The president and the governors should transcend politics. The president must be allowed to prepare his own address to Parliament, rather than behave as a spokesperson for the prime minister. Governors must act as independent links between the Union and states rather than as partisan appointees.
Posts tagged as “governance reform”
Questions from MPs are now widely brushed aside by the government. Meanwhile, in recent years, more Bills have been passed without debate, fewer Bills have been referred to parliamentary committees and an increased number of ordinances have been passed in order to sidestep Parliament altogether.
The burden of upholding democracy rests on three pillars: government, institutions and civil society. In India, while the former two have received attention from researchers and the media, the third pillar is scantily discussed. In recent years, civil society organisations have increasingly come under attack.
The current wave of authoritarianism across the world contains a strong message: One cannot rely on good faith politics alone. Codification of conventions and strengthening the voice of the Opposition is of utmost importance for democracies. India desperately needs to reform its Parliament to make it better.
In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, Mohamed Zeeshan spoke to Syed Akbaruddin, former Indian ambassador to the UN, about Afghanistan, the role of the United Nations in solving global crises, India's aspirations for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, and much more.
Centralisation might seem at first glance to improve efficiency. But that isn’t always the case. Centralisation of power by the Union government has undermined the fiscal and policy autonomy of states, and altogether weakened governance in India. The Opposition must fight to reverse the trend.
In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, Anusha Madhusudhan spoke to Michael Sheldrick, co-founder of Global Citizen. Sheldrick spoke about his experience with anti-poverty campaigns in India, making governments accountable, and how technology has revolutionised policymaking.
While medical equipment may be obtained, skilled personnel are required to operate them. However, there is no credible resource that provides segmented data on personnel and infrastructure. In the absence of such data, tackling emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic becomes impossible.
India ranks 148th out of 193 countries in terms of representation of women in politics. Suppressed by deeply entrenched patriarchy, women make up only 9 percent of all ministers in India. But studies have shown that increasing their participation in politics leads to better governance, and quotas will help.
Breakdown in communication and trust between the government and citizens resulted in heavy hardship as citizens lost access to basic services. There are lessons to be learnt from Punjab, Kerala and Odisha. We need to build enabling infrastructure that helps communities to act freely to meet their own needs.