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Gandhi’s vision of a constitution was imperfect, but is India paying the price for neglecting it? https://scroll.in/article/1056754/gandhis-vision-of-a-constitution-was-imperfect-but-is-india-paying-the-price-for-neglecting-it Shivakumar Jolad
Oct 02, 2023  He envisaged self-governing and largely self-sufficient village republics and felt that concentrating power would violate democratic principles.

Gandhi had supported a pyramidal structure, with village panchayats at its base. But according to BR Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution, villages were “a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and communalism” and the cause of India’s ruination. Asserting that a strong Centre was essential for India, Ambedkar argued for a firm Central government with robust limbs (states). Gandhian vision of self-governance Gandhi’s idea of Gram swaraj outlined in Hind Swaraj and later writings envisaged self-governing and largely self-sufficient village republics. He conceptualised villages as “organically and non-hierarchically linked with the larger spatial bodies and enjoying the maximum freedom of deciding the affairs of the locality”, says scholar Shubhangi Rathi.

For Gandhi, the “concentration of either economic or political power would violate all the essential principles of participatory democracy”.

Gandhi’s ideas of decentralised governance had already been experimented with in the princely state of Aundh, Maharashtra, in 1939. The ruler, Bhawanrao Pant, had invited Gandhi to help formulate a constitution that would empower the people to govern themselves. The experiment showcased the positive impact of decentralised governance on education, finances, and social cohesion, but failed to be fiscally sustainable in the long run.

Don't Know Why Delhi Riots Order Upset The Government, It Was The Right Thing To Do : Justice Muralidhar  https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/dont-know-why-delhi-riots-order-upset-the-government-it-was-the-right-thing-to-do-justice-muralidhar-239588 LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK 8 Oct 2023 

In the midst of the communal riots that gripped Delhi in February 2020, Justice Muralidhar had convened a midnight hearing at his residence to pass urgent orders to evacuate a group of patients who were stranded at a hospital in a riot-hit region. The order was necessary as the patients, who required emergency medical treatment at a bigger specialist hospital, could not be moved due to the riot situation. Later in the same day(February 26, 2020), Justice Muralidhar passed another order asking the Delhi Police to decide within 24 hours on registering FIR against certain BJP leaders for allegedly making provocative remarks. In a dramatic hearing, Justice Muralidhar expressed surprise when the Delhi Police claimed ignorance about the speeches, some of which had gone viral in the social media. Justice Muralidhar directed the clips of the speech to be played in the Court for the police officer who was present there and passed a stern order to take a decision on registering the FIR, despite the strong opposition by the Delhi police. On the same night, the Union Government notified his transfer to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

By Not Standing Up For Justice S Muralidhar, Supreme Court Collegium Fails Yet Another Independent Judge Manu Sebastian

https://www.livelaw.in/articles/justice-s-muralidhar-supreme-court-collegium-fails-yet-another-independent-judge-234634

The Oligarch’s Oligarch https://www.monbiot.com/2022/10/30/the-oligarchs-oligarch/   George Monbiot 30th October 2022

Just as we need to get the money out of politics, we have been gifted a Prime Minister who represents the ultra-rich.

While Rishi Sunak was chancellor, the government repeatedly delayed its manifesto promise to ban no-fault evictions. Landlords are ruthlessly exploiting this power to throw their tenants on to the street or use the threat to force them to accept outrageous rent rises and dismal conditions. Had Sunak’s “help to buy” mortgage scheme succeeded (it was a dismal flop), it would have raised house prices, increasing rents and making ownership less accessible: the opposite of its stated aim. But this, as with all such schemes, was surely its true purpose: to inflate the assets of existing owners, the Conservative party’s base.

Public services are collapsing at breathtaking speed. Headteachers warn that 90% of schools in England could run out of money next year. NHS dentistry is on the verge of extinction. Untold numbers are now living in constant pain and, in some cases, extracting their own teeth. The suspicion that the NHS is being deliberately dismembered, its core services allowed to fail so that we cease to defend it against privatisation, rises ever higher in the mind.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&mibextid=2Rb1fB&v=334718952262595