On the road to Liberty

The women’s reservation bill will disempower the voter, and reduce the incentive for the elected representative to be seriously concerned with the issues affecting the constituencies. It will also seriously undermine the prospect of inner party democratic structures, and empower the entrenched party leadership. More importantly, this amendment is completely unnecessary, since there is nothing that stops political parties to nominate more women candidates, if they were really committed to that cause. My article titled, " The political fallout of the battle of the sexes " was published in the monthly magazine, Pragati: The Indian National Interest Review, in April 2010. Symbolism plays a very important role in politics. So it was symbolic that on Monday, March 8th, 2010, the centenary of the International Women’s Day, the governing UPA coalition wanted to present the country with a constitutional amendment to empower women, by reserving 33 percent of the seats for women in nat...

The anti-defection law is suppressing dissent and has only raised the price of switching loyalties. We need to dispassionately understand the real cost of driving political negotiations underground, I write in this article " A law endangering democracy ", published in the Mint, on 21 August 2008. Many were outraged at the display of cash in Parliament, during the trust vote, last month. But far worse was that the Prime Minister could not make his concluding statement, and that even if he had, it would have made no impact. Our anti-defection law has made parliamentary debates pointless, as in the process of substantive debate, if members of Parliament, or MPs, change their mind and defy their party whip, they face disqualification. With debates being defunct, inducements in cash or kind become the necessary tools to sway legislators. In a parliamentary democracy, numbers are important, but democracy is much more than just a numbers game. Democracy is not just about today’s ma...

One reason why politicians have fallen in public esteem is because they are not seen to be operating in an open market, I argue in this article, " Market reform in politics ", published in the Mint, on 22 July 2008. The run-up to the trust vote has been as exciting as a Twenty20 (T20) game of cricket. Fortune is fluctuating every hour. It is a cliff-hanger! But rather than enjoy the political game, commentators are lamenting that high principles of parliamentary democracy have degenerated to lowly bazaar bargaining. It’s time our politicians took a leaf out of the T20 experience and created a legitimate market for politics. Indian Premier League’s success was not in the T20 format. Beginning with the private ownership of teams to auctioning of the players, branding and marketing, cricket was commercialized as never before. It produced quality entertainment for the paying public and unearthed new talent. In contrast to cricket, parliamentary discourse is handicapped by accusa...