POPULARITY
19 episodes with aiadmk
4 episodes with aiadmk
3 episodes with aiadmk
7 episodes with aiadmk
4 episodes with aiadmk
4 episodes with aiadmk
2 episodes with aiadmk
4 episodes with aiadmk
2 episodes with aiadmk
BJP still seems to view AIADMK as a potential Shiv Sena in the making—a party it could fracture at some stage and then acquire a large part of its vote base.
पाकिस्तान ने फिर किया संघर्ष विराम का उल्लंघन, जम्मू-कश्मीर में हुई मुठभेड़ में 1 जवान शहीद, बारिश के चलते पीएम मोदी का विमान हुआ लेट, बीजेपी और AIADMK के बीच गठबंधन, गृह मंत्री अमित शाह ने दी हनुमान जयंती की बधाई, इंदिरा गांधी इंटरनेशनल एयरपोर्ट पर टर्मिनल-2 की उड़ानें टर्मिनल-1 से होंगी संचालित, देश के 22 राज्यों में आंधी-तूफान और बारिश का अलर्ट, ऑस्ट्रेलिया में भारतीय वाणिज्य दूतावास में की गई तोड़फोड़, अमेरिका के दूत मिले व्लादिमीर पुतिन से, अमेरिका ने ख़त्म किया टेंपररी प्रोटेक्टेड स्टेटस और आईपीएल में आज होगा डबल हेडर. सिर्फ़ 5 मिनट में सुनिए सुबह 10 बजे तक की बड़ी खबरें.
#cuttheclutter As BJP & AIADMK, once again, tie up ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu assembly elections & Annamalai is replaced by Nainar Nagendran as BJP TN chief to accommodate EPS, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta and Political Editor DK Singh discuss TN's major political players, natural alliances, smaller players and how things have panned out for them electorally, in Episode 1639 of #CutTheClutter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To read Writings on the Wall: https://theprint.in/sg-national-interest/return-of-the-angels/9740/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apply here for ThePrint School of Journalism : https://tinyurl.com/48hdbx9d --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Produced By: Mahira Khan
AIADMK -BJP Alliance Done | Annamalai to Join Union Cabinet? | Modi's Masterstroke | Sanjay Dixit
Why EPS had a change of heart & greenlit AIADMK-BJP alliance talks ahead of Tamil Nadu polls
दिल्ली सरकार की तरफ से महिलाओं को हर महीने मिलेगी 2500 रूपए की आर्थिक सहायता, बिहार विधानसभा में आया नीतीश कुमार को गुस्सा, उमर अब्दुल्ला ने पेश किया छह साल बाद जम्मू-कश्मीर का पहला बजट, ओडिशा विधानसभा में विपक्षी पार्टियों ने किया जमकर हंगामा, AIADMK ने अपने पूर्व विधायक एस विजय कुमार को पार्टी से निकाला, सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने टाली यासीन मलिक केस के मामले से जुड़ी सुनवाई,पेरिस के गेरे डू नॉर्ड रेलवे स्टेशन पर मिला वर्ल्ड वॉर 2 का बम और सीरिया के लताकिया प्रांत से हुई भीषण लड़ाई. सिर्फ़ 5 मिनट में सुनिए शाम 4 बजे तक की बड़ी ख़बरें
Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai has avoided targeting AIADMK & focused on DMK, Udhayanidhi Stalin since his return from UK. However, both parties maintain that they are not in an alliance.
This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 26th of December and here are the headlines.A roadside biryani vendor, Gnanasekaran, was arrested in Chennai for allegedly sexually assaulting a student at Anna University's campus on Monday night. The arrest led to a political uproar, with BJP and AIADMK accusing Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK of ties to the accused. However, the DMK denies any association. The attack reportedly occurred around 8 pm when the student was in a secluded area of the 180-acre campus, chatting with a friend. Authorities are investigating the case while the political parties continue their accusations.At a Patna event commemorating the life of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a protest erupted when folk singer Devi performed the line "Ishwar Allah tero naam" from the bhajan "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram." Protesters interrupted the performance, claiming it was inappropriate. BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain condemned the disruption, calling it "the height of intolerance." The song, which has been closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi, was being sung as part of a tribute to Vajpayee, leading to tensions during the event.Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal expressed frustration with Congress over complaints filed against AAP leading up to Delhi's 2025 elections. Kejriwal criticized Congress for alleging AAP was anti-national despite seeking its help during campaigning. Delhi CM Atishi questioned why Congress formed an alliance with AAP if they had such doubts. She accused Congress leaders in Delhi of aiding BJP in the upcoming polls and possibly making secret pacts to harm AAP's electoral prospects.Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy met with major figures from the Telugu film industry on Thursday, rejecting their demand for increased movie ticket prices. Reddy stressed the importance of respecting the law and not offering any more concessions for film screenings. He also urged industry leaders to support government campaigns against drugs, promote women's safety, and help with ecotourism and temple tourism initiatives. The meeting followed concerns over a stampede during the premiere of "Pushpa 2," which tragically killed a woman.In Gaza, five Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, according to local authorities. However, the Israeli military stated that the airstrike targeted a vehicle carrying Islamic Jihad militants. The journalists were reportedly in a broadcast vehicle outside Al-Awda Hospital in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp when the attack occurred. The Palestinian Journalists Union confirmed their deaths, which were part of a series of airstrikes that also killed at least 16 others. This violence comes as ceasefire talks remain stalled after months of fighting.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.
Handpicked by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin as CM secretary I, T Udhayachandran, after friction with several ministers, was transferred to the finance department in May 2023.
Even in 2021, DMK could not capture western region when it won 133 seats overall in state. Support for AIADMK in southern region had been recorded first in 1979.----more----https://theprint.in/politics/how-dmk-is-trying-to-reclaim-lost-forts-in-tamil-nadus-west-south-with-stalin-taking-lead/2355899/
BJP has put a six-member panel led by H Raja, who comes from a background vastly different from Annamalai's. He is waging an ideological battle against government in Tamil Nadu.
Rajnath Singh proposes Modi's name as NDA leader, sets stage for his third term, 4 Indians students drown in Russia, bodies of only two recovered so far, DMK, AIADMK amp up pitch against NEET-UG in Tamil Nadu, say scrap the exam, Karnataka bans release of ‘Hamare Baarah' film citing potential communal tension, RBI Monetary Policy Highlights: RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 6.5%; raises FY25 GDP growth forecast to 7.2%
Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Friday, May 17, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:After Wednesday's fall, the Indian benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex rose by nearly one percent on Thursday. While the Sensex climbed 670 points, the Nifty surged by more than 200 points.As we edge closer to the final phase of the Lok Sabha election, there's a clear divide between domestic and foreign investors' market play, especially in their bets on Nifty derivatives. Retail and wealthy investors, usually called 'clients' on NSE, are really bullish right now. They believe the ruling NDA coalition is heading for a big win, and have ramped up their bullish positions on Nifty futures to the highest levels since November 2. On the flip side, Foreign Portfolio Investors are treading cautiously. Maybe they're sensing a potential upset because they've gone and hedged their massive $794-billion portfolio of Indian stocks by taking on a hefty amount of bearish index futures. It's their highest level of bearish bets since, well, the same date as the domestic bulls. Mint's markets correspondent Ram Sahgal brings the latest on how the markets are reacting to the national election.The Supreme Court recently made a big decision: lawyers are now exempt from the Consumer Protection Act. This change could pave the way for doctors to get a similar exemption. So what does this mean for you when you need to complain about poor service? Mint's senior editor N Madhavan explains in today's Primer. On 14 May, the Supreme Court said that legal services are unique and don't fall under the Consumer Protection Act. It pointed out that the law never intended to include professionals like lawyers and doctors. Instead, these professionals are regulated by their own bodies, like the Bar Council of India or the Indian Medical Association. Here's where it gets interesting. The Supreme Court also hinted that it might reconsider its 1996 ruling that brought doctors under the Consumer Protection Act. This could mean doctors might also be exempted soon.The biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world - Norway's Norges Bank Investment Management has blacklisted billionaire Gautam Adani's Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, or APSEZ. The fund, which has $1.63 trillion in assets under management, blacklisted the firm citing unacceptable risk related to “serious violations of individuals' rights in situations of war or conflict.” Adani Ports became the 16th Indian company to be on its exclusion list. The Adani Group company acquired Israel's Haifa port in 2022. However, it is unclear whether the $1.15 billion acquisition is the reason behind the blacklisting. APSEZ, which owns 14 ports globally, handles a significant portion of India's cargo. Norges Bank, which owns 1.5% of the world's listed companies, had a 0.24% stake in Adani Ports as of December. Mint's Varun Sood reports on the decision by the sovereign wealth fund, which has shares in over 300 Indian companies. Its Exclusion List now includes 192 companies, with 16 from India. The fund avoids investing in companies involved in tobacco, coal, nuclear weapons, and those violating international conduct rules. For instance, it blacklisted ITC Ltd in 2010. NTPC and Coal India Ltd have also faced exclusion. Former Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte has recently been quite busy in the stock market. Over the past month, he's sold Wipro shares worth 34.5 crore rupees, bringing his total earnings from share sales since stepping down on 6 April to a hefty sum of 70 crore 63 lakh rupees, or about 8.5 million dollars. And that's on top of the 36 crore rupee cash payment Wipro offered him as a parting gift. It's not clear if Wipro allowed Delaporte to accelerate the vesting of his employee stock options or if he just cashed in on the shares he already had. Mint's Varun Sood and Jas Bardia report on the development.The 2024 Lok Sabha election is in full swing. Politicians are leaving no stone unturned to have their voices heard by the people. And just as with everything in 2024, AI has entered the political game as well. Political parties are using AI to evoke all kinds of emotions in voters. For instance, former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa was heard critiquing both the central and state governments in a clip released on her birthday in February. However, the Dravidian leader passed away in 2016. Her voice was recreated using AI as part of the AIADMK's strategy to commemorate Jayalalithaa and galvanise support for its current leader, Edappadi Palaniswami, ahead of the election. The trend of using AI to recreate the voices and images of late politicians has been gaining traction across India. The technology allows parties to forge a personal connection with voters, especially the youth, who are new to the electoral process. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are awash with such content, crafted to sway voter sentiment and solidify party loyalties. Mint invited independent journalist Sanghamitra Kar P to write about the latest election tech trend in today's Long Story.We'd love to hear your feedback on this podcast. Let us know by writing to us at feedback@livemint.com. You may send us feedback, tips or anything that you feel we should be covering from your vantage point in the world of business and finance. Retail bulls run into wary FPIs on Street Mint Primer: Has consumer protection just got weaker? Fund giant Norges cuts off Adani Ports Wipro's outgoing CEO adds to his resignation bounty with $4-mn share saleHow political parties are using AI to bring personalities to life
तमिलनाडु में इस बार भी क्या मामला वन-साइडेड होगा, AIADMK के लिए क्यों ये चुनाव लिटमस टेस्ट है, BJP ने इस बार तमिलनाडु में क्या तैयारी की है, दिल्ली शराब घोटाले में CBI की इंट्री फिर क्यों हुई, 100 करोड़ की मनी ट्रेल क्या है, क्या राष्ट्रपति शासन की तरफ बढ़ी दिल्ली, इजरायल-ईरान में क्या होगी जंग और इसका इंडिया पर क्या इम्पैक्ट हो सकता है? सुनिए आज के 'दिन भर' में नितिन ठाकुर के साथ. प्रड्यूसर - अंकित द्विवेदी साउंड मिक्स - कपिल देव सिंह
Dravidian parties keeping BJP out of Lok Sabha election rhetoric after realising BJP is eyeing state election, say political analysts. Since 1967, either DMK or AIADMK has ruled state.
This week, Newslaundry's Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal and Anand Vardan are joined by Dhanya Rajendran, co-founder of The News Minute.On electoral bonds, and the Trinamool Congress being its second-largest recipient, Anand says, “One factor [which determines this] is which party is seen as remaining in power for more time. Power magnets in a region.”The conversation moves on to the seat-sharing arrangements for the Lok Sabha polls. Talking about Tamil Nadu, Dhanya says the BJP has “almost sidelined the AIADMK” and has become “confident of forming an alliance in Tamil Nadu without the party, which was not possible five or 10 years ago”.On the Adani group funding the Ramnath Goenka Awards, Abhinandan says, “It's complicated. For new journalists, it is a motivating factor, it builds morale.” Raman says it's okay to receive awards funded by conglomerates as long as they do not interfere in the outlet's coverage. He adds that The Indian Express's coverage of the Hindenburg Research report accusing Adani group of stock manipulation was “relentless”.This and a lot more. Tune in!We have a page for subscribers to send letters to our shows. If you want to write to Hafta, click here. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app.General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans. Click here to support us.Timecodes00:05:20 - Headlines00:17:02 - Electoral bonds00:38:28 - Tamil Nadu, Bihar seat-sharing00:53:15 - Adani sponsoring Ramnath Goenka Awards01:13:55 - Letters01:35:11 - RecommendationsHafta letters, recommendations, songs and referencesCheck out our previous Haftai recommendations.Produced and recorded by Aryan Mahtta, edited by Umrav Singh. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alliance forged on the heels of AIADMK snapping ties with BJP. Party chief G.K. Vasan says he expects BJP to take care of welfare of Tamil Nadu and Tamils around the world.----more----https://theprint.in/politics/tamil-maanila-congress-joins-nda-ahead-of-ls-polls-annamalai-hails-it-as-sign-of-bjps-future/1979692/
Last week, NIA conducted raids at residence of Duraimurugan, leader of Naam Tamilar Katchi. Political experts see raids as ‘genuine challenge' for a party that has shown marked growth.
In the post Jayalalithaa-Karunanidhi era, PM Modi seems to be a more popular leader capable of drawing huge crowds and dipping into the Dravidian vote bank.----more----Read the article here: https://theprint.in/opinion/why-a-split-with-aiadmk-opens-the-door-for-bjp-in-tamil-nadu/1781928/
Today's top news: Manipur violence: ‘One force, one district' policy may be adopted for better coordination, BJP central leadership steps in to mend ties with AIADMK, Trevor Noah cancels show last minute in Bengaluru and posts apology; fans say AR Rahman should learn from him, In setback to Chandrababu Naidu, Supreme Court says will not restrain trial judge, ‘Dengue in Bengal, CM in Spain': INDIA bloc members - Congress, TMC - lock horns over Mamata Banerjee's ‘luxury trip'.
The BJP has lost its Tamil Nadu ally AIADMK just two days after an old partner, the JD(S), returned to the NDA in Karnataka. In episode 1315 of #CutTheClutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta delves into data from 2014 and 2019 to explain what these developments mean for the BJP in 2024, and how they affect the party's poll calculations and its plans to score a hat-trick in landslide Lok Sabha election wins.
Annamalai Sanatana Wave in South India | AIADMK and BJP Breakup - किसको होगा फ़ायदा? | Sree Iyer
Starring CM MK Stalin's son & DMK leader Udhayanidhi, the film portrays caste oppression within a fictional political party. AIADMK says, 'DMK has nothing to brag about, not done anything'.
The BJP and its Tamil Nadu ally AIADMK find themselves warring again over a potshot lobbed at former CM Jayalalithaa by the former's state chief K. Annamalai. This is just the latest episode in a 9-year series that has seen the BJP's allies dwindle. Some have returned for cameos, but as many as 19 parties have either quit the NDA or been dumped by the BJP since 2014. In Ep 1034 of Cut The Clutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta discusses — through the lens of data — the complicated relationship between the BJP and its allies. Originally published on 14 July 2022----more----Read DK Singh's article here: https://theprint.in/opinion/politically-correct/nda-just-lost-its-19th-ally-since-2014-but-heres-why-modi-shah-pretend-they-cant-care-less/574946/
Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan or PTR as he is more commonly known, has had a interesting journey thus far. He comes from a family with strong political roots in Tamilnadu – his Grandfather, PT Rajan, was Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency in 1936 and his father, PTR Palanivel Rajan, was Assembly speaker and Minister in TN. PTR initially chose to go overseas and be part of the Wall Street brigade. His experience in the financial sector stretches from Wall Street to Singapore. He transitioned from his life in finance, to a life in politics, following the footsteps of his grandfather and father. He was elected as MLA for Madurai Central Constituency and currently serves as the Minister for Finance & Human Resources Management in the Tamil Nadu Government. In this episode of BIC Talks, PTR talks about his personal journey and how a family legacy of politics combined with his eclectic overseas life as an Investment Professional has prepared him for his current role in State and National Politics. He talks about how the past has shaped his thinking, his learning and the value of public-private cross pollination as he addresses the emergent challenges and issues of the day. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favourite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast and Stitcher.
* Annamalai Vs PTR: அரசியல் நாகரிகத்தை இழந்துவிட்டதா தமிழகம்?* OPS... அடுத்த மூவ் என்ன?* அண்ணாமலையுடன் செல்ஃபி எடுத்த கார்த்தி சிதம்பரம்! * பிரதமர் மோடியின் பிறந்தநாளைக் கொண்டாடத் தயாராகும் பாஜக! * தினகரன் திடீர் உடல்நலக் குறைவு காரணம் என்ன?On party leadership dispute, the Madras High Court on Friday allowed AIADMK leader K Palaniswami's appeal, setting aside an order in favour of O Panneerselvam.A division bench, comprising Justices M Duraiswamy and Sundar Mohan, set aside the order of a single judge, which nullified the July 11 General Council (GC) meeting of the AIADMK.The Imperfect Show is a 2018 Tamil language political satire show that deals with politics and news in Tamil Nadu. The political situation in Tamil Nadu - current affairs show by Vikatan, appearing on VikatanWebTV, which educates us on the happenings of the day in Tamil Nadu, India (often talking of Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and international (occasionally Donald Trump). A show with a daily episode presented by Saran, Cibi Chakravarthy. The show produced by Vikatan Group is uploaded daily including Sunday on VIKATANTV at 7:00 PM. Tune in for your daily dose of politics and current affairs, delivered humorously. Here is today's latest video of #TheImperfectShowVikatan விகடன் யூட்யூப் சேனலில் சிபி, சரண் நகைச்சுவையாக தொகுத்து வழங்கும் நிகழ்ச்சி ” தி இம்பர்ஃபெக்ட் ஷோ”. சில முக்கிய அன்றாட அரசியல் மற்றும் பொது நிகழ்வுகளை அறியவும், வெளி வராத சில ரகசியங்களை தெரிந்துகொள்ளவும், அரசியல் தெளிவு பெறவும் இந்த நிகழ்ச்சி உதவும்! #TheImperfectShowCREDITS: Host - Saran & Cibi Chakaravarthy | Script - Vikatan team | Podcast channel manager- Prabhu venkat
* எடப்பாடி மேல்முறையீடு... இன்று விசாரணையில் நடந்தது என்ன? * அனைத்து எம்.எல்.ஏ-க்களுக்கும் முதல்வர் மு.க.ஸ்டாலின் கடிதம்... ஏன்? * பில்கிஸ் பானோ குற்றவாளிகள் விடுவிப்பை எதிர்த்து மனு! * பா.ஜ.க தூதுவிட்டதாக டெல்லி துணை முதல்வர் சிசோடியா தகவல்! * அமித் ஷாவின் செருப்பை எடுத்துத் தந்த பா.ஜ.க தலைவர்A division bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday adjourned till August 25, the hearing on the appeals from AIADMK joint coordinator K. Palaniswami challenging the orders of a single judge, which nullified the party's general council meeting held on July 11 this year and ordered maintenance of status-quo ante as of June 23, 2022.The meeting of the party's July 11 General Council meet, its highest decision-making body, had picked Palaniswami as the interim general secretary and ‘expelled' his rival O. Panneerselvam amid the single leadership chorus in the main opposition party favouring the former.The Imperfect Show is a 2018 Tamil language political satire show that deals with politics and news in Tamil Nadu. The political situation in Tamil Nadu - current affairs show by Vikatan, appearing on VikatanWebTV, which educates us on the happenings of the day in Tamil Nadu, India (often talking of Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and international (occasionally Donald Trump). A show with a daily episode presented by Saran, Cibi Chakravarthy. The show produced by Vikatan Group is uploaded daily including Sunday on VIKATANTV at 7:00 PM. Tune in for your daily dose of politics and current affairs, delivered humorously. Here is today's latest video of #TheImperfectShowVikatan விகடன் யூட்யூப் சேனலில் சிபி, சரண் நகைச்சுவையாக தொகுத்து வழங்கும் நிகழ்ச்சி ” தி இம்பர்ஃபெக்ட் ஷோ”. சில முக்கிய அன்றாட அரசியல் மற்றும் பொது நிகழ்வுகளை அறியவும், வெளி வராத சில ரகசியங்களை தெரிந்துகொள்ளவும், அரசியல் தெளிவு பெறவும் இந்த நிகழ்ச்சி உதவும்! #TheImperfectShowCREDITS: Host - Saran & Cibi Chakravarthy | Script - Vikatan team | Podcast channel manager - Prabhu venkat
OPS seeks unity, EPS appeals against the restoration of AIADMK's dual leadership, CUET: Glitches continue to mar common university test, Farmers begin 75-hour strike in Lakhimpur Kheri, call for minister's sacking, and other top news in bulletin.
Veronica Joseph brings you the news from the North East, New Delhi, Madras High Court, and South Korea.Produced by Tehreem Roshan, edited by Hassan Bilal. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
What exactly are freebies? In simple terms, it refers to a public welfare measure – any good or service – that is offered free of cost by the government to its citizens. But our existing legal or policy framework does not provide a precise definition for the term. In the current context, it is often used as a political term by the Centre to express disapproval of certain state-level schemes. Therefore, it seems the meaning changes depending on whose perspective you hear. Free colour TVs, grinders, food grains, laptops, cycles, gold, washing machine, cows, sheep, cash transfers to farmers, health insurance and fertiliser subsidies – Indian voters have been beneficiaries of all this and more. But which of these are vote-catching freebies and which are legitimate welfare measures? Making that distinction is a near impossible exercise. Let us take a famous example from Tamil Nadu, home to the two big Dravidian parties notable for freebies, the DMK and the AIADMK. In 1982, when the then Chief Minister, MG Ramachandran or MGR, expanded the mid-day meal scheme for schoolchildren that was pioneered by K Kamaraj in the late 1950s, he faced opposition from all quarters. The scheme drastically improved enrolment, attendance and absenteeism. About a decade later in 1995, it was rolled out nationwide by the Centre. Similarly, today, the Centre's PM KISAN scheme is modelled on the lines of Telangana's Rythu Bandhu scheme. These are just two of the many examples where state-level welfare schemes once derided as freebies served as a template for the central government to emulate. Given the ambiguity, 15th Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh in a recent column said there was a need to distinguish freebies from merit goods, expenditure on which brings economic benefits, such as the public distribution system, employment guarantee schemes and states' support for education and health. On the other hand, a June RBI paper said that the provision of free electricity, free water, free public transportation, waiver of pending utility bills and farm loan waivers are often regarded as freebies, which potentially undermine credit culture, distort prices through cross-subsidisation. This erodes incentives for private investment and disincentivise work at the current wage rate leading to a drop in labour force participation. But this exercise is also fraught with risk. Because in the long run, the social and economic benefits of certain freebies can far outweigh the fiscal costs they impose, even if they seem cumbersome in the short term. States see it as an investment in human capital. This makes labelling expenditure as merit or non-merit at the time of rollout difficult. Alok Prasanna, Co-founder, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy says, there is no way to define a ‘freebie', it's a pejorative term. Politicans responding to people's wishes is part of political process. Can't make blanket fiscal prudence argument as states' finances vary, he says. If the Supreme Court is not the right institution to regulate freebies, can the Parliament legislate on it? Alok Prasanna, Co-founder, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy says, it is not the Parliament's business to regulate freebies. States are free under the Constitution to make laws on such topics. Prasanna says income tax deductions or exemptions and corporate tax reductions could be classified as freebies but they are also conscious political decisions. Does something stop being a freebie because it has the approval of the Centre? Experts broadly agree that states should be free to decide on freebies if it has the money. The problem arises when states dole out freebies, merit or non-merit, beyond their fiscal capabilities. As a percentage of GSDP, revenue receipts and own tax revenue, Punjab's freebies in Budget FY23 is among the highest in India Consider the financially weak state of Punjab. It is among the most indebted states a
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Happy Independence Day!- Pranay Kotasthane and RSJThis newsletter can often seem pessimistic about India. That isn’t true, though. Every year, on Independence Day, we remind ourselves and our readers why we write this newsletter. This is how we ended the Independence Day edition of 2020:“What we have achieved so far is precious. That’s worth reminding ourselves today. We will go back to writing future editions lamenting our state of affairs.We will do so because we know it’s worth it.” This year we thought it would be fun (?) to run through every year since 1947 and ask ourselves what happened in the year that had long-term repercussions for our nation. This kind of thing runs a serious risk. It can get tedious and all too familiar. Most of us know the landmark events of recent history and what they meant for the nation. Maybe. Maybe not. We’ve given an honest try (of over 8000 words) to see if there’s a different way of looking at these familiar events and their impact on us. Here we go.1947 - 1960: Sense Of A Beginning 1947Perhaps the most significant “What, if?” question for independent India surfaced on 17th August 1947 when the Radcliffe Line was announced. The partition of the Indian subcontinent has cast a long shadow. What if it had never happened? What if Nehru-Jinnah-Gandhi were able to strike a modus vivendi within a one-federation framework? These questions surface every year around independence.The indelible human tragedy of the partition aside, would an Akhand Bharat have served its citizens better? We don’t think so. We agree with Ambedkar’s assessment of this question. In Pakistan or the Partition of India, he approaches the question with detachment and realism, concluding that the forces of “communal malaise” had progressed to such an extent that resisting a political division would have led to a civil war, making everyone worse off. The partition must have been handled better without the accompanying humanitarian disaster. But on the whole, the partition was inevitable by 1947.“That the Muslim case for Pakistan is founded on sentiment is far from being a matter of weakness; it is really its strong point. It does not need deep understanding of politics to know that the workability of a constitution is not a matter of theory. It is a matter of sentiment. A constitution, like clothes, must suit as well as please. If a constitution does not please, then however perfect it may be, it will not work. To have a constitution which runs counter to the strong sentiments of a determined section is to court disaster if not to invite rebellion.” [Read the entire book here]1948What if Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t killed that year? How would the course of our history change? Gandhi spoke like an idealist and worked like a realist. He was possibly the most aware of the gap between the lofty ideals of our constitution and the reality of the Indian minds then. He knew the adoption of the constitution was only half the work done. He’d likely have devoted the rest of his life to building a liberal India at the grassroots level. His death pushed a particular stream of right-wing Hindu consciousness underground. We still carry the burden of that unfinished work.1949The Constituent Assembly met for the first time in December 1946. By November 26th 1949, this assembly adopted a constitution for India. Even a half-constructed flyover in Koramangala has taken us five years. For more context, Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly began work on 10th August 1947, and their first constitution came into force in March 1956, only to be abrogated two years later. India’s founding fathers and mothers were acutely aware that they were elite, unelected, and unrepresentative of the median Indian. They dared to imagine a new nation-state while grappling with that period's harsh economic, social, and political realities. Their work should inspire us to strengthen, improve, and rebuild—but never to give up on—the Republic of India.For more, check out the miracle that is India’s Constitution in our Republic Day 2021 special edition.1950We have written about our Constitution a number of times. It is an inspiring and audacious document in its ambition to shape a modern nation. It has its flaws. Some consider it too liberal; others think it makes the State overbearing. Some find it too long; others feel it comes up short. This may all be true. However, there is no doubt our constitution has strengthened our democracy, protected the weak and continues to act as a tool for social change. It is our North Star. And a damn good one at that. 1951Few post-independence institutions have stood the test of time as the Finance Commission (FC), first established in 1951. In federal systems, horizontal and vertical imbalances in revenue generation and expenditure functions are commonplace. Closing the gap requires an impartial institution that is well-regarded by various levels of government and the people. The Finance Commission is that institution.It’s not as if it didn’t face any challenges. As a constitutional body established under article 280 of the Constitution, it was sidelined by an extra-constitutional and powerful Planning Commission until 2014. But we have had 15 FCs in total, and each key tax revenue-sharing recommendation has become government policy.1952Our Constitution adopted a universal adult franchise as the basis for elections. Every citizen was to be part of the democratic project. There was to be no bar on age, sex, caste or education. And this was to be done in one of the most unequal societies in the world. The ambition was breathtaking. To put this in context, women were allowed to vote in Switzerland only in 1971. Not only did we aim for this, but we also moved heaven and earth to achieve it in 1952. In his book India After Gandhi, Ram Guha describes the efforts of the government officials led by the first Election Commissioner, Sukumar Sen, to reach the last man or woman for their ballot. The elites may lament vote bank politics or cash for votes scams and question the wisdom of universal franchise. But we shouldn’t have had it any other way. And, for the record, our people have voted with remarkable sophistication in our short independent history. 1953 For a new nation-state, the Republic of India punched above its weight in bringing hostilities on the Korean peninsula to an end. Not only did the Indian government’s work shape the Armistice Agreement, but it also chaired a Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC) that was set up to decide the future of nearly 20,000 prisoners of war from both sides. This experience during the Cold War strengthened India’s advocacy of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). 1954Article 25 guaranteed the freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate religion to all citizens. But how does one define a religious practice? And can a practice under the garb of religion breach the boundary of individual rights or public morality? This is a familiar conflict zone in secular States and would inevitably show up in India because everything in India can be construed as a religious practice. Like Ambedkar said during the constituent assembly debates:“The religious conceptions in this country are so vast that they cover every aspect of life from birth to death…there is nothing extraordinary in saying that we ought to strive hereafter to limit the definition of religion in such a manner that we shall not extend it beyond beliefs and such rituals as may be connected with ceremonials which are essentially religious..."In 1954, the Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment on what constitutes a religious practice in what’s known as the Shirur Math case. It held that the term religion would cover all practices integral to that religion. Further, the Court will determine what practice will be deemed essential with reference to doctrines within that religion itself.This test of ‘essentiality’ in religion has kept the public, the legislature and the courts busy since (entry of women in Sabarimala, headscarf in Islam, to name two). The outcome has bent towards individual liberty in most contexts, but the ambiguity in the definition of essential means it could go the other way too.1955Another wild "What, if” moment that we like to recall relates to Milton Friedman’s visit to the Indian finance ministry in 1955. What shape would India’s economy have taken had his seminal document “A Memorandum to the Government of India 1955” been heeded?In this note, Friedman gets to the root of India’s macroeconomic problems—an overburdened investment policy, restrictive policies towards the private sector, erratic monetary policy, and a counterproductive exchange control regime. Being bullish about India’s prospects was courageous when most observers wrote epitaphs about the grand Indian experiment. But Friedman was hopeful and critical both.The Indian government, for its part, was humble enough to seek the advice of foreigners from opposing schools of thought. At the same time, it was too enamoured by the Soviet command and control model. In fact, many items from Friedman’s note can be repurposed as economic reforms even today.Here’re our points from Friedman’s note.1956The idea of One Nation, One ‘X’ (language, election, song, tax, choose any other) is both powerful and seductive. It is not new, however. Back in the 50s, there was a view that we must not strengthen any identity that divides us. So when the question of reorganisation of the colonial provinces into new states came up, an argument was made that it must be done on factors other than language. Nehru, ever the modernist, thought the creation of language-based states would lead us down the path of ethnic strife. The example of nation-states in Europe built on language in the 19th century and the two devastating world wars thereafter were too recent then. So, he demurred.Agitation, hunger strikes and deaths followed before we chose language as the primary basis for reorganising the states. It was perhaps the best decision taken by us in the 50s. As the years since have shown, only a polity assured of its heritage and identity will voluntarily accept diversity. The melding of our diversity into a single identity cannot be a top-down imposition. We should never forget this.1957India’s economic strategy of state-led industrialisation through deficit financing in pursuit of import substitution took off with the Second Five-Year Plan. Heavy industries needed imported machinery, inflating India’s import bill. Since the exchange rate was pegged to the British pound, it meant that Indian exports became pricier. This imbalance between rising imports and flagging exports was financed by running down the foreign exchange reserves. By 1957, India witnessed its first foreign exchange crisis. This event had a significant effect on India’s economy. Instead of devaluing the rupee, the government opted for foreign exchange budgeting - every investment in a project needed government approval for the foreign exchange required to buy foreign inputs. The immediate crisis in 1957 led to controls that worsened India’s economic prospects over the next 35 years.1958The government nationalised all insurance companies a couple of years earlier. India hadn’t gotten into a socialist hell yet, so this was a bit of a surprise. The proximate cause was a fraud that few private life insurers had committed by misusing the policyholders’ funds to help their industrialist friends. A run-of-the-mill white-collar crime that should have been dealt with by the criminal justice system. But the government viewed it as a market failure and moved to nationalise the entire industry. It would take another 45 years for private players to come back to insurance. Insurance penetration in India meanwhile remained among the lowest in the world. Also, in 1958, Feroze Gandhi took to the floor of Lok Sabha to expose how LIC, the state insurer, had diverted its funds to help Haridas Mundhra, a Calcutta-based businessman. The same crime that private insurers had done.The government would repeat this pattern of getting involved where there was no market failure. The outcomes would inevitably turn out to be worse. Seven decades later, we remain instinctively socialist and wary of capital. Our first reaction to something as trifling as a surge price by Ola or a service charge levied by restaurants is to ask the State to interfere.1959“The longest guest of the Indian government”, the 14th Dalai Lama pre-empted the Chinese government’s plans for his arrest and escaped to India. Not only did India provide asylum, but it also became home to more than a hundred thousand Tibetans. Because of the bold move by the Indian government in 1959, the Central Tibetan Administration continues its struggle as a Nation and a State in search of regaining control over their Country to this day. This event also changed India-China relations for the decades to come.1960Search as hard as we might; we hardly got anything worth discussing for this year. Maybe we were all sitting smugly waiting for an avalanche of crisis to come our way. Steel plants, dams and other heavy industries were being opened. The budget outlay for agriculture was reduced. We were talking big on the international stage about peace and non-alignment. But if you had looked closer, things were turning pear-shaped. The many dreams of our independence were turning sour.The 60s: Souring Of The Dream1961The Indian Army marched into Goa in December 1961. The 450-year Portuguese colonial rule ended, and the last colonial vestige in India was eliminated. It took this long because Portugal’s dictator Antonio Salazar stuck to his guns on controlling Portuguese colonies in the subcontinent, unlike the British and the French. Portugal’s membership in NATO further made it difficult for the Indian government to repeat the operations in Hyderabad and Junagadh. Nevertheless, that moment eventually arrived in 1961. This was also the year when India’s first indigenous aircraft, the HAL HF-24 Marut, took its first flight. Made in Bengaluru by German designer Kurt Tank, the aircraft was one of the first fighter jets made outside the developed world. The aircraft served well in the war that came a decade later. It never lived up to its promises, but it became a matter of immense pride and confidence for a young nation-state.1962Among the lowest points in the history of independent India. We’ve written about our relationship with China many times in the past editions. The 1962 war left a deep impact on our psyche. We didn’t recover for the rest of the decade. The only good thing out of it was the tempering of idealism in our approach to international relations. That we take a more realist stance these days owes its origins to the ‘betrayal’ of 1962.1963ISRO launched the first sounding rocket in November 1963. Over the years, this modest beginning blossomed into a programme with multiple launch vehicles. The satellite programmes also took off a few years later, making India a mighty player in the space sector. 1964If you told anyone alive in 1964 that less than 60 years later, Nehru would be blamed for all that was wrong with India by a substantial segment of its population, they would have laughed you out of the room. But here we are in 2022, and there’s never a day that passes without a WhatsApp forward that talks about Nehru’s faults. It seems inevitable that by the time we celebrate the centenary of our independence, he would be a borderline reviled figure in our history. But that would be an aberration. In the long arc of history, he will find his due as a flawed idealist who laid the foundation of modern India. 1964 was the end of an era.1965As the day when Hindi would become the sole official language of the Indian Union approached, the anti-Hindi agitation in the Madras presidency morphed into riots. Many people died in the protests, and it led to the current equilibrium on language policy. The “one State, one language” project moved to the back burner, even as Hindi became an important link language across the country. The lesson was the same as in the case of the 1956 states reorganisation: melding our diversity into a single identity cannot be a top-down imposition.1966The two wars in the decade's first half, the inefficient allocation of capital driven by the second and third five-year plans, and the consecutive monsoon failure meant India was on the brink in 1966. The overnight devaluation of the Rupee by over 50 per cent, the timely help with food grains from the US and some providence pulled us back from it. The green revolution followed, and we have remained self-sufficient in food since.The experience of being on the brink taught us nothing. We still believe in the Pigouvian theory of market failure, where government policies are expected to deliver optimality. Strangely, the idea that we reform only in crisis has only strengthened. There cannot be worse ways to change oneself than under the shadow of a crisis. But we have made a virtue out of it.1967This was the year when the Green Revolution took baby steps, and the Ehlrichian prediction about India’s impending doom was put to rest. But it was also the year when the Indian government made a self-goal by adopting a policy called items reserved for manufacture exclusively by the small-scale sector. By reserving whole product lines for manufacturing by small industries, this policy kept Indian firms small and uncompetitive. And like all bad ideas, it had a long life. The last 20 items on this list were removed only in April 2015. We wrote about this policy here. 1968In the past 75 years, we have reserved some of our worst public policies for the education sector. We have an inverted pyramid. A handful of tertiary educational institutions produce world-class graduates at the top. On the other end, we have a total failure to provide quality primary education to the masses. It is not because of a lack of intent. The National Education Policy (NEP) that first came up in 1968 is full of ideas, philosophy and a desire to take a long-term view about education in India. But it was unmoored from the economic or social reality of the nation. We often say here that we shouldn’t judge a policy based on its intentions. That there’s no such thing as a good policy but bad implementation because thinking about what can work is part of policy itself. NEP is Exhibit A in favour of this argument.1969 The nationalisation of 14 private-sector banks was a terrible assault on economic freedom under the garb of serving the public interest. The sudden announcement of a change in ownership of these banks was challenged in the courts, but the government managed to thwart it with an ordinance. Fifty years later, we still have low credit uptake even as governments continue to recapitalise loss-making banks with taxpayer money.1970The dominant economic thinking at the beginning of the 70s in India placed the State at the centre of everything. But that wasn’t how the world was moving. There was a serious re-examination of the relationship between the State and the market happening elsewhere. The eventual shift to a deregulated, small government economic model would happen by the decade's end. This shift mostly passed India by. But there were a few voices who questioned the state orthodoxy and, in some ways, sowed the intellectual seeds for liberalisation in future. In 1970, Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai published their monograph, India: Planning for Industrialisation, which argued that our economic policies since independence had crippled us. It showed with data how central planning, import substitution, public sector-led industrial policy and license raj have failed. But it found no takers. In fact, we doubled down on these failed policies for the rest of the decade. It was a tragedy foretold. What if someone had gone against the consensus and paid attention to that paper? That dissent could perhaps have been the greatest service to the nation. It is useful to remember this today when any scepticism about government policies is met with scorn. Dissent is good. The feeblest of the voice might just be right.The 70s: Losing The Plot1971Kissinger visited China in July 1971 via Pakistan. Responding to the changing world order, India and the USSR signed an Indo–Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation in August of that year. India had become an ally of the USSR. Four months later, the India-Pakistan war pitted India and the USSR against Pakistan, China, and the US. The Indian strategic community came to internalise USSR as a super-reliable partner and the West as a supporter of India’s foes. It took another three decades, and the collapse of the USSR, for a change in this thinking. Even today, Russia finds massive support in the Indian strategic establishment. We had problematised this love for Russia here. 1972India won the 1972 war with Pakistan and liberated Bangladesh. India’s unilateral action stopped a humanitarian disaster. The victory was decisive, and the two parties met in Simla to agree on the way forward. This should have been a slam dunk for India in resolving festering issues on the international boundary, Kashmir and the role of the third parties. But international diplomacy is a two-level game, and Bhutto played that to his advantage. We explained this in edition 30. We paid a high price for giving away that win to Bhutto.1973The Kesavananda Bharti verdict of the Supreme Court rescued the Republic of India from a rampaging authoritarian. The basic structure doctrine found a nice balance to resolve the tension between constitutional immutability and legislative authority to amend the constitution. Bibhu Pani discussed this case in more detail here. 1974You are the State. Here are your crimes. You force import substitution, you regulate the currency, you misallocate capital, you let the public sector and a handful of licensed private players produce inferior quality products at a high cost, you raise the marginal tax rate at the highest level to 97 per cent, you run a large current account deficit, and you cannot control Rupee depreciation.Result?People find illegal ways to bring in foreign goods, currency and gold. And so was born the villain of every urban Bollywood film of the 70s. And a career option for a capitalist-minded kid like me. The Smuggler.But the State isn’t the criminal here. The smuggler is. And the State responded with a draconian law to beat all others. An act the knowledge of whose expanded form would serve kids well in those school quizzes of the 80s. COFEPOSA — The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Act. A predatory state's defining feature is how it forces ordinary citizens to do unlawful activities. COFEPOSA was the mother of such laws. It has spawned many children. 1975This blank editorial by the Indian Express says it all. 1976We view our population as a core problem. The politicians, the public servants and the ordinary citizens share this view. We don’t want to acknowledge our governance deficit. Calling population a problem allows us to shirk the responsibility of running a functioning State. We have written about the flaw in thinking about the population as a problem on many occasions.How far could we go to control the population? Well, in 1976, during the peak of the Emergency, the State decided to sterilise male citizens against their wishes. This madness ended when the Emergency was lifted. But even today calls for population control keep coming back. 1977The first non-Congress union government was an important milestone for the Indian Republic. While Morarji Desai’s government did reverse the worst excesses of the Emergency rule, its economic policies were less successful. This period went on to witness a demonetisation in search of black money (2016 from the future says Hi!), and the same old counter-productive policies in search of self-reliance.1978Despite all available evidence that statist socialism was an abject failure, the Janata government that came to power decided to double down on it. One of the great ideas of the time was to force MNCs to reduce their stake in their Indian subsidiaries to below 40 per cent. A handful agreed, but the large corporations quit India. One of those who left was IBM in 1978. The many existing installations of IBM computers needed services and maintenance. In a delightful case of unintended consequences, this led to the nationalisation of IBM’s services division (later called CMC). Domestic companies started to serve this niche. Soon there were the likes of Infosys, Wipro and HCL building a business on this. CMC provided a good training ground for young engineers. And so, the Indian IT services industry got underway. It would change the lives of educated Indians forever.1979In a classic case of violating the Tinbergen rule, the Mandal Commission recommended that the reservation policy should be used to address relative deprivation. While the earlier reservations for oppressed castes stood on firm ground as a means for addressing unconscionable historical wrongs, the Mandal Commission stretched the logic too far. Its recommendation would eventually make reservation policy the go-to solution for any group that could flex its political muscles. We wrote about it here. 1980After ditching the Janata experiment and running out of ideas to keep Jan Sangh going, the BJP was formed. It wasn’t a momentous political occasion of any sort then. A party constitution that aimed for Gandhian socialism and offered vague promises of a uniform civil code and nationalism didn’t excite many. Everything else that would propel the party in later years was to be opportunistic add-ons to the ideology. The founding leaders, Advani and Vajpayee, would have been shocked if you told them what the party would be like, four decades later.The 80s: A Million Mutinies Now1981This year witnessed a gradual shift away from doctrinaire socialism in economic policymaking. “The Indira Gandhi government lifted restrictions on the expansion of production, permitted new private borrowing abroad, and continued the liberalisation of import controls,” wrote Walter Anderson. The government also “allowed” some price rises, leading to increased production of key input materials. The government also permitted foreign companies to compete in drilling rights in India. All in all, a year that witnessed changes for the better. 1982The great textile strike of Bombay in 1982 was inevitable. The trade unions had gotten so powerful that there was a competitive race to the bottom on who could be more militant. Datta Samant emerged intent on breaking the monopoly of RMMS on the city's workers. And he did this with ever spiralling demands from mill owners in a sector that was already bloated with overheads and facing competition from far eastern economies. There was no way to meet these demands. The owners locked the mills and left. Never to come back. The old, abandoned mills remained. The workers remained. Without jobs, without prospects and with kids who grew up angry and unemployed. The rise of Shiv Sena, political goondaism and a malevolent form of underworld followed. Bombay changed forever. It was all inevitable.1983The Nellie massacre in Assam and the Dhilwan bus massacre in Punjab represent the year 1983. Things seemed really dark back then. It seemed that the doomsayers would be proved right about India. Eventually, though, the Indian Republic prevailed. 1984Her Sikh bodyguards assassinated India Gandhi. The botched Punjab policy of the previous five years came a full circle with it. An unforgivable backlash against innocent Sikhs followed. A month later, deadly gas leaked out of a Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, killing and paralysing thousands. 1984 will rank among the worst years of our republic. There were two silver linings in retrospect. One, we would learn to manage secessionist movements better from the harrowing Punjab experience. Two, had Indira continued, would we have had 1991? Our guess is no.1985This was an eventful year in retrospect. Texas Instruments set up shop in Bangalore. It was to begin one of modern India’s true success stories on the world stage. This was also the year when the Anti-defection law transformed the relationship between the voter and her representative. Political parties became all-powerful, and people’s representatives were reduced to political party agents. We have written about this changing dynamic here. This was also the year when the then commerce minister, VP Singh, visited Malaysia. The visit was significant for India because it served as a reference point for Singh when he visited that country again in 1990, now as the Prime minister. Surprised by Malaysia’s transformation in five years, he asked his team to prepare a strategy paper for economic reforms. This culminated in the “M” document, which became a blueprint for reforms when the time for the idea eventually came in 1991.1986Who is a citizen of India? This vexing question roiled Assam in the early 80s. The student union protests against the widespread immigration of Bangladeshis turned violent, and things had turned ugly by 1985. The Assam accord of 1985 sought to settle the state's outstanding issues,, including deporting those who arrived after 1971 and a promise to amend the Citizenship Act. The amended Citizenship Act of 1986 restricted the citizenship of India to those born before 1987 only if either of their parents were born in India. That meant children of couples who were illegal immigrants couldn’t be citizens of India simply by virtue of their birth in India. That was that, or so we thought.But once you’ve amended the definition of who can be a citizen of India, you have let the genie out. The events of 2019 will attest to that.1987Rajiv Gandhi’s ill-fated attempt to replicate Indira Gandhi’s success through military intervention in another country began in 1987. In contrast to the 1971 involvement, where Indian forces had the mass support of the local populace, the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) got itself embroiled in a bitter Sri Lankan civil war. Not only did this involvement end in a failure, it eventually led to Rajiv Gandhi’s brutal murder in a terrorist attack. The policy lesson internalised by the strategic community was that India must stay far away from developing and deploying forces overseas.1988Most government communication is propaganda in disguise. However, there are those rare occasions when government messaging transcends the ordinary. In 1988, we saw that rare bird during the peak era of a single government channel running on millions of black and white TV sets across India. A government ad that meant something to all of us and that would remain with us forever. Mile Sur Mera Tumhara got everything right - the song, the singers, the storyline and that ineffable thing called the idea of India. No jingoism, no chest beating about being the best country in the world and no soppy sentimentalism. Just a simple message - we might all sing our own tunes, but we are better together. This is a timeless truth. No nation in history has become better by muting the voice of a section of their own people. Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, Toh Sur Bane Hamara, indeed. 19891989 will be remembered as the year when the Indian government capitulated to the demands of Kashmiri terrorists in the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case. It would spark off a series of kidnappings and act as a shot in the arm of radicals. 1990VP Singh dusted off the decade-long copy of the Mandal Commission report and decided to implement it. This wasn’t an ideological revolution. It was naked political opportunism. However, three decades later, the dual impact of economic reforms and social engineering has increased social mobility than ever before. Merit is still a matter of debate in India. But two generations of affirmative action in many of the progressive states have shown the fears of merit being compromised were overblown. The task is far from finished, but Mandal showed that sometimes you need a big bang to get things going, even if your intentions were flawed.1990 also saw the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) from the valley. A tragedy that would bookend a decade of strife and violence in India. The only lesson one should draw from the sad plight of KPs is that the State and the people must protect minority rights. We’re not sure that’s what we have taken away from it. And that’s sad.The 90s: Correcting The Course1991With the benefit of hindsight, the 1991 economic reforms seem inevitable. But things could well have been different. In the minority government, powerful voices advocated in favour of debt restructuring instead of wholesale reforms. In the end, the narrative that these changes were merely a continuation—and not abandonment—of Nehru and Indira Gandhi’s vision for India carried the day. This political chicanery deserves some credit for transforming the life of a billion Indians. 1992Harshad Mehta scammed the stock markets. It wasn’t a huge scam. Nor did it hurt the ordinary Indians. Fewer than 1% invested in markets back then. Yet, the scam did something important. It set in motion a series of reforms that made our capital markets stronger and safer for ordinary investors. Notably, over the years, Mehta came to be seen as some kind of robber baron figure. Capitalism needed an anti-hero to catch the imagination of people. Someone who could reprise in the 90s the Bachchan-esque angry young man roles of the 70s. Mehta might not have been that figure exactly, but he helped a generation transition to the idea that greed could indeed be good.Also, Babri Masjid was brought down by a mob of kar sevaks in 1992. It will remain a watershed moment in our history. The Supreme Court judgement of 2019 might be the final judicial word on it. But we will carry the scars for a long time.1993The tremors of the demolition of the Babri Masjid were felt in 1993. Twelve bombs went off in Bombay on one fateful day. The involvement of the city’s mafia groups was established. The tragic event finally led to the government rescuing the city from the underworld. Not to forget, the Bombay underworld directly resulted from government policies such as prohibition and gold controls. 1994One of the great acts of perversion in our democracy was the blatant abuse of Section 356 of the constitution that allowed the union to dismiss a state government at the slightest pretext. Indira Gandhi turned this into an art form. S. R. Bommai, whose government in Karnataka was dismissed in this manner in 1988, took his case up to the Supreme Court. In 1994, the court delivered a verdict that laid out the guidelines to prevent the abuse of Section 356. It is one of the landmark judgments of the court and restored some parity in Union and state relationship.Article 356 has been used sparingly since. We are a better democracy because of it.1995India joined the WTO, and the first-ever mobile phone call was made this year. But 1995 will forever be remembered as the year when Ganesha idols started drinking milk. This event was a precursor to the many memes, information cascades, and social proofs that have become routine in the information age. 1996Union budgets in India are occasions for dramatic policy announcements. It is a mystery why a regular exercise of presenting the government's accounts should become a policy event. But that’s the way we roll. In 1996 and 1997, P. Chidambaram presented them as the FM of a weak ragtag coalition called the United Front. But he presented two budgets for the ages. The rationalisation of income tax slabs and the deregulation of interest rates created a credit culture that led to the eventual consumption boom in the next decade. We still carry that consumption momentum.1997The creation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is an important public policy milestone for India. By no means perfect, the setting up of TRAI helped overturn a norm where government departments were both players and umpires. TRAI made the separation of “steering” and “rowing” functions a new normal. That template has been copied in several sectors thereafter, most recently in the liberalisation of the space sector. 1998India did Pokhran 2, which gave it the capability to build thermonuclear weapons. We faced sanctions and global condemnation. But the growing economy and a sizeable middle class meant those were soon forgotten. Economic might can let you get away with a lot. We have seen it happen to us, but it is a lesson we don’t understand fully.Also, in 1998, Sonia Gandhi jumped into active politics. The Congress that was ambling towards some sort of internal democracy decided to jettison it all and threw its weight behind the dynasty. It worked out for them for a decade or so. But where are they now? Here’s a question. What if Sonia didn’t join politics then? Congress might have split. But who knows, maybe those splinters might have coalesced in the future with a leader chosen by the workers. And we would have had a proper opposition today with a credible leader.1999This was a landmark year for public policy. For the first time, a union government-run company was privatised wholly. We wrote about the three narratives of disinvestment here. 2000We have a weak, extended and over-centralised state. And to go with it, we have large, unwieldy states and districts that make the devolution of power difficult. In 2000, we created three new states to facilitate administrative convenience. On balance, it has worked well. Despite the evidence, we have managed to create only one more state since. The formation of Telangana was such a political disaster that it will take a long time before we make the right policy move of having smaller states. It is a pity.The 2000s: The Best Of Times2001Not only was the Agra Summit between Musharraf and Vajpayee a dud, but it was followed by a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament. It confirmed a pattern: PM-level bilateral meetings made the Pakistani military-jihadi complex jittery, and it invariably managed to spike such moves with terrorist attacks. 2002There was Godhra and the riots that followed. What else is there to say?2003The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act and the Civil Services Pension Reform are two policy successes with many lessons for future policymakers. We have discussed these on many occasions. 2004The NDA government called for an early election, confident about its prospects. India Shining, its campaign about how good things were, wasn’t too far from the truth. It is how many of us felt during that time. The NDA government had sustained the reform momentum of the 90s with some of the best minds running the key departments. Its loss was unexpected. Chandrababu Naidu, a politician who fashioned himself like a CEO, was taken to the cleaners in Andhra Pradesh. Apparently, economic reforms didn’t get you votes. The real India living in villages was angry at being left out. That was the lesson for politicians from 2004. Or, so we were told.Such broad narratives with minimal factual analysis backing them have flourished in the public policy space. There is no basis for them. The loss of NDA in 2004 came down to two states. Anti-incumbency in Andhra Pradesh where a resurgent Congress under YS Reddy beat TDP, a constituent of NDA. TDP lost by similar margins (in vote share %) across the state in all demographics in both rural and urban areas. There was no rural uprising against Naidu because of his tech-savvy, urban reformist image. Naidu lost because the other party ran a better campaign. Nothing else. The other mistake of the NDA was in choosing to partner with the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu (TN) over DMK. TN was famous for not giving split verdicts. It swung to extremes between these two parties in every election. And that’s what happened as AIADMK drew a blank.Yet, the false lesson of 2004 has played on the minds of politicians since. We haven’t gotten back on track on reforms in the true sense. 2005The Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act came into force in 2005. The “right to X” model of governance took root.2006In March 2006, George W Bush visited India and signed the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with Manmohan Singh. From facing sanctions in 1998 for Pokhran 2 to the 123 Agreement, this was a victory for Indian diplomacy and its rising status in the world. You would think this would have had bipartisan support among the political class in India. Well, the Left that was part of UPA and the BJP that worked on the deal when it was in power, opposed it. Many shenanigans later, the deal was passed in the parliament in 2008. It is often said there’s no real ideological divide among parties in India. This view can be contested on various grounds. But events like the opposition to the nuclear deal make you wonder if there are genuine ideological positions on key policy issues in India. Many sound policy decisions are opposed merely for the sake of it. Ideology doesn’t figure anywhere. 2007It was the year when the Left parties were out-lefted. In Singur and Nandigram, protests erupted over land acquisition for industrial projects. The crucible of the resulting violence created a new political force. As for the investment, the capital took a flight to other places. The tax on capital ended up being a tax on labour. Businesses stayed away from West Bengal. The citadel of Left turned into its mausoleum.2008Puja Mehra in her book The Lost Decade traces the origin of India losing its way following the global financial crisis to the Mumbai terror attack of 2008. Shivraj Patil, the home minister, quit following the attack and Chidambaram was shifted from finance to fill in. For reasons unknown, Pranab Mukherjee, a politician steeped in the 70s-style-Indira-Gandhi socialism, was made the FM. Mehra makes a compelling case of how that one decision stalled reforms, increased deficit and led to runaway inflation over the next three years. Till Chidambaram was brought back to get the house in order, it was too late, and we were halfway into a lost decade. It is remarkable how bad policies always seem easy to implement while good policies take ages to get off the blocks.2009The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was established in January 2009 to architect a unique digital identity for persons in a country where low rates of death and birth registrations made fake and duplicate identities a means for corruption and denial of service. Under the Modi government, the digital identity — Aadhaar — became the fulcrum of several government services. This project also set the stage for later projects such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Abha (Health ID).2010There’s petty corruption everywhere in India. It is pervasive. Not surprisingly, it is one political issue leading to mass movements in India. The anti-corruption mood gripped India in 2010 on the back of the 2G spectrum scam, where the chief accountant of the government claimed a notional loss of about Rs. 1.8 trillion to the exchequer. Auctioning of natural resources wasn’t exactly a transparent process then. It was evident there was a scam in the allotment of the 2G spectrum. But the 1.8 trillion number was a wild exaggeration that anyone with a semblance of business understanding could see through. It didn’t matter. That number caught the imagination. UPA 2 never recovered from it. More importantly, the auction policy for resources was distorted forever. We still suffer the consequences.The 2010s: Missed Opportunity2011India’s last case of wild poliovirus was detected in 2011. Until about the early 1990s, an average of 500 to 1000 children got paralysed daily in India. The original target for eradication was the year 2000. Nevertheless, we got there eleven years later. India’s pulse polio campaign has since become a source of confidence for public policy execution in India. We internalised the lesson that the Indian government can sometimes deliver through mission mode projects. 2012If you cannot solve a vexing public policy issue, turn it into a Right. It won’t work, but it will seem like you’ve done everything. After years of trying to get the national education policy right, the government decided it was best to make education a fundamental right in the Constitution. Maybe that will make the problem go away. A decade later, nothing has changed, but we have an additional right to feel good about.2013This year saw the emergence of AAP as a political force via the anti-corruption movement. AAP combines the classic elements of what makes a political party successful in India - statist instincts, focus on aam aadmi issues, populism and ideological flexibility. Importantly, it is good at telling its own version of some future utopia rather than questioning the utopia of others. 2014The BJP came to power with many promises; the most alluring of them was ‘minimum government, maximum governance’. Over the past eight years it has claimed success in meeting many of its promises, but even its ardent supporters won’t claim any success on minimum government. In fact, it has gone the other way. That a party with an immensely popular PM, election machinery that rivals the best in the world, and virtually no opposition cannot shake us off our instinctive belief in the State's power never ceases to surprise us.2015The murder of a person by a mob on the charges of eating beef was the first clear indication of the upsurge of a new violent, majoritarian polity. It was also one of the early incidents in India of radically networked communities using social media for self-organisation. Meanwhile, 2015 also witnessed the signing of a landmark boundary agreement between India and Bangladesh, which ended the abomination called the third-order enclave. The two States exchanged land peacefully, upholding the principle that citizen well-being trumps hardline interpretations of territorial integrity. 2016There will be many case studies written in future about demonetisation. Each one of them will end with a single conclusion. Public policy requires discussion and consensus, not stealth and surprise. We hope we have learnt our lesson from it.2017Until 2017, many in India still held the hope of a modus vivendi with China. Some others were enamoured by the Chinese model of governance. However, the Doklam crisis in 2017, and the Galwan clashes in 2020, changed all that. Through this miscalculation, China alienated a full generation of Indians, led to better India-US relations, and energised India to shift focus away from merely managing a weak Pakistan, and toward raising its game for competing with a stronger adversary. For this reason, we wrote a thank you note to Xi Jinping here. 2018It took years of efforts by the LGBTQ community to get Section 377 scrapped. In 2018, they partially won when the Supreme Court diluted Section 377 to exclude all kinds of adult consensual sexual behaviour. The community could now claim equal constitutional status as others. There’s still some distance to go for the State to acknowledge non-heterosexual unions and provide for other civil rights to the community. But the gradual acceptance of the community because of decriminalisation is a sign that our society doesn’t need moral policing or lectures to judge what’s good for it.2019The J&K Reorganisation Act changed the long-standing political status quo in Kashmir. Three years on, the return to political normalcy and full statehood still awaits. While a response by Pakistan was expected, it was China that fomented trouble in Ladakh, leading to the border clashes in 2020. 2020We have written multiple pieces on farm laws in the past year. The repeal of these laws, which were fundamentally sound because of a vocal minority, is the story of public policy in India. Good policies are scuttled because of the absence of consultation, an unclear narrative, opportunistic politicking or plain old hubris. We write this newsletter in the hope of changing this. 2021The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic left behind many bereaved families. People are still trying to pick up the pieces. The sadness was also interrupted by frustration because of the delays in getting the vaccination programme going. India benefited immensely from domestic vaccine manufacturing capability in the private sector. Despite many twists and turns in vaccine pricing and procurements, the year ended with over 1 billion administered doses. In challenging times, the Indian State, markets, and society did come together to fight the pandemic. So, here we are. In the 75th independent year of this beautiful, fascinating and often exasperating nation. We are a work in progress. We might walk slowly, but we must not walk backwards. May we all live in a happy, prosperous and equal society. Thanks for reading Anticipating the Unintended! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com
सभी राज्यों में भाजपा के खिलाफ सबसे बड़ी शिकायत यह है कि यह पार्टी गठबंधन धर्म का सम्मान नहीं करती है. हालांकि भाजपा प्रवक्ता का कहना है कि आरोप 'झूठे' हैं.
After Uddhav Thackeray's supporting NDA's Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu & the internal warfare in AIADMK, Shekhar Gupta in episode 1034 of #CutTheClutter looks at the departing allies of BJP Brought to you by @KiaInd
Across states, the biggest complaint against the BJP is that the party does not honour coalition dharma. Party spokesperson says accusations are ‘untrue'. ----more---- https://theprint.in/politics/from-aiadmk-shiv-sena-to-jdu-how-bjp-is-growing-at-the-cost-of-its-allies-as-well-as-rivals/1037227/
Tanishka Sodhi brings you the news from the Supreme Court, the United Nations, Sri Lanka, Goa and Tamil Nadu. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Top #news today:> G7 countries plan to impose ‘price caps' on Russia's oil exports> O Panneerselvam a ‘betrayer': AIADMK's Palaniswami amid EPS feud> In first Punjab budget, AAP govt announces free power from July 1> First cases of Omicron's BA.5 variant detected in Delhi> Focus on ensuring Congress success: Sachin Pilot on Rajasthan CM's barbs> Aamir Khan dances with Bhojpuri actor Akshara Singh to Laal Singh Chaddha song, she calls it 'dream come true'.> IND vs ENG: Sam Billings added to England squad for rescheduled 5th TestListen here:@HindustanTimes #News #DailyNews #DailyUpdates #currentaffairs #Podcasts #HTSmartCast
Veronica Joseph brings you the news from Maharashtra, New Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Ukraine. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Top #news today: > Uddhav's question on the next Maha CM vs Shinde's 'unnatural front' remark> 46% children suffer from long-Covid post-infection, says Lancet study> Four members of NSUI held for arson outside BJP president's house> Madras HC refuses to restrain AIADMK from amending by-laws at today's key meet> Four Indian players to play for Leicestershire in warm-up match ahead of England Test> Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2's box office run unaffected by OTT release, Kartik Aaryan film thrives in both placesListen here:@HindustanTimes #News #DailyNews #DailyUpdates #currentaffairs #Podcasts #HTSmartCastUddhav's question on the next Maha CM vs Shinde's 'unnatural front' remark, 46% children suffer from long-Covid post infection, says Lancet study, Madras HC refuses to restrain AIADMK from amending by-laws at today's key meet, and other top news in this bulletin.
AIADMK के वरिष्ठ नेताओं का कहना है कि तमिलनाडु में पार्टी सिर्फ 2024 के लोकसभा चुनावों के मद्देनजर सहयोगी दल के साथ बनी हुई हैं. उधर बीजेपी खुद को 'प्रमुख विपक्षी दल' के रूप में गढ़ती दिख रही है. ----more---- https://hindi.theprint.in/india/why-aiadmk-is-unlikely-to-break-away-from-bjp-despite-public-discord/338056/
A tale of sisterhood, resilience, and allegations of misuse of public office, disproportionate assets, criminal conspiracy, and corruption that spanned over 18 yearsFind out more at - https://ivmpodcasts.com/miss-conduct-blogYou can follow our hosts on Instagram.Miss Conduct: https://instagram.com/missconductpodRagavi: https://www.instagram.com/ragi.dosai/Nisha: https://www.instagram.com/just.nishful.thinking/You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/
A tale of resilience, power and allegations of misuse of public office that spanned over 18 years. Find out more at - https://ivmpodcasts.com/miss-conduct-blogYou can follow our hosts on Instagram.Miss Conduct: https://instagram.com/missconductpodRagavi: https://www.instagram.com/ragi.dosai/Nisha: https://www.instagram.com/just.nishful.thinking/You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/
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