The Great Indian Tamasha

The PM’s extempore speech from the hallowed ramparts of the Red Fort was eloquent and emotional and drew just praise. Many were elated at the prospect of an end to the planning era which was reminiscent of Nehruvian times when the nation had to allocate scares resources among teeming millions. While on a personal level, I do support this particular attempt at reimagining the Planning Commission, what perturbs me is the string of events in which the current announcement is another pearl, signifying the end of institutions in India. It all started with the spate of resignations from UPA appointed governors as soon as the new NDA government came to power. Some agreed, some forced and some resisted. The nation saw the fate of one of the governors who resisted i.e. Kamla Beniwal who was unceremoniously shunted out of office with barely 4 months left for her tenure, based on an imaginary loss of 1000+ crores due to delay in her signing off legislations which were dear to the curren...

Communal tension and violence persist in western UP as the BJP seeks to advance its reactionary agenda (sourced and edited from EPW) The victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh (UP) was facilitated by a number of factors, but these varied region wise in the state. In western UP, the reasons were crystal clear – the BJP had not just won emphatically in Muzaffarnagar and other surrounding districts of the area, but had also managed to polarise votes on a communal basis to a significant extent. A close look at the voting records at the polling booth level in the Muzaffarnagar constituency alone (provided in the Form 20A data released by the Election Commission) reveals that there is a significantly high proportion – close to 30% of the overall number of booths – which polled more than 90% for a single party (in most cases, the BJP). This is evident in comparison with the 2009 Lok Sabha elections where such polling booths were ...