With a population of 1.4 billion, India is the world’s most populous country, home to 17% of the global population. Yet, with an average age of 29, it also has one of the youngest populations in the world.
A single election cycle would put in the hands of marginalised electorates and regional parties an instrument of change which was lost in the chaos of the continuous cycle of voting and campaigning
The argument is that repeated polls are expensive and also push political parties towards populistic promises. But the long term benefits they trigger might be greater.
On 21st June Union government announced the enforcement of the Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means ) Act, 2024 by releasing a statement: “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of Section 1 of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 (1 of 2024), the Central Government hereby appoints the 21st day of June 2024, as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force.”
The International Day of Democracy is celebrated worldwide on 15 September each year. It was established through a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly in 2007. It encourages governments to strengthen and consolidate democracy.
It is easy for a leader to work with hope when the party is on the rise and things are going well. It is far more difficult to maintain equanimity when the party is in decline. It is not easy to build alliances with those with whom one has ideological differences while maintaining one’s ideology which is contrary to that of the others. As it is, being Left in a capitalist system is difficult at the best of times. Perhaps JNU played a small part in making Sitaram Yechury what he was – an affable democrat who was widely admired.
Indian communism was at the crossroads in 1992 when the world changed. If Yechury, the communist who got it, had been given leadership then, Indian politics may have had a different trajectory