A recent survey found that security and empowerment of women was tenth most important in a list of 30 election issues. New Delhi: Who would have imagined that the roar of the angry crowds at India Gate in December 2012 would echo all the way to the general elections 18 months later? Who could have predicted […]
Political parties yet to move beyond symbols on women’s empowerment Read More »
States with the best sex ratios, gender indices elect the fewest women to Parliament. New Delhi: States with the best sex ratios and gender indices elect the fewest women to Parliament, finds a study conducted for Mint by IndiaSpend.com, a data journalism initiative. Conversely, states with poorer gender indices have the highest percentage of women Members of Parliament (MPs).
‘Empowered’ states have fewer women MPs Read More »
A slim optimism lies in the start to a conversation of a changed India, an India where women outnumbered men as voters in all five of the recently held assembly elections. A slim optimism lies in the start to a conversation of a changed India, an India where women outnumbered men as voters in all
A very tiny stepping stone Read More »
A photoshopped Twitter photo of Gul Panag with an AAP cap before she was named candidate from Chandigarh is just an example of blatant misogyny reserved for women politicians. New Delhi: If it hadn’t been so predictable, it might have been dismissed as a sick joke. But there it was, in full colour. Scantily dressed with
Women seeking political office face personal attacks Read More »
With very few exceptions, politics no longer attracts the brightest and the cleanest. In an environment where we assume sab neta chor hain we opt for the least unattractive. The names have begun trickling in and speculation is rife. The BJP has announced that former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, forced to step down after
Nota just a symbolic act Read More »
Paid news undermines democracy. Yet, as a sting operation goes public, why aren’t we more concerned? You didn’t need a survey to predict the reactions. As TV channel News Express broadcast a sting operation that showed as many as 11 polling agencies willing to tweak results for a price, the reactions by political parties played
A ruinous law of omerta Read More »
The SP deserves to lose. That’s a small compensation for those who live under open skies in the Muzaffarnagar riot relief camps, scrambling to rebuild what is left of their lives. ‘Live communities don’t wait for five years.’ Akhilesh Yadav might want to heed these words attributed to his party’s mentor, Ram Manohar Lohia, speaking
Akhilesh’s apathy towards UP riots victim is bewildering Read More »
Political parties are slowly realising that women constitute the largest vote-bank and they need to at least look concerned. But, dressed-up manifestos and sops like saris and pressure cookers won’t cut it any longer. I am a woman. When I vote, I do not cast my ballot because my husband tells me to vote for
I will vote as a woman Read More »
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate should know that national pride lies in not wanting the world to look at India in admiration. It lies in making your country a better place for its citizens. The man who hopes to be India’s next prime minister is talking about national pride. It will be built on the
Narendra Modi should make real promises, solve real issues Read More »
Now that Rahul Gandhi has termed the ordinance on convicted lawmakers ‘nonsense’, it is pretty much dead in the water. What remains to be seen is whether the government will follow through by also withdrawing the Bill. A few days from now we will witness that annual ritual known as Gandhi Jayanti when politicians trot
Voters will be watching Read More »
The most basic human act of one person telling another ‘I feel your pain,’ seems singularly absent in the landscape of Indian political-speak across parties and ideology. Nine days after 23 school children died and another 24 were hospitalised after eating a school lunch contaminated with pesticide, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar finally decided to
Never having to say sorry Read More »
Elections in India are not decided by Twitter trends or ‘likes’ on Facebook. Thanks to Twitter, I’ve now learned a new word: Feku. Even as Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi addressed meetings in New Delhi, the first at the FICCI Ladies Organisation and the second at CNN-IBN’s Think India festival, the hashtag, ‘Feku’ (boaster, teller
The stage’s virtually set Read More »