maintenance of Parents and Welfare of Senior Citizens Bill which was introduced in Parliament in March 2007. The Bill is interesting because it seeks …
Continue readingDefining Minorities in India
Today’s edition of the Hindu features an article by Professor Zoya Hasan, who teaches at JNU, and is a member of the National Commission of Minorities (click here for her profile as well as those …
Continue readingAssessing the implementation of The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act:
Today’s Hindu carries a piece by Jean Dreze and Siddhartha Lal where they narrate their field experiences in Rajasthan on a trip that was undertaken to assess the implementation of the NREGA. While there was …
Continue readingThe Naxalite/Maoist Movement in India: Facts, Current State and Analysis
Revisiting the online edition of The Nation (which describes itself as “the flagship of the left” in America) after a long time, I was pleasantly surprised to find in its current issue an article on …
Continue readingDoes India need an Executive President?
In a provocative article, cartoonist Rajinder Puri (he writes on Constitutional issues also) argues that our Constitution makers in fact envisaged an Executive Presidency. He challenges the first Attorney General of India, M.C.Setalvad’s opinion to …
Continue readingSupreme Court Ruling on Taxation of Captive BPOs
India has become the preferred destination for multinational companies (MNCs) to outsource significant parts of their operations to be performed on Indian shores. For this purpose, the MNCs establish captive operations in India. The captive …
Continue readingCaste, Class and Quotas
The current issue of EPW has an interesting article on conceptual differences between caste and class and their role in the reservation policy. Some of the author K.D. Saksena’s points struck me as being very …
Continue readingThe debate over St. Stephens’ new policy
Reading Dilip’s stimulating post on the judgment recently delivered by Justice Dhanapalan of the Madras High Court, and his discussion of the Pai and Inamdar rulings, reminded me that some of the same issues come …
Continue readingMadras High Court Ruling on Quotas II: A follow-up
The Madras High Court judgment delivered by Justice V. Dhanapalan that Mr. Arun Thiruvengadam discussed in his post (see below) is elaborated in a few key respects in some detail below. Brought against the government …
Continue reading