Democracies do not just thrive by ensuring elections at regular intervals. It is about the institutional processes that ensure equal right to participate in an electoral contestation. It is equally important how choices are being influenced by power and money and the negotiation between voters and their representatives. If the model is to use cash for votes and then elected representatives also shamelessly betray a political party for cash — it is essentially a process that undermines the essence of democracy.

Selfless service, unwavering commitment to the people, and steadfast dedication to the cause of social justice.

THE 4th conference of the Telangana Agricultural Workers Union (TAWU) was held with great enthusiasm in Mahabubnagar from January 20 to 22. Although Mahabubnagar is not among the stronger districts of the organisation, a massive rally and public meeting, attended by thousands of agricultural workers, rural poor and women, reflected the growing fighting spirit of the rural masses. 

DESPITE the best efforts of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh (UP), a major scandal has exploded on the face of the Hindutva brigade. The biggest political project of the Sangh, which was like a blank cheque for encashment of electoral dividends by the BJP for the last two and a half decades, has ultimately turned out to be their biggest embarrassment.

A ninety-four-year-old man in Chandigarh asks his driver to take him to Sargodha, near Lahore. The driver is stumped. He tries to explain to the old man that this is not possible. They can’t just casually drive into another country. The old man will have none of it. He is old and frail, but no less a tyrant for that. At the border, the BSF officer is amused, but equally at a loss. He has no idea how to bring a senile, delusional man stuck in the past back into the present.