A survey on the use of money in gram panchayat elections in one Maharashtra taluka in 2017-18, found that at least half the voters had been offered cash. Yet, it is unclear how much did it influenced…
The many processes that go into the conduct of elections in India have begun to be undermined, in the process weakening the functioning of democracy itself. The Election Commission of India needs to…
Polling is based on sound statistical theory, but pollsters seldom divulge their polling methodologies for us to assess quality. There is enough room to question the study designs, possible selection…
When the Election Commission is the sole decider of a public ledger, the use of Blockchain to conduct polls & maintain voter lists may result in an unverifiable & highly insecure solution. A…
The BJP’s failure to wrest West Bengal is a vote against the centre, as well as a sign the TMC’s welfare programmes gained the incumbent support from sections that had earlier moved over to the…
There is crisis today in Indian democracy but the long-term context is a growth of ‘sub-democratic’ politics. This has made democracy vulnerable to erosion and capture as in the current regime. Can…
The 'jugaad'-like manner in which the VVPAT-machine has been inserted into India's electronic voting process has endangered security; the process safeguards that were earlier designed…
Since 2014, the BJP government has been steadily delegitimising federalism. It has been using soft & hard measures to realise its political & cultural vision of ‘One Nation, One India’, where…
It has now been revealed that one EVM supplier has been using chips that can be reprogrammed. While this still does not mean that hacking an EVM is easy, the issue of securing public confidence for…
Mainstream media was delegitimised over the past five years by the BJP government. Co-option and self-censorship by this media have followed. Alongside, the use of social media has grown hugely,…
