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Bangladesh Needs Justice Beyond the Politics of Power

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and his government should support impartial investigations, act against demonstrably fabricated prosecutions and review provisions that can prevent judicial determination of responsibility for alleged unlawful killings. 

The Mock Parliament That Gave a New Twist to India's Political Churn

Critics dismissed it as  juvenile  and a mockery of democracy,  but  a purely theatrical exercise does not sustain that length, that number of listed speeches, or that degree of procedural discipline. It remained, however, an innovative symbolic exercise with no government or Election Commission presence and no legal power to remove anyone.

Why Society Needs to Shape its Politics - and not Politics Society

Economists, scientists, journalists, authors, professionals and other knowledgeable individuals can contribute to society by explaining complex issues, questioning assumptions and encouraging evidence-based discussion.Their role need not be confined to supporting or opposing political parties. 

Mumbai's Civic Engagement Initiative: Who is it Meant to Serve?

In a city where marginalised communities have limited digital access, a platform built around online portals and project briefs is already exclusionary by design.Without offline channels, the platform risks serving the already organised rather than those it claims to reach.

More on Governance, Public Policy, Politics and Law

Who Governs Islamabad? A Capital Without its Governance

This raises the issue not whether Islamabad has surpassed its outmoded and fragmented administrative structure but whether governance would keep pace with its growth. Islamabad has to evolve from being administered as a capital city into being governed as a metropolis.
 

Whither Constitutional Equality and Laws Against Discrimination? A Manipuri Musician's Murder Raises Governance Questions Anew

The inhabitants of Manipur have had long-standing experiences of living insecurely in their own homeland, even as migrants from the Northeast have encountered prejudice in metropolitan India....India has produced a paradox where communities that belong formally to India can also face exclusion from the social mainstream.

When Development Uproots the Roots: Reimagining India's Development Policy

Before asking how quickly a project can be implemented, policymakers should ask whether it can be redesigned to reduce displacement. Before acquiring new land, can existing degraded land be used? Can infrastructure be built around communities rather than communities being moved around infrastructure?

The Forensic-Security Convergence: Mitigating Cross-Border Identity Fraud and Financial Subversion

Identity and financial crimes that occur across India's borders never begin with anything overtly fraudulent. They generally begin with a small breach in routine authentication processes. Biometrics, forensic document examination, and audit trails can each 

Constitutional Supremacy vs. Parliamentary Sovereignty Debate: Parliament is a Creature of the Constitution, not its Master

India’s constitutional design operates on the line of a fully functional parliamentary democracy anchored in constitutional supremacy rather than parliamentary sovereignty. In an era of evolving challenges, the supremacy of the Constitution continues to serve as the ultimate safeguard of Indian polity.

Born Together, Governed Apart: How India and Pakistan Became Two Different Political Civilizations

Eighty years after Partition, the overarching lesson of this comparative history of India and Pakistan is that national trajectories are not preordained by culture, talent, or geography. They are determined by the rules and values a state enshrines for itself in its formative years.

Re-engineering India's Grassroots Administration: A New Bottom-Up Development Model

It is time the Indian district administration’s focus shifts to economic development and prosperity-building through strategic planning, resource mobilisation, and effective resource allocation; productivity enhancement, competitiveness, skill-building, employment generation and ensuring the security of life and property.

Imran Khan, the Cricketing World and the Paradox Confronting Pakistan

The man who once led Pakistan to its only World Cup triumph has now become the subject of an international cricketing appeal for humane treatment. The more the authorities try to keep his story behind prison walls, the more the cricketing world appears determined to take it beyond them.

Pakistan's "Collapsed" System: Military Power Cannot Substitute for Political Legitimacy or Economic Development

The common thread running through the remarks of Asif, Naqvi and Fazlur Rehman is that Pakistan's problem is no longer simply who governs it. It is how it is governed. Asif's comparison with India highlights the widening developmental gap.

Judicial Exceptionalism in Imran Khan's Medical Case: Question of Equality Before Law in Pakistan

It will answer a question Pakistan's judiciary cannot avoid indefinitely: will courts now extend this standard of care to every other prisoner in the country, or does it remain, in practice, a privilege of rank.

Jharkhand’s Unfulfilled Promise: Gen Z Sends a Clear Political Message From Ranchi

Jharkhand's challenge, therefore, is larger than filling vacancies. It is to rebuild the social contract between statehood and aspiration. The generation now protesting did not create Jharkhand. It inherited the dream. Its question is whether that dream has become a lived reality.

Gen Z Should Guard Against Political Hijacking of Their Movement and Concerns

The challenge before Gen Z is therefore not to remain apolitical. It is to remain politically aware without becoming politically captive; to raise legitimate issues, demand change and participate in democracy, while retaining the independence to decide where the movement should go.

80 Years On, Is India Still Being Policed by the Raj?

Eighty years ago India lowered the Union Jack and raised the tricolor. It did not, however, lower the 1861 Police Act. It was amended and sections renamed but the colonial DNA remained in place: that the citizen is a subject to be controlled, not an empowered  rights bearer to be heard.

Two Years After the July Uprising, Bangladesh's Press Freedom Remains Under Question

Another defining feature of Bangladesh's current media environment is the emergence of "mob culture." The attack on The Daily Star and Prothom Alo offices is a serious example of mob attack. Media owners often hesitate to invite commentators associated with the previous government or opposing political viewpoints because they fear public backlash, protests, or attacks 

India Loves Political Scandals, But Don't Care How They End Up

For decades, Bofors was treated as a national scandal of almost Biblical proportions, with international ramifications. All guns ablaze. Yet when its judicial afterlife finally reaches a dead end, the story seems to have lost its political ammunition. Not even a recall that the much-maligned gun, which was accused of backfiring at those who fired, not at the target, had vindicated its purchase during the 1999 Kargil conflict.  

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