The state of Bihar constitutes India’s more than 10 crore population. Despite of having a huge chunk of population the health infrastructure of the state doesn’t cater to the growing demographic demand. Bihar remained at the bottom in the health index prepared by the 

 in the last two years and still remains unequal for a large section of the state’s population.

Last year Bihar received an amount of Rs.3300 crore from the central government under the 

 but utilised only 50% of it. It also received a hefty amount of Rs.300 crore under the 

 for revamping and expanding the reach of healthcare infrastructure but nothing concrete happened on the ground.

 wrecked havoc in the state, taking the lives of 175 people last year.

 2019-20, there are only 311 vacancy for the specialist doctors out of 701 sanctioned posts. Among the general doctors, out of 695 sanctioned posts, only 349 vacancies have been notified, this means a shortage of about 50% doctors in public health facilities. There is a significant shortage in the number of staff nurses and auxiliary nurse midwives as well.

In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra announced the setting up of 

 (HWC) with yoga facilities, diabetes and cancer screening under the 

 but not much is seen on the ground. According to Rajeev Kamal Kumar, an Assistant Professor at AN Sinha Institute, the healthcare facilities at block level are not much equipped to deal with secondary and tertiary level healthcare needs, except the medical colleges which bear the brunt of a huge chunk of the population.

One of the major challenges in the governance of health systems lies in the administrative framework. The size and the organisational framework of the state’s health department is limited. It is heavily centralised with no separate secretariat and directorate. There is also less autonomy given to health and medical services, medical education, food safety and drug control. The senior most position is occupied by a generalist rather than a specialist having knowledge of public health and medical education. No director level post has a public health expert sitting on it. Due to this the state health department is poorly equipped for public health disasters like the COVID-19 pandemic. 

, created as a special purpose vehicle under the 

 has limited its function to only policy implementation rather than drafting and formulation.

To strengthen the already ailing health sector of Bihar, it is required to immediately revamp its primary health sector. More 

 (PHCs) should be built to reach the masses. Building more sub-health centres and recruiting more 

 workers with better remunerations is the need of the hour since the 

 workers are among the front line health warriors of the country. Strict monitoring of nutritional norms prescribed for the children and women should be implemented with optimum distribution of health care workers like doctors, nurses and other para-medical staff. Investing more in healthcare to build more medical colleges and encouraging research and development in finding the root causes of severe diseases is the need of the hour.

The contemporary times call for a robust state involvement in basic sectors like health and education. A better and robust public health system can reach out to the most marginalised sections of our country who are left out of the quality healthcare system which has become a lucrative thing, affordable only for the well-offs. The time is ripe to strengthen the public health system and strive for inclusive and equitable growth.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members.

BIHAR’S CRUMBLING HEALTH SECTOR: A NEED FOR MAJOR REFORM

On March 24, the Prime Minister urged the people of the country not to move out of their houses and to not trespass the ‘

’ of their homes in order to break the chain of corona virus transmission. The Prime Minster equated the first 21 days of the lockdown with the 

’. His address was full of vigor and strength and gave immense hope to the people, but has the decision reached its objective? With a constant rise in cases since the first reported case on January 30, the decrease in the spread of infection seems like a distant goal. Our government claimed that the country is lucky because the virus here reached late, and hence there was an opportunity for us to learn from the other countries and impose a timely lockdown. But what went wrong during the lockdown that the surge in cases is still not stopping and has increased exponentially? Was the government ignorant about the virus or inefficient in handling the crisis? 

third worst affected country in the world

 surpassing all the severely affected countries like 

 of international concern on January 30, 2020. It was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, following the spread of it in 114 countries with 118,000 cases and 4291 deaths. In 

, the first case of COVID-19 was detected on January 30 in 

 district in a student who had returned from 

, the epicenter of the pandemic. Since then the number of cases has risen continuously taking the toll from 1 on January 30 to 618 cases on March 24. Although mandatory international passenger screening was introduced on March 4 cases continued to rise after that, since a large chunk of people from outside the country had already entered unchecked before the date. Several states started imposing restrictions on trade, socio-cultural activities and closing educational institutions. It was on March 24 that a nationwide lockdown was imposed restricting both international and domestic air traffic, social, cultural and all kinds of economic activities, except essential services. The government lauded that it was pro-active in imposing timely lockdown learning from countries like Italy and Spain who were late in imposing complete lockdown, leading to a catastrophic situation in their countries. The government also claimed from an unknown study that if there was no lockdown the number of cases would have reached 8.2 lakh by April 15. But today the situation is explicit which no one can deny. The main objective of the lockdown has failed with constant rise in number of cases and fatalities. Ease in lockdown has made the situation from bad to worse. There are several reasons that can be attributed for the lockdown not reaching its consequences.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

 in the first week of April recommended the government that a house to house surveillance mechanism should be set-up in each district. People showing the COVID-19 symptoms should be immediately detected and quarantined without awaiting test results. If after 14 days of quarantine such individuals show signs of recovery and cases decline by 40% in a district, and if the healthcare infrastructure is ready to tackle further increase only then the lockdown should be lifted.

For the first six weeks and two extensions later, there was neither house to house surveillance system nor the follow up of decision-making tree of 

. Instead the central government decided on parameters to classify the districts into green, orange and red zones to ease the restrictions, the details of which were not revealed to the state governments. As a result, there were 67000 cases by May 11. Imposing a lockdown with a four-hour notice with an unscientific temperament held the lives of millions of migrant laborers at ransom.

We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test

”. Despite knowing that COVID-19 is a public health emergency and a pandemic, the 

 procured very limited number of testing kits. ICMR’s press release indicates that by March 6 only 3404 individuals were tested. By March 20 it increased to 13,486 tests (10.5 per million people). Till May 19, 

 conducted around 1700 tests per million while the 

 stood at 36,961, 51,347, 29,412 and 50,381 tests per million respectively. Adding up to the worry was the charge of Rs.4500 levied by private labs per test unaffordable for the underprivileged. There were news from around the country about the shortage of PPE kits and protective gears as well. 

The biggest issue with lockdown is that many national responses think of it as a main or only measure of control-it is not, it is a component of an overall comprehensive strategy, which must use the time to prepare health systems, populations and supply chains”

, there is no single formula to resolve the crisis, a lockdown that focused on public health, and not law and order, is more likely to take a country to the shore. In addition to this, the government had ignored the advice of several epidemiologists. The graph below shows India’s tests per thousand people compared with other countries as of June 17, 2020.

, a former Secretary to the government said in an interview with 

does not believe in consultations. His government is run by a few yes-men. In times of such crises, you need discussion, first within the cabinet, then with bureaucrats, and you need contrary opinions”.

 explains that the country was put on a sudden hold without even consulting state governments and without assessing the ground level situation. Migrants returning to their homes were even sprayed with disinfectants in 

) was imposed by giving a prior notice of four days and just a four-hour notice for a countrywide lockdown of 21 days, it is no surprise that the Prime Minister is habitual of giving such surprises. The Government didn’t anticipate the exodus and didn’t take into account the plight of migrant workers. The Prime Minister has not given a single press conference during the pandemic, seems like he just believes in delivering a monologue.

 only if the lockdown was delayed by about fifteen days, it would have allowed the firms to complete their orders placed to them during the last quarter of the year leading to realization of most of the transaction in 2019-20. The sudden shutdown of the economy rendered million jobless. A survey conducted by 

 tells that 90% of the workers received no salaries from their employers and 96% received no rations from the government. A glorious ‘20 lakh crore package’ was announced by the PM without telling how it would be financed. According to some economists, about 16.50 lakh crore have been vanished from the economy, thus the government would find difficulty in reaching its revenue targets.

The government has disrespected their workers in times of need. The crony capitalism and hollow promises of government has broken the trust of the workers. Pity politics over the plight of migrants was heart wrenching. The Prime Minister requested the owners to not lay off their workers and pay them fully while the reality was totally opposite. With draining resources and activities at standstill how can the government expect the employers to pay their employees? It was an irony when the PM urged the people of 

’ while they continued to sell non-strategic PSUs and inviting private sector investments in every sector promoting disinvestment. Is this self-reliance? Or the government is escaping from its responsibilities?

It is high time that the government realizes its shortcomings and emulate successful models of 

 leading. The citizens should realize that the government is fighting a war on two fronts viz. 

 aggression. The government must ensure that only a transparent, scientific and democratic discourse should be established while involving citizens and experts in decision making to evade these tough times as soon as possible.

The Lockdown – A Spectacular Failure

The country where heterodoxy and pluralism were its integral part has again started feeling uneasy with a surge in communal fight among different religious communities and growing religious fundamentalism among the people. Even some mainstream media and right-wing political groups left no stone unturned to give the 

 crisis a communal color when they found that a congregation of 

. The communal furore with religious fundamentalism time and again strikes the political currents disturbing the social harmony and when people start safeguarding their religious interests.

However Fundamentalism and Communalism connotes different meanings there usage is often associated with tension between two or more religious communities. ‘

’ primarily means the revival of traditional and orthodox believes pertaining to any religion the influence of which has diminished in the modern world. ‘

’ on the other hand is the consolidation of the people belonging to a particular faith or religion and putting them under the umbrella of common identity. ‘

’ aims to revive the age old orthodox and conservative beliefs written in scriptures where questioning them is termed as a violation of religion itself. Religious fundamentalism becomes communal when members of a particular religion ordain their own beliefs and ideas as superior over the other one. This results in communal hatred between people of different faiths leading to violence and bloodshed that we recently witnessed in the 

 has always been a land of pluralism and heterodoxy with the echoing ethos of ‘unity in diversity’. Here the emperor 

 propagated the idea of religious pluralism around the world, 

 religion) sought to adapt good points from all different religions. In 

 (scholar and teacher) faces tough question from a woman scholar 

 politely answers. Such a legacy of multi-culturalism and debate has been distorted by fundamentalist thoughts in modern day 

. Although these communal seeds were sown by 

 to rule over us but our politicians used this method to remain in power and spread communal hatred among people.

 experienced high levels of religion related social hostilities in the past decade with much of the attacks targeted against religious minorities and 

. In recent years there has been a surge in mob attacks by 

 consumers and traders in the beef, dairy and leather industries.

Communal disturbance between different religions is not a new phenomenon, it is present from the days of national struggle for independence. 

 there have always been incidents which gave the spark to the rise of religious fundamentalism in 

. Fundamentalism could be seen as a reaction of a religious community due to suppression of their political, social or economic voice. The world saw the rise of 

 due to the suppression of their powers and views in middle-east by the west. 

 for their political gains which has become a menace for the humanity. The incident of 

 with more vigor. According to an article written by 

 he says that there is a surge in the converts of 

, pushing their ultra-conservative ideology, has disturbed sections of

. A few months ago some of its leaders sought government intervention to check its spread

 in recent years which preach ideas repugnant to age old 

 in recent years has instilled fear in the minds of 

 right-wing groups. They blame the previous governments for not interfering in the funding of such fundamentalist groups. Their reaction is accompanied by communal ideology with the use of violence and hatred against 

 militant groups gets the support of the government in power many a times getting away with after committing heinous crimes. Mob-lynching of 

 always finds a mention as a gruesome attack on a man by the people of a right-wing militant group promoting cow-vigilantism. The killing of 

) is not to forget, after his death member of a militant 

.” There have been many such incidents of murder of secularists and those who criticized the 

 extremists in the name of cow-vigilantism against minorities.

 found a continuing downward trend in religious freedom in 

. The mainstream media news channels are often seen praising the current regime without any criticism. Media is used as a tool to propagate communal agenda to disturb the religious harmony. The recent incident of congregation of ‘

 emergency made us look like that the entire 

 community is responsible for the spread of the virus in 

’ by certain media channels. This represents the highest levels of religious intolerance in 

. The fundamentalists may at a certain time seem invincible but they must realize that their motives may soon fade with the passage of time. Fundamentalism has always resulted in bloodshed destroying liberal humanism. The democratic nature of India has never been distorted by the cruelest of rulers. 

’ and has preached the values of unity in diversity since ancient civilizations. There have been many attempts to distort its culture but it has always emerged victorious preserving its values and heritage. In current scenario there may be suppression of religious freedoms but the distortion of ‘

‘ is far from the reach of fundamentalists.

Rising Religious Fundamentalism in India – Weapon to promote violent Communalism

The report blatantly puts the blame on the current regime for deteriorating press freedom in the country. It criticized that government is trying to promote their 

 agenda silencing all those who criticize them. Coordinated hate campaigns against journalists on social media and invoking section 

 is used by the state as a weapon to suppress the voice of dissent. The situation in 

 is said to have put a lot of effect on the index with the longest electronic curfew put in place and suppressing dissent with stringent 

UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) and NSA (National Security Act)

 acts used against journalists. The report says, “

Ever since the general elections in the spring of 2019, won overwhelmingly by

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party,

” But this downward trend of freedom of press is visible since last few years.

 has declined consistently witnessing a constant decline since last four years. According to 

, 11 journalists have been killed since 2014 and many others like 

 faced gruesome atrocities. There only mistakes were that they reported on issues like child marriages, illegal mining and 

 issue questioning the central government. According to 

’ with 17 unsolved killings of journalists in 2019 itself.

 are names of the few journalists who faced atrocities when they wanted to do free and fair work which they were doing before. When not hit with violence journalists and media houses are slapped with defamation suits like US$ 1.35 Billion claim by 

 for their reporting that projected lack of transparency in 

 has faced the longest internet shutdown in the world since the abrogation of 

Mainstream media houses left no stone unturned to give a communal color to the incident of 

 community with social-media hashtags like 

. They were again up on their toes when the mob lynching of 

 in lynching. On April 14, when lockdown was extended a huge crowd of migrant workers gathered at 

, several media houses were fixated on why the crowd gathered near a mosque. Media houses are boosted up for spreading ‘

’ whenever such incidents take place while on the other hand they are silent on the arrest of 

 it inferred that several news agencies would accept bribes for news coverage favoring the ruling regime. Fake news have become a handy weapon for many social media trolls and news channels which later on are also warned by the police to stop spreading fake news. On 31st March, the government asked the 

 to ‘direct’ the media to publish news related to pandemic only after ascertaining the facts from government approved mechanism. This means that media would have to first take approval of the government before publishing any report. Is it not tantamount to putting censorship on the working of media? The next day in a striking display of restricting free and fair journalism the 

 representatives completed their press conference in just 15 minutes saying they would only take questions from 

. Why only these two channels were given preference over others?

The fourth pillar of democracy is under constant pressure. It is working under the influence of the state. The voice of dissent is often dealt with criticism and slapping stringent seditious laws against journalists who criticize the government. Now the people who criticize the present regime have been fragmented and often tagged with words like ‘

’. The voice of dissent is often demonized by using such terminology. Mainstream media is often seen broadcasting news favoring the ruling regime as most of the channels are privately owned having political backing. A kind of environment has been created by the media such that criticizing or posing questions to the government is often seen as a sin.

To deal with it the people needs to discourage the conduct of the media houses in the way they project news. Neutrality is at the core of journalism which the people should seek and expect from the media. Dissent and critical analysis of the government should be encouraged to keep a check on their conduct. Harassment of journalists and intellectuals should be dealt strictly by the judiciary and executive since they are a link between the people and administration. Freedom of press symbolize the freedom of expression in India which if not dealt would deteriorate our democratic setup.

India’s declining Press Freedom: Should we be worried?

conscious abandonment of allegiance or duty

 and is often been used in politics. A ‘defector’ is a person who gives up his association with a party and moves to another one in exchange for allegiance which is illegitimate for the first party. Political defection is a situation in which a member of a party gives up his membership of the original party and moves to another party due to a party feud or in exchange of some benefit. Political defections have been a part of India’s electoral politics and are exercised by public representatives for their private gains and party politics leading to betrayal of people’s mandate and unstable governments both at states and centre.

Obsession with power, exploiting public offices for monetary gains and political vendetta are some of the reasons of political defection. Often MPs and MLAs are seen changing sides soon after elections. During 1960s and 70s the situation became grave with frequent cases of horse-trading, switching parties coming from several states. In 1967, 

 became the Member of Legislative Assembly from 

 as an independent candidate. Thereafter, he joined 

, changing party thrice within fifteen days. After 1967 he contested under several political parties like 

 candidate in 1977. His frequent floor-crossing led to the use of the term ‘

 frequently being used for political defections since then. His son 

 also used similar practices of switching parties and faced charges under 

Similar practices of party-switching immediately after and before elections became a norm in earlier decades which resulted in making a mockery of public mandate. Politicians could easily switch sides supporting the better bidder. Who give politicians the right to sell the votes of the people to the higher bidder? Is it not manipulation of people’s vote and trust by their representative to gain power? The defection problem is a malaise for any liberal democracy and safeguarding it is a basic duty of the authorities and citizens. The 

 came as a remedial measure to deter political defection but how far is it successful in stopping politicians in changing teams and stabilize democratically elected government?

. The provisions of the law are as follows:

A member of the house could be disqualified:

If a member of a house belonging to a political party voluntarily gives up the membership of his political party.

Votes, or does not vote in the legislature, contrary to the directions of his political party. However, if the member has taken prior permission, or is condoned by the party within 15 days from such voting or abstention, the member shall not be disqualified.

If an independent candidate joins a political party after the election.

If a nominated member joins a party six months after he becomes a member of the legislature.

The Chairman or the Speaker of the House takes the decision to disqualify a member.

If a complaint is received with respect to the defection of the Chairman or Speaker, a member of the House elected by that House shall take the decision.

A person shall not be disqualified if his original political party merges with another, and he and other members of the old political party become members of the new political party or he and other members do not accept the merger and opt to function as a separate group.

This exception shall operate only if not less than two-thirds of the members of party in the House have agreed to the merger.

The above provisions stand unaltered after the 2003 amendment. The law proved to be an inhibitor for party-hopping politicians. Since its inception it has played a part in maintaining stable governments even if there is no clear majority of a particular party in elections. Multiple parties have formed alliance to form government at both centre and state levels. A member could not be influenced to change sides curbing the dishonest intentions of politicians. But before taking a holistic view we have to analyse that how far the law has been effective in hindering the politicians for defection and how successful the law has been in disqualification of defaulters.

The numbers in the above data might not be on the higher side compared to instances of defections, toppling government in states and centre or anti-party activities by politicians. The less number of disqualifications of the members could be seen as a result of how members of the houses and parties exploit certain loopholes of the law to fulfill their political desire and backing of presiding officer due to his or her political affiliations. We can trace several example of this in recent past. Last year 10 of 15 MLAs of 

 (2/3 of their strength in Assembly) merged with 

 of last year in which 16 MLAs supporting 

 coalition resigned after 14 months of their rule paved the way for 

 forming the government again. In a recent political turmoil of 

 plunged into crisis with the resignation of 22 rebel MLAs after the movement of 

 with its current strength of 107 MLAs surpassing majority mark of 104 needed after resignation of the MLAs.

All of these instances compel us to think what induces the elected members to give-up their posts and disobey people’s mandate? The 

 doesn’t disqualify these members because they have voluntarily resigned from their office not from the political party, no one can anticipate whether they would switch party after resignation or not which in case of 

 would not deter them according to law if desired to do so. The two-third merger rule has been exploited in case of Goa. In several of such instances BJP was successful in reducing the majority mark to form government in states and itself forming governments.

 in current form is under the umbrella of doubts. The speaker of the house is the presiding officer to whom resignations are tendered and decide about disqualification of the member. The office of the speaker is questioned because he is chosen from a political party and sometimes not unbiased. No judicial scrutiny of disqualification until the judgement of speaker could lead to exploitation of speaker’s office by the speaker. According to 

Dinesh Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms 1990

, the issue of disqualification should be decided by the President/ Governor on the advice of the Election Commission. Even in country like 

 says a member shall vacate his seat if he resigns from or votes against the directions given by his party. The dispute is referred by the Speaker to the Election Commission. There is no time-limit for the speaker to give the verdict on disqualification after defection or resignation of a member which leads to further delay in judgement. There are instances in 

 where opposition members have gradually joined ruling party in small groups until the 2/3rd majority of the party MLAs joined the regime with pending action by the presiding officer. The 

the provisions which exempt splits and mergers from disqualification to be deleted

A member stands disqualified if he or she disobeys party’s whip, what if a party introduces an unconstitutional act? How does one stop himself of questioning such laws in a democracy? The law protects the party in such cases and makes an elected representative vulnerable in the hands of party bosses. The members have to follow both ethical and unethical orders of the party in order to safeguard his office. This provision hinders the representative to work as per his conscience and degrades values of legislature. The most fundamental issue here is to protect the trust established between people and their representative and instances toppling governments would surely reduce the democratic values. Measures such as preventing MLAs and MPS to contest any state and parliamentary elections for ten years who joins another party after resignation would deter them. The assets of family members of defecting politicians should be scrutinized. Governor and the President of India should make the final verdict on the advice of Election Commission regarding disqualification of MLAs and MPs respectively within a time-frame. A constant check by Election Commission on the accounts of political parties may help in keeping an eye on black money involvement. Rather than protecting political parties the 

 should be moulded to safeguard legislature and democracy. The objective of the law should not be distorted by lawmakers themselves and subvert people’s mandate. In a constitutional and liberal democracy a law should protect primarily the interest of its citizens.

The Anti-Defection Law – Steering to Subvert People’s Mandate

 obtained its Independence from Colonial Rule on 

 and became a Democratic Republic. It was an exceptional event where people started recognising their ‘

 despite of the caste, linguistic and social divisions. 

 adopted a Liberal Democratic form of governance, granting each citizen the right to vote – becoming one of the first countries to do so at that time. Since 1789, the average lifespan of a written constitution has been around 17 years across the globe contrary to the Indian Constitution, which is still in force since 26 January 1950, making it one of the longest surviving document of any country.

The country has witnessed many ups and downs throughout its Independent History with its constitutional values being compromised, but the Democratic and Secular values has always emerged victorious curbing the illiberal ones. Successive governments have been elected and have worked under constitutional umbrella. The multi-party system has allowed several parties to form government but seldom have they been successful in altering the democratic and secular fabric of the country. The danger to its democratic structure reminds us of the era of 1975-77 when the ‘

‘ imposed emergency due to perceived danger to her government repressing fundamental rights and civil liberties of the citizens, posing a dark era for Indian History. The 18 months period of emergency resulted in repression of civil societies, unprecedented cases of sedition against opposition members, executive and judiciary pressurized by the regime and freedom of speech being thwarted. The ‘

‘ didn’t allow any criticism to take place with one of the former 

 as the most powerful person of the country with an unopposed power to her name. Crony capitalism, pliant democratic institutions, hate against 

, PMO becoming government and under-performing democratic institutions were several features of the Indira era. But how far are these characteristics relevant in modern times? Are we still witnessing such trends, especially in the past few years?

, there has been a little decline in several democratic indices since 2009 under 

’s second term but the situation took a steep decline since 2014 when 

 assumed the Prime Minister’s Office. Several metres like liberal component index, deliberative component index and freedom of expression index met a downfall since 2014.

The above data clearly depicts the steep decline of democratic indices since 2014. India’s declining democracy is not seen in isolation with anti-democratic activities being promoted in several countries like 

. An excerpt from the report explains, “

has also led to a partial closing of the space for civil society. The government increasingly restricts the entry and exit of civil society organizations by using a law on foreign funding for NGOs, the

(FCRA). As of 2017, 20,000 CSOs – mainly working on human rights and environmental issues – have lost their licenses.

 there has been a continual attempt to censure it, sometimes leading even to the killing of journalists like 

. Several TV news channels are being owned by loyalists of ruling party and the fake news propagating on social media platforms have made the situation even worse. According to the 

 there have been a sharp rise in hate crimes since 2016 especially in 

 have been at the receiving ends of such hate crimes with spreading of Islamophobia and mob-lynching for cow-vigilantism. The Prime Minister having his roots to the Hindu Nationalist right-wing 

) has been accused of propagating the Hindu-nationalistic agenda of making Indian an ethnic 

 without the existence of elected assembly in the state serve their purpose of diluting ethnic culture of 

 majority of the country with the help of brute force and internet shutdowns. Excluding 

 is a sign of dividing people on religious lines and Islamophobia. 

 majority at the forefront resulting in his sweeping victory in 2019 Loksabha elections. Suppressing the voice of dissent with most number of internet shutdowns in a country, demonizing eminent institutions like 

 and cases of sedition against people criticising the regime have become a common feature nowadays terming the criticism of the government as an ‘anti-national’ action. In the words of Supreme Court (SC) 

the right to freedom of opinion and the right of freedom of conscience by themselves include the extremely important right to disagree

India’s recent fall up-to 10 places to 51st position in 

 is a sharp indicator of degrading democratic structure. The score of 6.9 in the index is the lowest since 2006. Appointment of party loyalists at executive posts of governors and appointing personal favorite bureaucrats at the level of secretaries dilutes the independence of executive and legislature. Formation of government in recent 

 elections and previous state elections by 

 despite of having less seats compels us to think something fishy is happening with the democracy of 

. In 2018 four Supreme Court judges came out in public exposing that Supreme Court is working under pressure and in an unjustifiable way. Recently SC 

’ with Bombay Bar Association passing a resolution condemning his words. Such incidents obstructs the independence of judiciary and could be lethal for a liberal democracy. The 

 have been accused of its inaction and being politically motivated in recent communal clash between 

Articles by Aman Sharma

BIHAR’S CRUMBLING HEALTH SECTOR: A NEED FOR MAJOR REFORM

The Lockdown – A Spectacular Failure

Rising Religious Fundamentalism in India – Weapon to promote violent Communalism

India’s declining Press Freedom: Should we be worried?

The Anti-Defection Law – Steering to Subvert People’s Mandate

Declining Democracy in India – An Undeclared Emergency

BIHAR’S CRUMBLING HEALTH SECTOR: A NEED FOR MAJOR REFORM

The Lockdown – A Spectacular Failure

Rising Religious Fundamentalism in India – Weapon to promote violent Communalism

India’s declining Press Freedom: Should we be worried?

The Anti-Defection Law – Steering to Subvert People’s Mandate

Declining Democracy in India – An Undeclared Emergency