000-tobecategorised

 What Makes A Democracy Turn Into A Dictatorship? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVJ3_ilohJQ
Mallen Baker  Mar 30, 2025 In their book 'How Democracies Die', Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt identify the four tells for a despot-in-waiting, the democratic guardrails that all dictators-in-progress seek to dismantle, and how they go about it - and the two other essential ingredients that protect a system that people often underestimate, or even miss entirely. And it won't astonish you to learn that all of this is really rather relevant to Donald Trump's America (and a number of other places besides)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democracies_Die The book warns against the breakdown of "mutual toleration" and respect for the political legitimacy of the opposition. This tolerance involves accepting the results of a free and fair election where the opposition has won, in contrast with advocacy for overthrow or spurious complaints about the election mechanism. The authors also assert the importance of respecting the opinions of those who come to legitimately different political opinions, in contrast to attacking the patriotism of any who disagree, or warning that if they come to power they will destroy the country. 

The authors warn against ramming through a political agenda or accumulating power by playing "constitutional hardball" with tactics like court packing, stonewalling nominations, or abusing the power of the purse, and recommend "forbearance" and some degree of cooperation to keep government functioning in a balanced fashion.

Other threats to democratic stability cited by the authors include economic inequality and segregation of the political parties by race, religion, and geography. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj-olR6OCoE  Media vs journalists

 Digital Personal Data Protection Act के बहाने सरकार का RTI पर एक और हमला  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TtT9_Y6uUY | Report
newslaundry Mar 27, 2025  

On the one hand, while the central government is preparing to implement the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, on the other hand, it is being widely opposed by social organizations. The organizations allege that the Government of India recently made some amendments in the Right to Information Act i.e. RTI on the basis of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. Due to which the Right to Information Act can be weakened considerably.

In this connection, on March 25, about 34 organizations including the National Public Information Rights Campaign held a high-level meeting including MPs of opposition parties at the Constitution Club in Delhi. The MPs were apprised of what dangers can be caused by this new amendment and it should be opposed in Parliament.

Apart from social organizations, MPs of Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) attended the meeting.

Apart from this, representatives of all these organizations also met the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. ITI activist Anjali Bhardwaj, who was leading the meeting, said, "The government is using DPDP as a weapon to control information and common citizens, journalists and social organizations will all come under its purview."

How is the government weakening RTI through this law? What impact will the implementation of this law have on the Right to Information? And what did the opposition MPs who came to the meeting say about this law?

 Trump Tariffs | "We'll Be Ruined In 3-6 Months If...": P Chidambaram's Warning On US Tariffs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U0eylZ8dvQ Mar 27, 2025 
Congress leader P Chidambaram asked the government to spell out India's response to US President Donald Trump's threat of tariff war, alleging that no discussion in parliament or consultation with Opposition parties has been held over the matter.

'We are completely in dark': Chidambaram asks Centre to spell out response to Trump's tariff war https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/we-are-completely-in-dark-chidambaram-asks-centre-to-spell-out-response-to-trump-s-tariff-war-12978431.html#google_vignette India must stand with saner voices in the world such as Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Japan and collectively do everything to prevent a tariff and trade war, 

He warned that if Trump starts picking out individual countries and applying different tariffs, the affected nations could be left to fend on their own.