DEMOCRACY vs WHATSAPP
'Govt has majority, it can do whatever it wants'
'Parliament is productive when it passes large number of bills'
'Opposition only disrupts, nothing constructive'

We are all consuming these & similar narratives everyday and this is very dangerous for our…

My article for Verfassungsblog re-published in The Wire

I argue - #Parliament under effective control of Govt, judiciary refusing to stand up to executive & Govt not interested in deliberations, pose grave dangers to our constitutional #democracy

m.thewire.in/article/govern…

Timely intervention by government led to marked deterioration in Parliament's functioning!

Parliament Questions are effective tools for #advocacy .

In collab with ASAR, we are organising a webinar - Engaging on Air Quality issues using #RTI and #Parliamentary Questions

Date: 12th April 2024
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 pm

If interested, register here:
zoom.us/meeting/regist…

Current Govt is not keen on deliberation, evident from lack of debates in #Parliament & its Committees.

'Deliberation backsliding' leads to 'democratic backsliding' in India.

Maansi Verma writes for Verfassungsblog about its dangers to #Constitution -verfassungsblog.de/amending-the-c…

I argue that 'promise of deliberative #democracy in #India is coming undone, which sets back the project of constitutionalism' for Verfassungsblog

We face the dangerous possibility of critical amendments in #Constitution without deliberation

Please read-verfassungsblog.de/amending-the-c…

🚨Earlier today, 11 civil society organisations wrote to the Election Commission of India, expressing their collective concerns over the integrity of the #Elections2024 & urging them to uphold the principles of free & fair elections against the many challenges it faces. 1/7
internetfreedom.in/civil-society-…

Really good to see parliamentary reforms as part of Manifestos of some of the parties in #India . This would be true manifestation of #Democracy

Do #LokSabhaElections2024 candidates even understand the gravity of their role & work if elected?
How casually saying that their work won't matter!

Do they know that in parliamentary democracy, people elect MPs, who in turn choose the PM & their job is to keep Govt accountable?

Accompanying this article, is another article, written in 2019, in which I had argued how #Parliament was undermined in the passing of the Bill to reorganise the state of #JammuKashmir into two UTs. Read here - epw.in/engage/article…

Yes! And not just in last 6 months, for years before #CAA was enacted, India had already been granting citizenship to refugees from neighbouring countries. This is as per Govt's own data given in #Parliament . See in this tweet -
x.com/_maadhyam_/sta…

Uff! So much unlearning is needed.

First, the Govt itself disagrees with your point that 'citizenship laws or giving citizenship to asylum seekers does not need opinion of people'? When #CAA was first introduced in 2016 as a Bill, it was sent to a Joint #Parliament Committee,…

the 'only' point that a citizen must know about the #CAARules is the one flagged by this tweet -
'violation of Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy, 2014'

everything else is noise.

NO public consultations happened on the #CAARules at all! This is a violation of Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy, 2014.

In 2022, Home Ministry told Parliament Committee that it needed more time to frame #CAARules as 'consultation process' was on (thehindu.com/news/national/…)
Who…

#CAA is not what it is claimed to be. As you read and analyse the #CAA rules, keep this #Thread in mind.

Along with this important #thread , read our #thread on how the Bill regarding #ElectionCommission was introduced in haste and passed amid opposition!

x.com/_maadhyam_/sta…