Page 4 - Indian Democracy

LS polls 2024: Democracy thrives when people are engaged says PM Modi

Union Home Minister also appealed to the voters to come out and vote against appeasement and corruption

Your one vote will protect democracy, Constitution: Priyanka to voters

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday urged people to cast their ballot in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha polls, stressing that their vote will free the country from inflation, unemployment and economic crisis. Voting is being held in 49 constituencies in six states and two union territories in the fifth phase, which will decide the electoral fate of several prominent leaders like former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah. In a post in Hindi on X, Priyanka Gandhi said, "With your one vote, Rs 1 lakh will come into the account of a woman from every poor family annually, every citizen will get the facility of free treatment worth Rs 25 lakh, the youth will get 30 lakh government jobs, the youth will get apprenticeship worth (Rs) 1 lakh annually, and SC/ST/OBC will get proper participation." "Your one vote will protect democracy and the Constitution of the country," the ..

India among the few vibrant democracies across world, says White House

Applauding the people of India for exercising their right to vote, the White House on Friday said there are not too many more vibrant democracies in the world than India. Not too many more vibrant democracies in the world than India. And we applaud the Indian people for exercising, you know, their ability to vote, and to have a voice in their future government. And we wish them well throughout the process, of course, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters at a news conference here. Kirby was responding to a question on the ongoing Indian elections, wherein over 969 million people are exercising their right to franchise at one million polling stations to elect 545 members of parliament from thousands of candidates representing as many as 2,660 registered political parties. Responding to another question, Kirby said the India-US relationship has strengthened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular during the last three years of the Bide

Megalomania plus cult is dangerous

We box our leaders into a moral binary - all greatness or all sin. The reality is that it is a mix, and what you see is what you get

LS polls: PM Modi calls for 'democracy duty' as voting begins in Phase 4

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday morning expressed hope that people will vote in large numbers to strengthen democracy while Union Home Minister Amit Shah urged voters including those in Jammu and Kashmir to reach polling booths in record numbers as polling began for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.Taking to X, PM Modi said, "In today's 4th Phase of the Lok Sabha elections, 96 seats across 10 States and UTs are going to the polls. I am sure people in these constituencies will vote in large numbers and the young voters as well as women voters will power this surge in voting. Come, let's all do our duty and strengthen our democracy!"Union Home Minister Amit Shah urged voters including those in Jammu and Kashmir to reach polling booths in record numbers."In the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, I appeal to the voters of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir to reach polling booths in record numbers to form a government whose ...

Can a 1970s idea save democracy today?

Chandler deserves credit for refusing to relegate his book to the airy realm of wistful abstraction

US Ambassador Eric Garcetti dismisses concerns about democracy in India

The Biden administration's top diplomat in New Delhi on Thursday dismissed concerns being raised in certain quarters about democracy in India and observed that in many ways Indians are better that the Americans. At an event organised here by the Council on Foreign Relations, a top American think-tank, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti told the audience he was confident that "10 years from now India is going to be a vibrant democracy as it is today in terms of free and fair elections". "Again there's things that probably are worse and there's things that are better. They have a law, you can't go more than two kilometers to vote. So there'll be one guy who lives in the mountains as a monk (at) someplace. They will walk for two days to bring the voting machine, execute the vote," he said, responding to a question expressing concerns over the status of democracy in India. He said that during elections times in India, there are people who check trucks to make sure that nobody has cash

AI's capacity to damage democracy, elections may be hard to detect

Meta's WhatsApp makes it possible to scale communication thanks to its 'Channels' feature, which can broadcast to thousands

Those who talk about 'jihad' are tarnishing democracy: UP CM Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that those who talk about 'jihad' are tarnishing democracy and they should remember that India is the land of Lord Ram and Lord Krishna. Adityanath was addressing a public meeting in Farrukhabad in support of sitting BJP MP Mukesh Rajput, who is seeking re-election from the Lok Sabha constituency. His remarks came days after Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Maria Alam, the niece of senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, called for "vote jihad" in favour of Naval Kishore Shakya, the INDIA bloc candidate from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha seat of Uttar Pradesh. According to a statement issued by the BJP, Adityanath said the people of the SP and the Congress are trying to create divisions on religious lines. "This is a conspiracy to Islamise India. Under this, they talk about vote jihad. There is no jihad in voting, we have to vote for the strongest democracy in the world so that our rights are protected," he said. Addressing a public

Why India's voter turnout is low and improving it will be complicated

Its numbers trail those of several developing countries like Indonesia and Brazil

Reports from MAGA frontlines

The MAGA Movement's Ground War to End Democracy, a new book by Isaac Arnsdorf, a journalist at The Washington Post

How 'BK-16' puts democracy on trial

The Incarcerations is the biography of 16 disparate prisoners of conscience - poets, professors, lawyers and journalists

EAM Jaishankar slams Western media, says 'games being played with us'

"Now I read that article and I wanted to say listen, in that heat my lowest turnout is higher than your highest turnout in the best run," Jaishankar said

Lok Sabha polls: Can India hold elections when it is too hot to vote?

The world's largest democracy is only going to struggle more with this as the planet warms. It will have to overhaul its hulking electoral machinery to keep up.

India, US regularly consult on democracy, human rights issues: Official

India and the United States regularly consult at the highest levels on democracy and human rights issues, a senior US State Department official said on Monday, after an official report claimed that there were significant human rights abuses in Manipur last year. "The US and India regularly consult at the highest levels on democracy and human rights issues," Robert S Gilchrist, senior official from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, told reporters after the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices was release by Secretary of State Tony Blinken. "We strongly encourage, urge India to uphold its human rights obligations and commitments. We also regularly meet with civil society representatives both in the US and India to hear their perspectives, and those sorts of perspectives inform the human rights report, and we encourage the government of India to consult and meet regularly with civil society organisations representing a diversity of people," Gilchrist ...

Country believes new journey into future will begin from polls: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that India is now projecting with self-confidence the mantras of truth and non-violence globally as a solution to the problems facing the world and its cultural image is playing a big role in it as well. Addressing the 2,550th Bhagwan Mahaveer Nirvan Mahotsav here, Modi said his government put emphasis on promoting heritage as well as material development when it came to power in 2014 at a time when the country was engulfed in despair, a swipe at the previous UPA dispensation. Referring to the Lok Sabha polls, he said a big festival of democracy is happening "and, the country believes from here a new journey into future will also begin". He cited his government's promotion of Indian heritage like yoga and Ayurveda, asserting that the country's new generation now believes that self-pride is its identity. The country is now projecting the mantras of truth and non-violence globally as a solution to problems facing the world with ...

Fight to protect our Constitution, democracy begins today, says Kharge

As the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls began on Friday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge urged voters to cast their ballots carefully and asserted that a new era of economic empowerment and equal opportunities beckons them. "The fight to protect our Constitution and Democracy begins today," he said in a post on 'X'. "My dear citizens, from 21 States and UTs who are voting in the First Phase of the Lok Sabha elections, I request you to carefully cast your vote. A future where NYAY (justice) awaits you. A new era of Economic Empowerment and Equal Opportunities beckons you," the Congress chief said. "I am sure you will vote for the 'jobs revolution' through YUVA NYAY, rather than a continuation of the past 10 years of record unemployment," Kharge said. He exuded confidence that people would vote for the guarantees of 'NAARI NYAY' which takes concrete measures for the financial independence of women and against the continuation of the backbreaking price rise that has reduced th

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Tracking voter pulse, one station at a time

Each train carriage became a microcosm of democracy, echoing with the voices of passengers from all walks of life - and trains of thought

Trust in elections

Faith in EVMs should be restored and maintained

There is another way

Strong, decisive rule is not the only way to effectiveness. Our experience since 1991 shows diffused economic and political power can deliver the goods even better