When communal violence broke out in Manipur three years ago, incidents of physical and sexual violence made their way to our news feeds. Manipur witnessed a barbarity whose effects will be suffered even decades later. Earlier this month, a 20-year-old woman who was gang-raped during the ethnic violence succumbed to her injuries. Devastating. The victim’s sister’s words, spoken at Delhi’s Constitution Club, remain with me : “Nobody could give her justice.” What does justice look like for women in India? I examine how lacunae in key laws continue to undermine women’s consent.

Marital rape exception

Codified in the Indian Penal Code of 1860 and retained in Section 63 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the law continues to exempt non-consensual sexual intercourse by a man with his wife from the definition of rape.

This exception fundamentally negates women’s consent within marriage by presuming irrevocable and perpetual sexual access. While women may seek civil remedies under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, the denial of criminal redress for rape entrenches a hierarchy in which marital status overrides bodily integrity. The 42nd Law Commission Report in 1971 recommended criminalising marital rape. Yet, the BNS retains it.

Different marital ages

Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, and allied statutes, the minimum age for marriage is 18 years for women and 21 for men. The differentiation has no scientific basis. If the objective is to prevent early marriage or ensure maturity, the same age should apply to all genders. If the objective is to protect women, lowering their marriage age defeats that purpose. It legitimises age gaps, and reinforces dependency and curtailed education. A law that institutionalises inequality at entry cannot claim to promote dignity, equality, or meaningful consent.

Restitution of conjugal rights

Restitution of Conjugal Rights (RCR) allows one spouse to compel the other to resume cohabitation if they have withdrawn from the marriage without proving “reasonable cause”. Codified under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act and Section 22 of the Special Marriage Act, the remedy treats cohabitation in marriage as an enforceable duty rather than one based on consent.

The burden is placed on the withdrawing spouse, most often women, to justify their decision, even where withdrawal is driven by emotional, psychological, or sexual abuse. Given that marital rape is not criminalised, RCR can force women back into situations that compromise bodily integrity and dignity. By prioritising the preservation of marriage over consent, the law conflicts with the rights to life, privacy, bodily autonomy, and equality. Conversely, there are situations where women and girls expressly give consent, yet the law refuses to recognise it.

Criminalisation of consensual underage relationships

Under the POCSO Act, 2012, offences like sexual assault do not require proof of non-consent. This implies that consent becomes irrelevant when a person below age 18 is involved in a sexual act. Large proportions of POCSO prosecutions stem from romantic relationships among adolescents. These cases are often initiated by families seeking to control young women’s choices, especially in instances of inter-caste, inter-faith, or socially disapproved relationships. Without distinguishing exploitation from consensual intimacy, the law sacrifices adolescent autonomy without meaningfully strengthening protection against abuse.

Marriage assurance

Section 69 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 criminalises sexual intercourse obtained by a false promise of marriage. This rests on the presumption that women’s sexual consent is tied to the expectation of marriage. Consensual non-marital relationships are thereby reframed as sites of deception or victimhood, even when both parties entered the relationship voluntarily. Intentions in relationships evolve, and the absence of clear legal standards invites inconsistent enforcement and potential for misuse. So long as consent remains conditional in law, justice for women will remain conditional in reality, in direct defiance of the Constitution’s promise of dignity, equality, and personal liberty.

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, January 30, 2026]

In about 10 weeks, four states and one Union Territory go to elections. There will be campaign songs, reels, trails, tactics and more. Policies will be launched and re-launched. From jingles to jumlas. From public rallies to podcasts. If the 2019 polls were India’s first “WhatsApp Elections” and 2024 India’s first “digital forward” elections, then 2026 ought to be characterised by a potpourri of both. They say 2029 will be the AI election. Here are some thoughts on the intersection of media and politics from an ever-eager student of both.

Fake news may be described as yellow journalism on steroids — sensationalism amplified by technology to spread at algorithmic speeds with little to no accountability. The impact of fake news on elections today can be understood by going back to the basic journalistic framework of the “five Ws”.

What: While the term does not have any legal definition in India, the Australian government’s eSafety Commissioner describes fake news as “fictional news stories that are made up to support certain agendas”.

Who: With three out of five internet users in India accessing news and information online, the rapid proliferation of fake news is particularly worrying. A Pew Research Centre study of 2025 found that 65 per cent of those surveyed viewed made-up news and information as a huge concern, among the highest globally.

Why: Fake news has become a structural feature of Indian elections. While the votes are cast offline, the battle for those votes increasingly unfolds online. With over 90 crore internet users in India in 2025, influencing perception and shaping narratives has become possible with just a few clicks. A study by the Indian School of Business and CyberPeace revealed that 46 per cent of all fake news was political in nature.

When: Fake news peaks around elections, with the National Crime Records Bureau recording a 70 per cent rise in fake news cases in 2019, an election year, over the previous year.

Where: Digital platforms including social media platforms and messaging apps like Facebook, X and WhatsApp enable the rapid spread of fake news. Doctored videos, AI-generated pictures and clips blur fact and fiction while algorithms provide the push that makes such content go viral.

India has close to 900 private television channels, and nearly half of them are news channels. Television still has a deep reach — 23 crore homes own a TV set. In recent years, though, there has been a marked shift to the digital mode. A Reuters Institute report shows that seven out of 10 Indians now prefer to consume news online. Of those, half get their news from social media. Fifty-five per cent rely on YouTube for news consumption, 46 per cent on WhatsApp, 37 per cent on Instagram, and 36 per cent on Facebook. Even with these media consumption patterns, newspapers, both in regional languages and English, still remain comparatively high on the credibility quotient.

Influencers

With the increasing use of social media, “influencers” have considerable heft in this space. These individuals, who are supported by strong research and production teams, have built a large following buoyed by their personal brand equity.

Among Gen Z, only 13 per cent prefer to follow “celebrities’ and over 86 per cent prefer to follow influencers. In fact, the reach of these influencers has been so crucial that many senior politicians have actively reached out and have given them interviews. Even the Union government has not left this channel untapped. The government has engaged with influencers by empanelling “influencer agencies” on MyGov. Four influencers were empanelled in 2023, of which one’s CEO is a vocal supporter of the ruling dispensation.

Deepfakes

The deceased patriarch of a regional party from the south “showing up” in trademark attire for a party meeting. Two leading actors of the Hindi film industry criticising the Prime Minister and supporting the largest opposition party. These are the kind of artificially created, digitally altered videos that popped up before the last Lok Sabha elections.

Deepfakes, the technical term for such pieces of content, have increasingly become one of the most potent tools deployed by political parties and agencies who help them design campaigns. Consider this. In the 60 days before voting began during the last general elections, 5 crore AI-generated calls were made to voters, where the voice of a political leader was synthetically generated to come across as if directly speaking to the voter. During the same elections, Meta approved 14 AI-generated electoral ads calling for violence against Muslims and an opposition leader. The Election Commission of India (ECI), as the constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes, ought to have stepped in to set up guardrails regulating the dissemination of such content. However, if the implementation of the recent SIR process is anything to go by, we may be praying to the wrong god.

This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, January 16, 2026]

“My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers.” – Swami Vivekananda

Here are 26 reasons why Gen Z will back Mamata Banerjee in 2026.

1. The number of universities in Bengal has increased from 12 in 2011 to 47 now. 14 new medical colleges, 51 new government colleges, and 500 new ITIs have been established.
2. Over two crore employment has been generated in the last 14 years.
3. Bengal Silicon Valley Tech Hub, spread over 200 acres in Rajarhat New Town, is home to 41 Information Technology (IT) companies.
4. Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Cognizant, IBM, Ericson, Cap Gemini, Tech Mahindra, Accenture, ITC Infotech, British Telecom and other leading global IT companies operating.
5. Land has been taken by 11 companies for data centres, six have been completed, one of which is by a Japanese company.
6. The world’s third largest chip manufacturer Global Foundries Inc has a semi-conductor facility in Kolkata.
7. TCS alone employs 54,000 people. Building another campus which will employ 20,000 more.
8. Total direct employment of almost three lakh IT professionals.
9. IT exports from West Bengal crossed Rs 25,000 crore showing a growing knowledge economy
10. 3400 recognised start-ups launched in the last five years, created over 30,000 direct jobs.
11. 47 lakh youth have been skilled under Utkarsh Bangla scheme.
12. In the last six years, over 44,000 have been companies incorporated in Bengal.
13. West Bengal has over 20 lakh registered MSMEs which is the second highest in India.
14. Bhyabisyat Credit Card scheme for young entrepreneurs, offers subsidy linked and collateral free loans for setting up new ventures.
15. The Industry Sector registered a growth of 7.3%, higher than the national figure of 6.2%.
16. Bengal was ranked first nationally by SKOCH in Ease of Doing Business.
17. Eight editions of Bengal Global Business Summit (2015-2025) attracted cumulative investment proposals worth Rs 23,94,595 crore (USD 278 billion).
18. Two examples. Reliance invested Rs 50,000 crore in the last decade. There will be fresh investment of Rs 50,000 crore in next 10 years. ITC invested Rs 7500 crore. The group will be investing another Rs 1800 crore in the next three years.
19. Over 19 crore international and domestic tourists came to the state in 2024. Second highest number of international tourists visited Bengal among all states. Revenue of Rs 1 lakh crore generated from festivals alone.
20. Since 2011, 58 stadiums, 42 youth hostels, 5 indoor stadiums, 795 mini-indoor stadiums, over 4,000 multi-gyms, and 423 playgrounds have been established.
21. 1352 coaching camps have been given Rs 1 lakh each, and 34 sports organisations are being provided Rs 5 lakh annually.
22. 13 hostels have been established to provide safe and affordable rental housing for unmarried working women.
23. Lakshmir Bhandar scheme provides Rs 1200 per month to women from Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes and Rs 1000 to other women.
24. Between 2014 and 2023, while cyber-crime cases increased by 800% across the country, they decreased by 13% in Bengal.
25. Winners, a specially trained all-woman police squad, patrol the city on motorcycles, to check crimes against women.
26. Kolkata has been deemed by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) as the safest city for women, four years in a row.

This article was also published in NDTV | Thursday, January 15, 2026

“News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress, all the rest is advertising.” – Alfred Harmsworth, founder of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror.

Now consider this: A minister in a State government gives an outrageously arrogant reply to a senior journalist who asks the minister a specific question on deaths due to contaminated drinking water. The journalist shares the clip on social media. The media house also shares the clip from its official handle. What follows is an outpouring of support for the journalist for his courage and commitment. The media house deletes the social media post.

To be fair, the media house did not delete the story, nor did they act against the reporter. And the reporter did a follow-up story as well. However, to give context to what happened in media terms, consider these numbers. India has about 900 private television channels, half of which are dedicated to news coverage. 21 crore homes have television sets. Then there is social media, which has become the primary source of news consumption for a sizable portion of the population. A report by Reuters Institute revealed that seven out of ten people in India prefer to consume news content online, with half of them relying on social media. 54% consume news on Youtube, 48% on WhatsApp, and 35% on Facebook. These numbers will give you a fair idea about the ramifications of deleting a post that had gone viral on social media.

Let’s say it like it is. When a media house deletes a video clip from their social media handle, it is effectively like using water to douse flames. That raises the question: is editorial independence often sacrificed at the altar of corporate media ownership? When powerful conglomerates, who run big businesses, across sectors, also have stakes in media companies, is it only but natural that they would not want to rock the boat?

Here is some interesting data. In 2024, a pre-election analysis of the stories carried by news channels revealed that over half had anti-opposition themes, 27% were pro-government, and just over 1% were on substantive issues like jobs or education. As your columnist said on the floor of Parliament, “There is an old Zulu proverb. The problem with the media owners. A dog with a bone in its mouth cannot bark”.

India ranks 151 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2025. Here is the verbatim quote from the profile on India by Reporters Without Borders, which states that, “With an average of two to three journalists killed due to their work every year, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media. Journalists who are critical of the government are routinely subjected to online harassment, intimidation, threats and physical attacks, as well as criminal prosecutions and arbitrary arrests. They can be victims of violence, from police officers and political activists, as well as criminal groups and corrupt local officials”.

There are stories one would hear in (the now defunct) Central Hall of the not-so-subtle influence of the ruling party in setting the agenda for news outlets. The late Arun Jaitley had a whacky sense of humour; so even when we called him Plantation Manager (for allegedly planting pro-BJP stories in the media), he would laugh it off and even order a second round of toast with butter and coffee.

This is no laughing matter. If the fourth pillar of democracy is coerced and bludgeoned into submission, the very essence of democracy in India will be weakened.

Postscript: Any commentary on the Indian media would be incomplete without one factoid: the Prime Minister of India, now in his third term, is yet to make his debut at a press conference.

The Christian community must not fall into the trap of being only sucked into the headlines for “negative reasons”. Positive messaging is the key.

One country, two Christmases. Scene one: Kolkata, West Bengal. The resident of Calcutta (no, we are not touchy about the name) looks up, and there is definitely a snatch of song, a swiftly moving nip in the air. Before she can catch it, it is gone. But the Calcuttan knows that special feeling will return at the end of 2026. It will be back with the Christmas-themed lights on Park Street (now Mother Teresa Sarani), in the singing of carols on stages erected in parks, by buskers on city pavements, in cathedrals and chapels. The city’s iconic main street becomes “pedestrians only” for two nights. Churches shine bright with the light at the advent of a new season. Few cities in the world can match the festive fervour of togetherness and community. Christmas in Kolkata is not an occasion that pops by and goes away without leaving a trace. Like Durga Puja, and like Eid in the city, it takes its time, settles in, and savours the joy.

The Kolkata Christmas Festival, now in its 15th year, continues to uphold the centuries old tradition of the Boro Din (“big day”, as Christmas is traditionally referred to in Bangla). In the days leading up to it and the New Year, the festival is embraced by everyone. The lights, the decorations, the food. The choirs, the bands perform for anyone who will stop awhile and listen — and smile and sway to the music.

Scene Two: Somewhere in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan. No, this is not the Christmas we know. Harassing those earning a living selling Santa Claus caps on the roadside. Beating up those wearing them. Tearing down Christmas trees in malls. Ransacking decorations put up for the New Year. Threatening a congregation as they worship.

The images were in sharp contrast.

Father Cedric Prakash, a Gujarat-based senior Jesuit priest and rights activist, told your columnist: “What is happening to Christians in India today is not only unacceptable but blatantly unconstitutional. This is hypocritical. On one hand the Prime Minister pretends that all is well and does photo-ops in churches on Christmas Day, and then does not condemn the attacks on religious and social symbols associated with Christmas. It is also shameful that some of the Christian hierarchy and clergy are ensnared by the BJP’s wiles and selfish interests.”

A few hours after your columnist called out the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, the head of the largest body of Catholic bishops in India — for the first time in recent memory — put out a scathing message on video: “Peaceful carol singers and faithful gathered in churches have been targeted, causing fear and distress among law-abiding citizens who seek only to celebrate their faith in peace. Such incidents deeply wound the spirit of our Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion. I unequivocally condemn these acts of hatred and violence.”

The Christian community must not fall into the trap of being only sucked into the headlines for “negative reasons”. Positive messaging is the key. The community has made a significant contribution, especially in education and healthcare. Every year, 6 crore students are enrolled in the 54,000 Christian-run institutions across the country. At least three out of four students in these institutions are non-Christians — Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist. There is a long list of Union Cabinet ministers who are alumni of Christian-run institutions. J P Nadda, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ashwini Vaishnav, Jyotiraditya Scindia (and, of course, L K Advani) are just a few examples.

Healthcare institutions run by the community serve about 2 per cent of India’s population. Eighty per cent of this work is done in remote, medically unserved regions. During the pandemic, 60,000 inpatient beds were offered in over 1,000 hospitals. The Catholic Health Association of India, with over 3500 institutions, is the largest non-governmental healthcare network in India. The association consists of 76,000 health professionals, 25,000 nurses, 10,000 paramedics, and 15,000 social workers.

Colin Gonsalves, advocate, Supreme Court, points out: “Right from the Kandhamal riots, till today, allegations have been made against Christians. But no one will be able to show you a single conviction by a single court that even one person has forcibly converted somebody. It is all political propaganda, now rising to the level of violence. These kinds of attacks on Christians that are taking place across the country are akin to terrorism. There are 600 attacks per year on Christians. If the judiciary keeps silent, we have no one to protect us, and these kinds of terrorists carry on, because judges are silent.”

Amen.

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, January 2, 2026]

1.‘Right’ not a ‘Gift’

MGNREGA was conceived and executed as ‘Demand Driven’. In the new Bill, this has been changed to a ‘Supply Based’ central scheme. This reeks of the government’s zamindari or feudal mindset. Clearly, the government does not want anyone to have a ‘right’. MGNREGA was a RIGHT. They instead want to dish out doles before the polls, using the state exchequer for electoral ends. The new bill converts a right into a ‘gift’, making the workers dependent on the State’s benevolence.

2. Rural women hurt

These women are going to be the biggest losers. For the last five years, more than 50% of work under MNREGA has been done by women. In many states, women comprise 90% of the workforce. The money they got from MNREGA supplemented their household income. It kept their children in school, bought them their books and their new clothes. Gone. In the labour market, which usually prefers men over women, MGNREGA, for the first time, created gender pay-parity.

3. Switch off clause anti federal

The states will foot 40% of the cost- but the Union government will take the final call on all decisions- the budget of the scheme and where it will be implemented in a state. Now states have no right to decide where the scheme will be implemented. Again, this is feudalism, not federalism.

4. Why black out for 60 days

MGNREGA wages have been consistently far below the market rate. To say that it robbed workers during the agriculture season is reinforcing a stereotype. There is absolutely no evidence to draw this correlation. If at all, it strengthened the workers rights, to ask for better wages. One could also argue that it rationalized the labour market. But now many will ask: is this move aimed to provide cheap labour for corporates?

5. Not just a Congress or UPA legislation

The Act was born out of a people’s movement that went on for many years. It came from the grassroots. For a decade now, the Modi led government has tried to portray MNREGA as a Congress or UPA legislation. And in the end, it is clear as daylight that the petty mindset of this coalition government has removed it.

6. Another blow to federalism

The only federal aspect of the Bill was that a former Chief Minister of Gujarat got a former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh to carry out the assassination of MGNREGA. Ironically, between the two, they were Chief Ministers for a total of 29 years.

7. Transparency missing

This Bill being touted as ‘transparent’ in itself is an irony. No MGNREGA funds have been released to Bengal since March 2022. Prior to the suspension of funds, Bengal was among the top-performing States with 1.37 crore rural households receiving employment. The state today is owed Rs 52,000 crore, with 59 lakh registered workers deprived of wage payments for over three years

8. More legislation without consultation

It has become the habit of this government to bring in important legislation almost at the end of the session, only to pass it without due diligence or committee consultation. For example, in 2020, the Opposition had demanded that the three important Farm bills be sent to a Select Committee With this Bill too, there was no committee consultation, as proposed by the Opposition. It only reinforces the government’s apathy: in the 15th Lok Sabha (2019-14), seven out of 10 bills were sent to a committee for scrutiny. In the last two terms of this government, this number has crashed to three and two, respectively.

9. Insulting India’s icons

Removing Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the title of the new Bill is not just an insult to the Father of the Nation, but an insult to Rabindranath Tagore as well. It was the great poet who had conferred the title of ‘Mahatma’ to Gandhiji.

10. Guarantee? Security? Livelihood?

The original objective of MGNREGA was guarantee, livelihood and security. This Bill kills all three of these, just like the three bullets fired by Nathuram Godse that killed the Father of the Nation in 1948.

Postscript: Eight hours was allocated for the MNREGA debate in Rajya Sabha. It was the BJP who withdrew many of their speakers so that the debate could be wrapped up in just six hours!

[This article was also published in NDTV | Monday, December 21, 2025]

As you read this, the shortest Winter Session in Indian Parliamentary history will be coming to a close. Here are a few notes from my Parliamentary diary.

All-party meeting

It is customary for the Government to host an all-party meeting a day before each Session starts. Floor leaders from 36 political parties attended. Every party, except the BJP , made interventions outlining ‘key issues we want discussed’. The five ministers present at the meeting welcomed all representatives at 11 AM. At 1:30 PM, they politely thanked everyone present and said goodbye. So what did the government say at the meeting? Famous words – ‘We will get back to you’.

New MPs in the House

It was good to see Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, sitting in the visitors’ gallery of the Rajya Sabha. He was there to watch the three new MPs from his party being sworn in. Big moment for the J&K National Conference. All the three gentlemen were sharply dressed, two of them in suits.

Felicitations to the Chairman

On the first day of the Session, the new Rajya Sabha Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan was welcomed by MPs across all parties. Some used the opportunity of these speeches to gently make a few political points. This columnist too didn’t miss the chance. The new Chairman was urged to fix these dismal numbers: (a) Increase the number of sittings of the House; the First Lok Sabha sat for 45 days. Now just a 15 day Session. (b) Admit more ⁠notices in Rajya Sabha for discussion; 110 notices admitted for discussion between 2009-2016 down to a dismal 36 between 2017-2024. (c) Scrutinise more bills; in the 15th Lok Sabha (2009-14), seven out of ten bills were scrutinized by Parliamentary committees. In the 16th (2014-2019) and 17th Lok Sabha (2019-2024), this number fell to three and two, respectively.

Dog Fuss

An MP from an Opposition party drove into the precincts of the Parliament building with a dog in her car. What’s the big deal? Some over-the-top television channels played this up as if a national security breach had been created. Sigh.

Innovative protests

The standard operating procedure is for MPs to stage their protests at Makar Dwar, the area outside the main entrance to Parliament. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) tweaked this. Protests were held at different locations through the week: from the base of Gandhiji’s statue (now tucked far away from the action of the main building), to the lawns of Vijay Chowk, to the steps leading up to the old Parliament building. However, to protest the Prime Minister referring to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as ‘Bankim-da’, AITC chose an unusual location – a first. MPs from the party sat silently for ten minutes in the hallowed Central Hall holding posters of the writer of the national song and the writer of the national anthem, Rabindranath Tagore. Powerful imagery being used to drive home a point.

Cricketers in the House

Former cricket World Cup winners, and now Lok Sabha MPs, Kirti Azad and Yusuf Pathan, have a good attendance record. But we haven’t spotted Harbhajan Singh, Rajya Sabha MP from AAP, on the pitch in Parliament this Session. Is the off-spinner trying to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record for poor attendance in Parliament?

No Calling Attention Motion

This is an important Parliamentary device when a member of the opposition can draw the attention of a minister on a specific subject. This gives the opposition an opportunity to initiate a short debate on an important issue and hold the Government accountable. Once again, not a single Calling Attention Motion was accepted in either House.

Lesson from Nadda

By convention, when a Minister is speaking and a member of the opposition wants to interject, the Minister pauses, sits down – ‘yields’, so that the MP can make a point. It was heartening to see J.P. Nadda, the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, ‘yield’ twice during his speech to allow an Opposition MP to intervene. Good parliamentary practice. Home Minister Amit Shah might want to take a leaf out of J.P. Nadda’s book.

Meeting students

Your columnist had the opportunity of meeting a group of students in Parliament, who had travelled from Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand. Being a tour guide to the students was so much fun. Swathed in history, Central Hall turned out to be their favourite. One of the students got so emotional about the experience that she teared up. More young people should come to Central Hall to experience a very special space, now turned into a quasi-museum.

P.S: In April this year, the Proclamation of President’s Rule in Manipur was discussed at 1:00 AM. Two nights ago, the ‘Murder of MGNREGA Bill’ was discussed until 1:30 AM. Love for the nocturnal has its devious reasons.

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, December 19, 2025]

The SIR Is Not The Problem. The Way It’s Being Implemented Is. And Home Minister is in-charge of borders.

By the time you read this, the three day debate in Parliament on ‘150 years of Vande Mataram’ would have ended. The Union government made the discussion on the national song a non-negotiable condition before any other issue (electoral reforms/SIR) was taken up.

The Opposition were very keen to let Parliament function despite being up against a government who often makes a mockery of Parliament. Yes, a discussion on SIR was and continued to be top priority. 39 people have lost their lives in Bengal alone. However, in the spirit of parliamentary democracy, the Opposition decided to accept the Government’s proposal about the sequence in which the two issues would be taken up and made a tactical change.

As the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha proceed with their discussions, let’s be very clear. No one is against SIR (Special Intensive Revision) as a concept. No one is against having clean electoral rolls. It is the methodology and the haphazard implementation that is being questioned. We are looking for answers to many questions. Here are five of them.

Question One: Is SIR meant to protect the voter list or exclude basis identity?

Four states are going to elections in a few months. Assam, Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Three out of these four states are going through the SIR process. One state only has a ‘Simple Revision’. Ten points if you guessed Assam. Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland are all states that share borders with Bangladesh or Myanmar. Why is there no SIR being conducted in these states?

It is common knowledge that protecting borders (infiltration) is the responsibility of Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Reserve Police Force, Sashastra Seema Bal. These institutions are all under the Home Minister. So who should be held accountable?

Question Two: Are States being singled out?

There have been innumerable cases of Bengali-speaking citizens being targeted solely due to their mother-tongue. Those who speak Bengali in a different dialect have been labelled infiltrators. There are 4635 communities in India. Each one have their own distinct identity. Why do all of these diverse identities need to fit the Union Government’s ill-shaped cookie-cutter mold?

Question Three: Will the Union Government call for fresh elections?

The same electoral rolls that the Election Commission of India (ECI) now dismisses as unreliable were good to go for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Thereafter, the rolls were also deemed good enough for elections held in three states. Several questions arise. How did these rolls become defective overnight? And if they are indeed defective, should the Lok Sabha, elected through these supposedly compromised rolls, not be dissolved immediately? Will the Union Government call for fresh elections?

Question Four: Who is responsible for the human cost of this exercise?

SIR is being debated in Parliament. The Opposition will hold this Government accountable. Many issues will be raised about rushing the unplanned, SIR exercise. At the height of the Rabi season, why were thousands of farmers forced to stand in day-long queues? Why were daily-wage workers losing their wages running pillar to post to authenticate their documents? Why were development programmes in many states brought to a standstill? Who will take responsibility for the lives of Block Level Officers (BLOs) lost because of the inhuman psychological and physical pressures while executing SIR?

Question Five: Is the ECI taking enough accountability?

The ECI is a constitutional body. Its functioning should be non-partisan, above reproach. But what is happening in Bengal leading up to the Assembly elections deserves scrutiny. Here are two examples.
(i) Originally, to be a BLA (Booth Level Agent), one needed to be a registered elector in the ‘part of the Electoral roll’ for which he/she is appointed. This rule has now been changed. Now, even if a BLA is unavailable from the same part of the Electoral roll, a BLA can be appointed from any registered elector of the same Assembly Constituency.
(ii) There is an AI app being used to identify duplicate voters. There is no clarity about who built it, when the tenders were issued, or what data the app uses.

Looking for answers is not anti-national.

[This article was also published in NDTV | Wednesday, December 10, 2025]

As a responsible Opposition, it is our duty to protect the country’s independent institutions. So whether it is our Parliament, judiciary, Election Commission, RBI, central investigative agencies, or others, it is time we defeated all attempts to undermine them and destroy their autonomy. It is these vital institutions that protect the citizen against state power, that are empowered by the Constitution to stand as bulwarks against a rampaging executive. Above all, we need to protect our educational institutions, which have always been the first to come under attack — to indoctrinate, manipulate, control. The closing of the minds of the young has grave implications for our country’s future.

Institutes of higher learning include those built by the state and those built by individuals of extraordinary vision. Individuals with a Big Idea. Homi J Bhabha imagined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. J N Tata conceived the Indian Institute of Science. Madan Mohan Malaviya built Banaras Hindu University. Syed Ahmad Khan created Aligarh Muslim University. Bengal, too, contributed gems to this intellectual nation-building: Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva-Bharati University (1921) and P C Mahalanobis’s Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) (1931). If India ever declared “educational navratnas”, these institutions would be among the first to qualify.

Over the past decade, we have witnessed a tightening of the Union government’s control over autonomous institutions. Take the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). The Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017 gave them autonomy, with the power to choose their own directors and frame internal policies. However, the Indian Institutes of Management (Amendment) Act, 2023 reversed that sovereignty. Appointments of directors and key decisions must now be approved by the Ministry of Education and the President. The message was clear: Autonomy is a privilege, not a right. And it can be taken back.

Or consider Visva-Bharati. Tagore built it on the ideals of openness, interdisciplinary learning, and a deep humanism. Today, that fragile ecosystem is being forced into the rigid mould of the National Education Policy, 2020. Instead of academic help, faculty are being sent for administrative training under the Rashtriya Karmayogi programme. The mantra is conform, not flourish.

The Common University Entrance Test is an example of the broader attempt to impose conformism and homogeneity. In essence, the Union government took control of who enters a university, and how.

The Union government recently released the Draft Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2025 for public consultation. It proposes to transform ISI from a registered society into a statutory body, largely controlled by the Union government. The democratically structured 33-member council will be replaced by an 11-member board of governors, mostly nominated by the Union government. Clause 17 (5) says, “The Board shall, in the exercise of its power and discharge of its functions under this Act, be accountable to the Central Government.”

ISI is a product of the Bengal Renaissance, an era of intellectual courage, scientific rigour, and humanist values. Mahalanobis, its founder, was the architect of modern India’s statistical system. ISI’s strength has always been its independence: An environment where statisticians, economists, computer scientists, and mathematical thinkers could work free of bureaucratic interference. That independence is now under serious threat.

As the Union government attempts to bring more institutions under its direct command, one must ask: Is this really an attempt to strengthen education, or stifle it? An attempt to support institutions, or subordinate them? India will not progress by steamrolling its institutions into identical bureaucratic units, but only when its institutions are free to think, question, innovate. Control does not create quality. Freedom does.

“What is really needed to make democracy function is not knowledge of facts, but right education.” — Mahatma Gandhi, 1936.

P.S. Education is on the Concurrent List. If the Union government decides everything from admissions to governance, states are reduced from partners in nation-building to suppliers of campus space.

Let me say this again. The government is accountable to Parliament. Parliament is accountable to the people. When Parliament is dysfunctional, the government is accountable to no one.

Middle school civics books told us the three arms of the State are the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a body that squarely falls under the Executive while possessing certain quasi-judicial powers. And yet, we are now repeatedly told that the ECI is not accountable to Parliament. Incorrect . Parliament has the power to discuss the Election Commission of India. Why is the Government not allowing it?

Repeated Attempts to Discuss ECI

Over the last two sessions of Parliament, Opposition parties including INC, AITC, SP, DMK, AAP, RJD, SS (UBT), JMM and others filed over one hundred notices demanding a discussion related to the electoral process being more transparent. The Opposition were not fussy about which rule the discussion could be held under, and were also flexible about how the notice would be worded. What stopped the Narendra Modi led coalition from discussing even a notice titled: ‘74 Years of General Elections – Celebrating India’s Enduring Democratic Spirit’. Cold feet ?

Over the Budget and Monsoon sessions, the Modi government refused to engage in a discussion. The excuse cited was that Parliamentary rules do not allow for a debate on constitutional authorities.

What the Rules Actually Say

What do the Rules of Procedure actually say? Rule 169 prescribes the “Conditions of admissibility” for discussions of a matter of general public interest. Under this rule, there is no provision which bars or prevents a discussion on any Constitutional Authority, including the Election Commission of India.

There are multiple precedents of the ECI being discussed on the floor of Parliament. I can cite more than half a dozen examples. Here are just three: i) postponement of elections by the Chief Election Commissioner; ii) inadequacies in the electoral law in not providing a specific period for completion of a bye-election to Parliament; iii) delay in holding election to Delhi Metropolitan Council and bye-election in Garhwal Parliamentary Constituency.

There are several factors which do give Parliament the power to discuss the ECI.

Parliament’s “Power of the Purse”

The Parliament holds the “power of the purse”. This means that the budget of the Executive is subject to Parliamentary approval. Any budget is approved only after an exhaustive discussion and a scrutiny of the “Demand For Grants” by Parliament. There are certain exceptions to this such as the salary of judges of the Supreme Court which is not subject to a Parliamentary vote. This is done to protect the independence of the judiciary.

The budget of the ECI, however, is subject to Parliamentary approval and is presented by the Union government through the Ministry of Law and Justice. This means that Parliament does have the power to scrutinize and discuss the ECI by virtue of holding the “power of the purse”.

It is a violation of the powers of Parliament, therefore, when the government claims that lawmakers who approve the budget of the ECI do not have the right to discuss that institution.

Impact of the CEC and Other ECs Act 2023

This was a government which used their majority to pass the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023. Under this Bill (now an Act), the government eroded the independence of the ECI by giving itself complete and unfettered power to appoint the three election commissioners. However, that isn’t the key issue here.

What is important is, in the process of passing this Bill, Parliament conducted an extensive discussion on the functioning and conduct of the ECI. Therefore, it is ridiculous for the government to claim that “ECI cannot be discussed in Parliament” when precedent shows that the poll body was discussed for seven hours combined, in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, as recently as December 2023.

Elections are the bedrock of democracy. The existence of the government as well as Parliament is determined through elections. The integrity of our electoral process, therefore, hinges on the citizens of the country and their representatives being able to discuss and scrutinize the body which is solely responsible for the conduct of elections.

In the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, odds-on the Opposition will again demand a discussion on the ECI. Instead of hiding behind frivolous excuses, the government must respect the wishes of the citizens of India and participate in a frank and transparent discussion on the ECI.

P.S. According to rules in Parliament ‘a notice… should not be given publicity… until it has been admitted’. All the notices mentioned in this column were from earlier sessions, and have lapsed. This columnist hasn’t broken any rules!

[This article was also published in The Indian Express | Friday, November 21, 2025]