Sir Keir Starmer was elected the Leader of the Labour Party post the worst defeat that his party had faced since 1935. It was also the fourth time in a row that the Labour Party was defeated at a General Election. It was a moment of reckoning for the party as it lost its heartlands in the North-West of England, the traditional working-class seats which had not seen anything but Labour MPs. It’s been around four months since he took office and the changes that he has brought about are visible. On the other hand, we have another democracy based on the Westminster Parliamentary system, India whose opposition party is in disarray post two consecutive election defeats, the worst and the second-worst in its political history. Its presumptive leader Rahul Gandhi, who resigned last year as the President of the Congress Party is set to return if the rumours in the corridors of Delhi are to be believed. There’s a lot Rahul Gandhi can learn from Sir Keir. Sir Keir was ele...
It was in the beginning of 2016 that the Panchayats elections were scheduled in Haryana. This five-yearly practice seemed to be very normal and the state saw it as a opportunity to elect the government of the villages. while everything seemed to be normal, much had changed in the previous 12 months. The state government had come up with new laws regarding the election of panchayats. The law said: 'The grounds for disqualification from contesting polls under the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2015 are failure to pay arrears to any primary agriculture co-operative society or agriculture co-operative banks, failure to pay electricity bill arrears and not having a functional toilet at home. The “minimum” education required for eligibility to contest in a panchayat election is completion of matriculation in case of general candidates; completion of Class 8 for a woman candidate or a candidate belonging to Scheduled Caste; and completion of Class 5 pass for a Scheduled Caste wom...