The world’s largest democracy now actually has the world’s largest population to show for it. Over 1.4 billion people and 945 million registered voters, according to India’s Election Commission. Somehow an old Indian citizen and voter like me has been disenfranchised it seems– or so it appears to me – for why else would my… Continue reading The State of India’s Democracy
With more state elections in India this year and then, the parliamentary elections next year, India is once more in election mode. Many are billing the assembly elections the semi-final before the finals in 2024. As far as the ruling BJP party is concerned, that could well be true. The first round of the semi-finals… Continue reading When Democracy Itself Becomes a Distraction
The surging numbers of fresh Covid cases in India makes for grim reading, day after day. The daily hunt for hospitals, oxygen, ambulances, even cremation ground space is simply heart-rending. It seems that our cities have turned into funeral pyres, with not enough space to even cremate or bury their dead. If times weren’t already… Continue reading Testing Democracy in a Pandemic
Peripatetic Perch 