Personal View

Voters have given the top job back to Modi, but with a warning Alok Tiwari As I write this, the results of Lok Sabha elections continue to pour in. To a surprise of a lot of people, the Bharatiya Janata Party is struggling to touch 240 mark. That represents a drop of more than 60 seats from its tally of 303 in the outgoing Lok Sabha. On the other hand, a resurgent Congress is close to 100 mark. Yet, the INDIA grouping it leads is still far from a clear majority. This bodes a period of political uncertainty. It is reflected in the stock market that rose more than 2300 points on Monday on the back of exit polls predicting another BJP landslide but fell over 5000 points on Tuesday as political picture muddied. It is a result that has disappointed both supporters and detractors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the coming days and weeks, the results will be analyzed threadbare. Parties as well as pundits will no doubt parse through local issues, candidate selection, alliances or lack of ...

India needs to raise its foreign policy game to meet Trump’s challenge Alok Tiwari If there was any doubt that the US president Donald Trump was singling India out for special treatment, it was laid to rest last week when he imposed a massive one lakh dollar fee on H1B visas. The visa, meant for skilled foreign workers, is the route most Indians take to find work in the US, usually after completing their studies in an American university. Nearly three-fourths of H1B visas issued go to Indians. Another 12 percent or so go to the Chinese, with all other countries sharing the remaining. Before this, too, Trump had imposed a punitive 50% tariff on India ostensibly for continuing to buy Russian oil. That this is just a façade is clear because he has cooled off his trade war with China that buys much more Russian oil. Same with Europe. India was set to be among the first ones to complete a trade deal with the US when Trump unleashed his global tariffs. But since then, the negotiations are dr...

There is no accountability for people meant to keep us safe By Alok Tiwari Even by usually low standards of safety in Indian cities, the month of May has been bad. A huge hoarding collapsed during a dust storm in Mumbai and killed 16 persons. A few days later it was a fire in a gaming arcade in Rajkot that claimed 27 lives. Then a blast in Dombivli chemical unit resulted in death of 11. As I write this, the headline is about six newborns dying in a hospital fire in country’s capital Delhi. In between, we were transfixed by a drunk teen without licence driving a Porsche and mowing down two persons in the prime of their lives. These are over and above the usual run-of-the-mill accidents and incidents where individuals continue to die and which barely make the news. As the world’s most populous nation, some devaluation of human lives here is a given. But these incidents stand out not only for the scale of tragedy but also the scale of disregard for norms. These have not happened in ...

A lot can be done to increase voter turnout in our elections Alok Tiwari As we approach the end of a long winded general elections, the thing everyone seems concerned about is relatively low voting percentage. To be sure, the gap with last general elections in 2019 has narrowed as the elections progressed but there is no denying, the voting this time has been less. Only in rare constituencies has voting been the same or more than last time. In most places it is anything between 2 to 5 percent less. What this means politically is for the pundits to divine. But it is obvious it is not a very healthy thing for our democracy. Lack of voter participation directly means that a party or alliance supported by a minority gets to power. Typically, the party that gets around 40% of the votes ascends to power. If the voting has only been 55-60%, then a party or an alliance preferred by only 22-24% of the total number of voters will form government. In other words, we get a government that thre...

Aftermath of Charlie Kirk murder underlines moral confusion of our times Alok Tiwari The killing of right-wing extremist Charlie Kirk in the US last week and its aftermath has sparked an intense debate on how such characters are to be remembered. Kirk used his charisma and mastery of social media to promote an extreme conservative agenda across the US and abroad. His tirades targeted entire communities including blacks, immigrants, gays, and transgenders. Though he denied being a racist, but his vision of America unambiguously was one led by white Christian majority. Unsurprisingly, that made him a darling of the vocal right-wing. After his killing, they, fully supported by the Trump administration, are spending considerable resources in mythologising him as some kind of hero. For others, though, he was anything but. It was a relief that his killer turned out to be from a gun-owning conservative family. Had it been from any of the groups that he so hatefully targeted, there would...

Mechanism is needed to address trust issues between professionals and clients By Alok Tiwari The Supreme Court sure provided a lot of solace to lawyers around the country this week by ruling that they are not covered under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). While the judgment would definitely warm the cockles of lawyers’ hearts, it would equally raise the hackles of doctors. Because the same court, almost 30 years ago, had brought the doctors under the purview of CPA. Dozens of doctors have since been sued in consumer forums across the country and some have been held as having offered deficiency in service. The judgment of course makes it clear that lawyers, like any other citizen, can still be sued in civil or criminal courts for wrongdoing. However, from the common man’s point of view, going to consumer forum is by far the least complicated and least expensive way to get damages for being short-shrifted. One doesn’t even need to engage a lawyer. Though in recent times the forums have...

Monday massacre claims Oli govt but throws the Himalayan state in disarray Alok Tiwari Protests, massacre, and fall of a government over denial of social media apps? Who’da thunk? Yet, this is exactly what happened in neighbouring Nepal. Nineteen persons, mostly youngsters, were killed when forces opened fire to disperse them in capital Kathmandu. Three more died later and over 300 were left injured. They were marching to the country’s parliament against a ban imposed last week on 26 social media apps, including popular ones like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat. As protests and violence got out of hand, events unfolded quickly. After holding out for a day Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli resigned. Mobs set fire to important government buildings and chased ministers on the streets. Demonstrations spread to other cities even as government withdrew its ban on apps. There was no let up in popular anger that is now directed towards more than just denial of social medi...

Brazen use of law enforcement to intimidate Opposition has been an issue for some time By Alok Tiwari A functioning democracy is run as much by the letter of the Constitution as by its spirit. Major players in the polity abide by the formally enacted laws and rules framed under them. They are also expected to adhere to conventions that are dictated by principles of decency, fair play, and justice. Since laws cannot cover all circumstances and every sort of behaviour that politicians and parties might indulge in, these principles have a major role to play. Some issues can be resolved by the judiciary. But it too often limits itself to the enacted letter of the law rather than thinking beyond it. Of course, it does shine a light based on political culture and traditions in grey areas, but ultimate outcome depends upon the inherent qualities of individuals running the show. There is no denying that there has been an obvious and visible degradation of political culture in recent time...

Mandatory digital funding and audit will make politics clean Alok Tiwari By dealing a fatal blow to electoral bonds, the supreme court has not only removed a major source of corruption in the polity but also salvaged its own reputation as an independent institution that is able to stand up to an overbearing and arrogant government. This column (LT, Nov 5, 2023) had highlighted some of the concerns that the apex court has flagged about the ill-advised electoral bonds scheme that brazenly legitimized corruption. The bonds enabled any individual or entity to fund any political party in complete anonymity. This meant the voters had no chance to ever find out if such donations had influenced the policies in favour of any individual, company, or a group. Adding a truly Goebbelsian touch, the government tried to sell the scheme in the name of transparency when it sought to do exactly the opposite. It is no surprise that the bulk of the funding through bonds went to the ruling party. It is...

Epic disasters in the Himalayas call for a new, climate-resilient development Alok Tiwari The hill regions of India, particularly the Himalayas, have always been a source of joy and pride. Their breathtaking beauty, enjoyable weather, and wonderful people have mesmerised visitors for centuries. These days, though, they have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Last month has seen a string of disasters from Uttarakhand to Himachal to Jammu and Kashmir. In Uttarakhand, a possible breach of glacial lake swept away part of Dharali village. The disaster was recorded in real time by onlookers on a nearby hill as a wall of mud and water overwhelmed the village. Officially the toll was put at six even though nearly a hundred remain missing and are presumed dead. Shortly afterwards, record heavy rains caused flooding, landslides, and sinking of land is several parts of Jammu and Kashmir. The combined toll of these as of now has been put at 122 and will almost certainly rise as many...

Pakistan voters have delivered a message to people aspiring for democracy everywhere Alok Tiwari The conventional wisdom in Pakistan is that no matter who wins the elections, it is the generals who are in charge. Often it is official when the army takes over through a coup. At other times, they are de facto rulers while nominally having a civilian government. It is allowed some leeway but cannot do anything that the generals strongly disapprove. In the past, no prime minister has ever lasted by defying the army. This was set to continue even after the latest elections held last week and whose results are still coming in. The generals had it all planned. Ousted prime minister Imran Khan, who had openly turned against the army in the latter part of his term, was in jail. For good measure, the courts convicted him on couple of counts just before elections handing him long prison sentences. The army had pressured most of the important leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party...