JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

NRIs can vote, but migrants?

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

THE election-conducting machinery in our country has made persistent efforts over the past 10 years to enable six million voters, who are physically out of the country where polls are being held, to cast their votes; whereas 285 million who are eligible to vote and are physically present in the

The declining aura of the Election Commission

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

In 2011, when then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited India, she referred to the Election Commission of India (ECI), as the “Gold Standard” in election management worldwide. The ECI, a constitutional body, started work on January 25, 1950, one day before the Constitution of India came into force

Democracy and migrants

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

The tragedy of migrant workers following the nation-wide lockdown, imposed with four hours’ notice on March 24, is still fresh in the national consciousness. The lockdown was first extended to April 14, and then to June 8. Thousands of migrant workers in cities were rendered out of work with no

Lives or livelihoods?

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

When a society laments the loss of an economy more than the loss of human life, it doesn’t need a virus, it’s already sick.”— Anon. AS the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus and lockdown fatigue sets in, how to end the lockdown is being widely discussed. In some

COVID-19 and democracy

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

It is not easy to get down to writing when the country, indeed the world, faces an uncertain future due to the coronavirus pandemic. But this is perhaps a good time to try and explore the impact of the coronavirus on democracy. It is well known that crises bring out

Are EVMs and VVPATs reliable?

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were first conceived by the Election Commission of India (ECI) as a replacement for the ballot paper and the ballot box in 1977. The design and development of the machine was entrusted to a public sector undertaking, the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) in Hyderabad

Are you a citizen?

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

Citizenship has been in the news for some time now and not necessarily for good reasons. The past month and a half seem to have made the focus on citizenship even sharper. The first place to look for what citizenship means should be the Constitution of India. And citizenship does find

Who ‘represents’ us?

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

India is a representative democracy. We, the citizens, are expected and required to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha and 4,120 members of various state assemblies as our ‘representatives’ roughly every five years. After we do our job of electing them, we do not think about how or well

The status of NOTA

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

The phrase ‘criminalisation of politics’ entered the Indian lexicon in 1993 when it was used by the Vohra Committee which had been set up “to take stock of all available information about the activities of crime syndicates/mafia organisations which had developed links with and were being protected by government functionaries

My name is Bond, Electoral Bond

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

The heading of my column is, obviously, an adaptation of a famous sentence written by Ian Fleming, creator of the iconic spy, James Bond. The same series had one more film titled Licence to Kill. It is a strange coincidence that while James Bond supposedly had the licence to kill the bad

Picking up the tab for elections

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

Who should pay for elections? This is a perennial question. The theoretical or philosophical perspective is straightforward. People contest elections to perform ‘public service’, therefore it is not fair to expect them to spend their personal money on contesting elections. Public money should be spent for the purpose. This is

Why is ‘one election’ a priority?

JAGDEEP CHHOKAR

Question: Who is likely to be the most knowledgeable on what electoral reforms are needed? Options: (a) Those who have contested one or more elections in the past 10 years. (b) Leaders of registered and recognised political parties. (c) The Election Commission of India. (d) Election experts who discuss elections