Recent Summit for Democracy and Its Implications
A Summit for Democracy was held on December 9-10,2021, with nearly a hundred government delegations, 50 world leaders on the screen, many civil society actors, many members of various Parliaments, and the private sector. The President of the oldest democracy in the world, Mr Biden said in this context: ” Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to renew it with each generation”. One of the organising officials also said: “And our hope is that through the entirety of this process, we can really have a dialogue between participating govern…
We are in a Participatory Democracy
What Do We Want ? Firstly, democracy is a method of ordering human relations in a civilised way, so as not to allow the brute force of one person or several of them to dominate the persons in the society. We have adopted the method of governance by the Representatives elected periodically by the people, who make laws which rule all of us, including the Representatives. The process would see that ultimately the Absolute Power vests with the people and that they could effectively exercise it. To implement that objective, firstly, the Pow…
Positive Participation in Societal Matters
Though democracy means self-governance by direct participation of the citizens, we have had to adopt a representative system since we are in large numbers and that all of us cannot participate all the time. Especially at that time. The Representatives are expected to transmit and to translate the will and wishes of the people into rules, regulations and laws as an indirect way of self-governance. Though they are never to be the rulers like the Sultans and Maharajahs, many common people are expecting them to behave like the previous princes a…
Whither CSR Funds?
Observing that many Union, state and municipal governments are trying to put pressure on many enterprises in the country, to divert the CSR funds to their official and unofficial initiatives and projects, instead of their being routed through the civil society organisations, the following message is sent to many office-bearers of the federations of the enterprises in the country: Dear Sir/ Madam, When our Parliament passed a legislation on Corporate Social Responsibility, it wanted that the dynami…
To Hold or Not to Hold : Gram Panchayat Elections
O n the National Voters’ Day January 25, 2021 the Supreme Court has come out with its judgment in favour of the decisions taken by the State Election Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh regarding the conduct of Gram Panchayat elections, we would like to express our following observations. The incumbent State Election Commissioner deserves to be commended for tenaciously pursuing his mandate as a constitutional authority, without bowing before serious political pressures from the government of the day, like Mr. Seshan who has alrea…
Unfair to Blame the Urban Residents
Rao V.B.J. Chelikani About 46.5 per cent of the Hyderabadis have gone to the polling stations to vote in the GHMC elections on 1st December. The figure is understandable and even slightly higher than that of 2016. Nothing warrants us to expect more and be disappointed. Even among those 34 lakhs who voted, 80% are living in populous and low-income areas or 'bastis' and they have voted because the political parties have collectively spent some Rs 320 crores on them, along with promises to do other things. Others voted because of…
Love Thy Neighbour, Not the Government - Some Ways of Expressing Social Solidarity
As a lasting solution for any crisis, small or big, and for life after the crisis, we should absolutely organise one or several networks of mutual social protection by way of contributory insurance institutions Rao VBJ Chelikani We have to invent many more ways for people to express their innate sense of human compassion and social solidarity, directly and continuously which would promote more trust and faith in each other among those who are living together in a given community. Struggling together to obtain something or sharing something whi…
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