The Modi government's defeat on farm laws underlines the perils of governing an entire continent-sized, diverse and federal nation like the chief minister of a state, observes Shekhar Gupta.
India has to put in place legislation and rules which seek more clarity and transparency from technology companies. Domestic and global companies that use consumer behaviour data to enhance addictive behaviour must be scrutinised and controlled. Currently the intermediary guidelines focus mostly on content management and grievance redressal. However, the underlying software engines that influence online consumer behaviour need oversight, too.
Delivering the first S B Rangnekar Memorial lecture at the Panjab University, his alma mater, in Chandigarh, Dr Singh also said a "dangerous and false binary" of choosing between freedom and development was surfacing in the country's political discourse and that it must be rejected.
There are constituencies in the remote, far-flung corners of certain parts of Gujarat with only a handful of registered voters. Why, there is just one voter, who lives amid the lions and leopards in the Gir forest. But the Election Commission of India ensures that every eligible citizen gets to participate in the country's five-yearly democratic rite.
Opposition parties on Tuesday asked the government to call an all-party meeting to resolve the current impasse in Parliament, while sticking to their demands for a discussion on Pegasus snooping issue and a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the matter.
Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, who was supposed to lead a 'silent' morcha of his party workers at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai, the venue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public meeting, on Saturday claimed that he has been placed under "house arrest" by police.
The government has "suffocated" the institutions where argument, debate and dissent were nurtured, the letter stated.
Eight eminent personalities have appealed to people to "introspect and audit" the working of the Constitution.
Voicing his support for the farmers' protest in India, the Speaker of Wisconsin State Assembly has urged the Indian government to reconsider its decision on the three farm laws and listen to the concerns of the affected farmers.
Inviting EU lawmakers to J-K is the 'ultimate disrespect' to Indian Parliament's sovereignty, Sharma added.
The Gujarat high court on Thursday put a stay on the operation of some sections related to interfaith marriages of the state's new anti-conversion law.
Out of the 280 constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, 43 are going to polls in the second phase with 25 in Kashmir and 18 in Jammu division.
Making the electoral process inclusive and giving voting rights to the maximum number of citizens is worthy cause to make our democracy better, says Col Anil Athale.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Bharatiya Janata Party ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Singh Patel, as also former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa and poll strategist Prashant Kishor were among those whose phone numbers were listed as potential targets for hacking through an Israeli spyware sold only to the government agencies, an international media consortium reported on Monday.
We asked you to tell us your reason for choosing not to vote. This is what our readers shared.
Within 24 hours of the announcement of poll dates, traction on poll-based apps has risen drastically, report Karan Choudhury and Neha Alawadhi.
Braving cold weather, hundreds of people gathered outside the iconic Jama Masjid in Old Delhi on Friday to protest against the amended citizenship law.
Cong leader Anand Sharma said the PM should provide a 'healing touch' and should call a meeting of all CMs at the NIC to discuss this matter.
The state-owned tabloid accused Silver of caving in to political pressure, saying the NBA was treating the Chinese market with arrogant disregard.
The Governor invited the 'attention' of Chief Minister Banerjee to the preamble of the Indian Constitution.
The Centre for Media Studies after releasing a report on 2019 polls expenditure, also claimed the recently-concluded election has signalled that the more the expenditure, the "more vicious and ugly" the campaigns become.
'There is little appetite in the Democratic foreign policy establishment to pick a fight with India.'
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh resigned on Monday after the Bombay high court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the allegations of extortion against him by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
The plea said there should be a total ban on such populist measures to gain undue political favour from voters as they violate the Constitution and the ECI should take suitable deterrent measures.
Henry Kissinger once said, 'It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal.' India will have to wait and see, observes Rajeev Srinivasan.
India has the lowest labour force participation rate in South Asia and one of the lowest in the world, points out Aakar Patel.
'The prime minister has taken pre-emptive action by not appointing a Chief Information Commissioner at all to render it dysfunctional.'
'The bureaucracy is also hardening its stand and in most cases has realised that the commissioners are not really committed to transparency,' says former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.
'What needs to be watched is that the border incidents at Dokalam in 2017 and Galwan in 2020 are triggering nascent Chinese nationalism against India,' asserts Srikanth Kondapalli, the leading China expert.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that violence will not be tolerated.
'I think the President will note that the world is looking to India to continue to uphold its democratic traditions, respect for religious minorities,' the official said.
'After taking the decision on Kashmir, nearly 20 days have passed and even now, the people there are not allowed to react or respond to it'
'In a democracy, there is nothing like 'I am right'.' 'You can be wrong, so somebody has to point that out.'
'Denying access to the country to writers of both foreign and Indian origin casts a chill on public discourse; it flies in the face of India's traditions of free and open debate and respect for a diversity of views, and weakens its credentials as a strong and thriving democracy'
'Shaheen Bagh is no longer a mere ghetto of lower middle class Muslims.' 'Now, it is a metaphor for resistance, secularism and struggle,' notes Md. Zeeshan Ahmad.
'The honourable prime minister virtually handpicked me for the Amritsar East seat.' 'Amit Shahji announced that if I am elected, the whole of Punjab will be drugs free.'
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday urged top opposition leaders to rise above political compulsions to take on the BJP in the interest of the nation and start planning "systematically" to realise the "ultimate goal" of winning the 2024 Lok Sabha polls
"For any reason, if one is not able to vote, it should pain one," he said.
Naga splinter groups impatient with stalled talks as well as rebel Manipuri groups who have a stake in disrupting upcoming elections to the state assembly, are believed to be regrouping in the borderlands of China's Yunnan province and Myanmar, taking advantage of the turmoil in the latter by using it as a transit corridor.
The President talked about demonetisation, electoral reforms and disruptions in Parliament.
'Umar is being targeted because he is emerging as educated, knowledgeable leader of the Muslim community and, unlike popular perceptions that many harbour about Muslims, took to peaceful means to protest against the NRC and CAA.' 'They (the State) are scared of educated Muslim leadership.'
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