Democratic Institutions
Perils of Outsourcing Political Work to Election Strategy Firms Shubham Sharma 08 May 2022 https://www.newsclick.in/perils-outsourcing-political-work-election-strategy-firms
The elephant in the boardroom where election strategy firms meet with the top leaders of political outfits is the corporate funding of political parties.
The mode of operation of PK and I-PAC primarily entails working with big data, collating facts from the ground, measuring the popularity of the party or leader it has signed up and streamlining its campaign as and where it seems to nosedive. A modus operandi that I witnessed during the Bengal elections last year was the swift movement of PK’s men in constituencies and passing suggestions about the candidate to the high command directly, bypassing the local leadership, not to speak of people.
organisations like I-PAC and individuals in PK’s mould have the capacity to rig Indian representative democracy in favour of parties with big money. Their fee is bound to be astronomical, an estimate of which can be found from the annual turnover of I-PAC. It stood at Rs. 1,032,170,361 (roughly Rs. 100 crores) in 2021, and the salaries of the three directors totalled Rs. 2.67 crores.
Since most political parties raise most of their money from corporate donations, we can see an umbilical link between the corporate pluriverse and politics. It is not that such links did not exist before the rise of electoral strategising firms. The latter’s rise increased the magnitude of the involvement of moneybags in elections.
corporate style strategising also brings the capitalist neo-liberal project to fruition. For the common person, who has already been atomised and alienated under neo-liberalism, elections are generally an opportunity to make maximum demands on the political parties jostling for their votes. The prospect seems lost because of pithy bylines and (un)witty bromides that election strategists coin. Politics seems to revolve around the banalities of Chai pe Charcha and Nitish Ka Nischay, which are flashed 24x7 on television screens, the internet, hoardings, and placards, closing the door for genuine demands and slogans raised by the masses.
post-ideological political minimalism becomes the order of the day. Since electoral strategising by firms revolves around crude money, the ideological foundations of the polity take a back seat. Services are available for a communal BJP and those contesting it politically. Class-oriented demands such as raising the floor wage and ensuring a minimum Rs. 25,000 wage—a long-time demand of the Left and allied trade unions—are never suggested as possible programmes of action by the political outfits.
Justice Gowri’s elevation to the bench in February, 2023 made headlines due to her alleged right-wing leanings, with a petition seeking her disqualification on these grounds and the matter being raised in the Rajya Sabha. https://thewire.in/law/accused-of-hate-speech-bjp-links-justice-gowri-appointed-as-permanent-judge-at-madras-hc
Controversy surrounding Justice Gowri
A petition filed against Justice Gowri’s elevation to the high court in February last year, when she was an advocate, had claimed that she had made hate speeches against Muslims and Christians. The petition, which sought quashing of her elevation, also said that Gowri had been the former general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Mahila Morcha.
11/09/2024
The book, ‘Supreme Court and the Indian Economy’, examines the impact of six Supreme Court judgements on economic policy, privatisation, and environmental regulations. https://theprint.in/feature/sc-must-consider-the-economic-impact-of-its-rulings-a-good-law-may-have-a-bad-effect/2229575/
'Supreme Court and the Indian Economy' by Pradeep S Mehta of Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) International.
The book argues that the Supreme Court’s decisions must consider socio–economic realities and apply structured economic analysis to all its judgments.
The book dissects six landmark judgments, including the 2016 ban on liquor sales along state and national highways, the 2014 cancellation of coal block allocations since 1993, and the 2012 2G spectrum case. Of the six judgments, only one — Shivashakti Sugars Limited v Shree Renuka Sugar Limited in 2017 — cited the importance of integrating law and economics.
by Vandana Menon
22/08/2024
“Judges shouldn’t consider themselves as gods,” senior advocate of the Allahabad high court Anil Tiwari told The Wire on Thursday (July 11). https://thewire.in/law/allahabad-high-court-bar-association-up-in-arms-against-god-syndrome-of-judges
This was the second day that the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) of Allahabad abstained from judicial work accusing judges of misconduct towards lawyers and failure of the court administration to address their grievances.
Tiwari, the president of the HCBA, Allahabad said their protest was against the “Bhagwan syndrome” (god syndrome) that plagued many judges. He underlined that certain judges in the high court misbehaved with lawyers and even insulting them during hearings. “They should realise they are humans and public servants,” Tiwari said, accusing judges of using threatening and demeaning language in court towards advocates.
by Omar Rashid
11/07/2024
Amid the din and bustle of the Lok Sabha elections, we have overlooked a few crucial judicial interventions aimed at curbing the misuse of powers by investigating agencies against political opponents of the ruling party.
Just before the general election was set in motion, the Supreme Court forced the State Bank of India (SBI) to reveal details of the electoral bonds, including the names of donors and beneficiaries and the donation amounts.
The second judicial intervention came in the midst of the elections when the Supreme Court released Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal from jail on bail, overruling the ED’s objections.
The court ruled that the ED has no powers to arrest an accused after a special court has taken cognizance of the complaint.
by P. Raman
17/06/2024
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