Tag Archives: ethics

Let’s celebrate AAP’s criminal MLAs!

AAP's recent electoral victory in Delhi was seen as a win for democracy. The Ballot beat the Bullet. Secularism beat Fascism. Development beat Divisiveness etc. etc. But AAP's electoral victory was also validation for another critical component of our democracy - backing of winnable candidates by political parties(often those with pending criminal cases), at any cost.  Arvind Kejriwal is the Delhi Chief Minister and National Convener/ Master and Read more [...]

Hindutva India Tours, Leisure & Entertainment Retreats (H.I.T.L.E.R)

Aren't we lucky to be witnessing the era of Acche Din? In 2020, you can extend the joy of being a Bhakt to every aspect of your life. This year, forego your normal, boring vacation and opt for a special package from Hindutva India Tours, Leisure & Entertainment Retreats (H.I.T.L.E.R). Our exclusive, customized tours are designed to provide you with first-hand experience of some of the greatest hits of our beloved nationalistic government. Relive Read more [...]

Kejriwal’s Debacle – we were warned at the very start

Kejriwal’s media-fed frenzied ‘movement’ inspired many to join the AAP. But even in the party’s early days, some key personnel chose to break-up with the party within months. And as they left, everyone said the same thing - there is no democracy in Kejriwal's party and little difference in the way AAP functions when compared to other (so called 'corrupt') parties. Hasya Kavi Kumar Vishwas is not a happy man these days. Though his smile Read more [...]

These Indians are still “celebrating” Demonetisation

All stories showcased below are thanks to People's Archive of Rural India (PARI). You can visit this page to read PARI's coverage of demonetisation to learn how India's most marginalized have been affected by it over the past year.  On Nov 8th 2016, the government decided to casually demonetise 86% of the country's banknotes in circulation. In terms of an operating strategy, the government very prudently decided to have none. They allowed Read more [...]

The Jay Amit Shah Story (told the correct way)

The Wire has dared to malign Jay Amit Shah by questioning the business practices of this financial prodigy. In reality, Jay Amit Shah is a genius who needs to be recognized & celebrated. Thankfully, The Wire is being sued for Rs. 100 crore for defaming an honest, hard-working businessman. Why can’t more Indians be like Jay Amit Shah? Instead of complaining about the economy and government policies, this chai wala’s right hand man’s Read more [...]

Assaulted, Abducted or Raped a Woman? Please be my MLA.

India has always been a world leader at electing those with pending criminal cases. Our political parties have forever provided us with a steady pipeline of criminally tainted candidates . And as electors, we always deliver by continuing to elect legislators who are accused of every crime under the sun from petty thefts to kidnappings and murders. We currently have the most criminalized Lok Sabha in history. #AccheDin. All data is courtesy Association Read more [...]

Quiz: How well do you know the ‘other’ India?

India is poised to be an economic super-power (at least that's what we've been told) and is expected to become the third largest economy by 2030. For decades, we have been obsessed with GDP and economic growth. What we don't seem to track and measure as diligently, is basic human development. How does India perform at indicators that look at stuff like access to healthcare, education, nutrition etc? Most of us in urban bubbles couldn't care less Read more [...]

A crash course in India’s Farmer Crisis

Jan 2021: India's farming crisis has been on for decades and what we are seeing right now is just the tipping point of systemic issues that have existed forever. It is completely reasonable to hold the government of the day accountable irrespective of which political party is in power. Here's a post from 2017 explaining the various components of this crisis. India's leading rural journalist (and unfortunately one of our only ones), P. Sainath, recently Read more [...]

The ‘Criminal’ Quota in Indian Politics

Issues related to the criminalization of Indian politics are well known. Political parties are obsessed with winning elections, and have always provided tickets to candidates who are most likely to win - irrespective of a candidate's ability to be a competent legislator.  All data is courtesy Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). To better understand the magnitude of this problem, we looked at what our nationally recognized political parties Read more [...]

Lok Sabha Honours List 2017 – Our most useless MPs

We know that our MPs hate attending parliament and being productive - but some are worse than others. There is an official record maintained of the activity of all MPs in parliament including attendance, questions raised and debates participated in. It's been three years since we elected our Lok Sabha. We look at some of our most illustrious parliamentarians who are least bothered to show up or participate in the Lok Sabha. PRS Legislative Research, Read more [...]

Why are we passing bills to make corruption easier for political parties?

Lack of financial transparency in the political system has always been one of our key challenges as a democracy. Recently, the government passed a bill in the Lok Sabha that will potentially lead to an increase in anonymous corporate donations to political parties as well as remove previous limits on how much corporations can donate to political parties. Here's a look at some of the key factors in play. Status Quo Currently, political parties Read more [...]

Arvind Kejriwal: An Insignificant Man

For a two-year period, cameras followed Arvind Kejriwal and his team to create An Insignificant Man, a documentary that chronicles the rise of Aam Aadmi Party to its present day leadership in Delhi. The documentary premiered on September 11th, 2016 to a packed house at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival. The film-makers have done a commendable job in documenting the personalities of some of AAP's key founders, specifically Arvind Kejriwal, Read more [...]

Lok Sabha Electoral Malpractice Awards for States 2014

The recent Lok Sabha elections were historic in many ways from record voter turnouts to landslide victories. Equally enthralling was the battle to see which states come out on top in terms of committing most electoral malpractice. As per the Compendium of Instructions on Election Expenditure Monitoring published by the Election Commission in January 2014, we have created six award categories: 1)      खुले आम रिश्वत Read more [...]

Gunda-Raj continues with Lok Sabha 2014 – Well done India!

Over the last month, we shattered voting records. An all time high of 66.4% of the national electorate voted. And the result is that we have resoundingly selected the most criminal parliament ever. For the last three years, we've been out on the streets protesting on empty stomachs and our fingers have gone numb sharing and liking status updates. But at the end of the day, it's been all worth it. We have proudly selected 186 parliamentarians (36% Read more [...]

Why should we accept ‘criminal’ Kejriwal?

Over the last two years, Arvind Kejriwal has been on a crusade to bring about societal reforms. Throughout this period, Kejriwal has consistently expressed his disdain towards parliamentarians who have pending criminal cases against them. On many occasions in the recent past, Kejriwal and his coterie  often harped on the presence of criminals in parliament in order to demonstrate the magnitude of political rot being faced by the country. For instance, Read more [...]

3 Government Projects to be proud of

Most media stories about politics and governance in the country these days come with predictions of doom and gloom. However, across the country, there are many politicians and bureaucrats who are diligently working towards improvement of public services. This year, three Indian projects received U.N. Public Service Awards. These awards recognize projects that fight poverty and promote sustainable development. Evaluation criteria for the awards include Read more [...]

India’s Politicians Unite Against Transparency!

This month saw the passing of a judgement by India's Central Information Commission (CIC), that classifies nationally recognized political parties as 'public authorities'. What does this mean? This means is that common citizens can now file RTI applications to political parties to obtain information. For instance, a citizen could inquire about internal elections in a  party or about financial sources/expenditures of a party. The judgement is Read more [...]

Why do we elect rape-accused to parliament?

Jaya Bachchan, a Rajya Sabha MP from the Samajwadi Party had an emotional breakdown earlier this week as she was shaken and shattered by the gruesome Delhi rape incident. Her teary-eyed speech in the Rajya Sabha and passionate statements thereafter got extensive media coverage. However, Bachchan’s Samajwadi Party currently leads the country in having MLAs who are accused of rape. Perhaps Mrs. Bachchan could start by reforming her own party by Read more [...]

Baap Beta Pvt. Ltd. – India’s Political Dynasties

India’s democracy can at times be looked at as a ‘family business’. For decades, tickets have been  distributed by political parties to the children of party stalwarts & Chief Ministerial berths have been randomly shared between spouses. Here is a closer look at this problem. Most of this data is courtesy the research of writer & historian, Patrick French. Lok Sabha Dynasty 156 out of 545* Lok Sabha members come from political Read more [...]

Saare Jaha se accha, Gandhistan humara

  Watching the ‘’DLF’’ IPL has exposed us to ‘’Citi” moments of success and “Maxx” timeouts. However such style of branding has been on in the country for many decades. The Nehru-Gandhi name has been prefixed before countless government schemes and projects. Here we look at a supremely effective method of political branding by the Indian National Congress. A method which has succeeded in using the face of the country as an Read more [...]

Chor Machaye Shor – A toast to Democracy

  We are currently in the midst of a spate of assembly elections. Wah Sarkar looks at a true incident which occurred a few years ago in Tamil Nadu. This is an amazing story which highlights the grit and will power of India's common man. Article may take a few seconds to load....... * Name of place changed   Read more [...]