The Social Lens: Insights on Institutions, Inequality, and Innovation

The buzz surrounding the Indian elections has been building for the past two years. Disenchantment and disillusionment with the United Progressive Alliance’s policies made people impatient to welcome a new government—one that would drive the country towards prudent economic policies, better governance, the enactment of entitlement-based rights, and robust foreign policies. The name that comes to mind almost synonymously with the 2014 election is that of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) poster boy, Narendra Modi. Narendra Modi has been a long-standing member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and was chosen as the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001, following the Bhuj earthquake. During his tenure, Gujarat witnessed a massive anti-muslim communal riot in 2002 after the burning of a train in Godhra. Modi has been named in multiple cases for his alleged involvement in the post-Godhra riots. Some Gujarat government officials also accused him of failing to deploy state machinery...

The biggest festival of India, parliamentary election, is planned in April and May 2014. This is not a mere number game for Indians but this is the question of their survival and a chance to gain prosperity in the economic, political, and social spheres of their life. In democracy, we do not choose only leaders to represent us but also assert our rights to have freedom, liberty, equality, and justice. These are the basic rights that one should have to live a decent life. In this election, everyone knows which party is going to get highest number of seats. The main problem is the formation of government at the centre in a coalition era asserted by ‘regional parties’ based on ‘primordial identities’. This time, the expectations from the government is very high after seeing the misrule for last five years. Irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies, corruption in government and governance, weak foreign policy and especially diplomacy, inefficient administration and insufficient result...

WP-07 Democracy means popular government and the Parliamentary form of democratic system was adopted in India by the nationalist leaders of Indian freedom struggle. The parliamentary or representative form of democracy is best defined by John Stuart Mill in his classic, Consideration on Representative Government . It is a government wherein “the whole people or some numerous portion of them exercise through deputies periodically elected by themselves the ultimate controlling power which in every constitution must reside somewhere… this ultimate power they must possess in all its completeness” 1 Parliamentary democracy allows a form of government in which the people of the nation-state rule through elected representatives in the parliament, chosen by free and fair elections and adult suffrage. There should be existence of two or more political part is necessary, fundamental rights are guaranteed and there must be coordination between the legislature and the executive. The In...

Censorship debates in India are not new, and both the Indian state and its citizens have played roles as both perpetrators and victims in these discussions. The recent controversy surrounding Wendy Doniger’s book, The Hindus: An Alternative History , once again highlighted the reluctance of certain sections of Indian society to accept criticism or alternative perspectives on religion and culture. Despite the constitutional guarantee of free expression as a fundamental right, Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) grants the state the power to penalize speech that maliciously insults or attempts to insult any religious belief. In this sense, Section 295A operates in a secular manner, as it applies to all religious communities. This provision was not part of the original IPC of 1860 but was introduced in 1927 through an amendment following the Lahore Court’s decision in Rajpal vs. King Emperor (1927) . At that time, legal experts, politicians, and scholars debated the amendment ...