Democracy

The Supreme Court cancelled the bail of six TMC workers, calling their mob attack on a BJP-supporting Hindu family a grave assault on democracy's very roots

When Yeung Sum co-founded the city's largest pro-democracy party more than 30 years ago, he knew building a democratic Hong Kong would be a difficult dream." Still, it was not impossible. Today, his Democratic Party is moving toward dissolution, a symbolic marker of the diminishing Western-style civil liberties and high degree of autonomy that the ruling Communist Party in Beijing promised to keep intact in the former British colony for at least 50 years when it returned to China in 1997. Pro-democracy protests that paralysed Hong Kong in 2019 led to a crackdown that has all but silenced dissent through restricted elections, media censorship and a China-imposed national security law that saw some of Yeung's party members jailed. Dozens of civil society groups closed down. Former chairperson Yeung said in an interview with The Associated Press that Chinese officials told him the party needed to disband. He urged his members to support the motion to give the leadership mandate to hand

The Supreme Court has expressed dismay over rejection of bail pleas by trial courts in "not very serious cases" despite the completion of investigations. A bench comprising justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday said a democratic country must not function like a police state, where law enforcement agencies exercise arbitrary powers to detain individuals without genuine necessity. It observed that two decades ago, bail pleas in smaller cases rarely reached the high courts, let alone the top court. "It is shocking that the Supreme Court is adjudicating bail pleas in cases that should be disposed of at the trial court level. The system is being burdened unnecessarily," Justice Oka said while hearing a bail plea. This is not the first time the top court has flagged this issue. It has repeatedly urged trial courts and high courts to adopt a more liberal stance in granting bail, particularly in cases involving minor infractions. The apex court had previously expressed its angui

An airstrike by Myanmar's military on a central village under the control of a pro-democracy resistance group has killed at least 27 civilians and injured 30 others, an opposition group and Myanmar's online media said Saturday. The attack occurred Friday at 3 pm in Let Pan Hla village in Singu township, about 65 kilometres north of Mandalay, the country's second-largest city, a spokesperson for the Mandalay People's Defence Force said. The military did not comment on Saturday. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021, triggering widespread popular opposition. After peaceful demonstrations were put down with lethal force, many opponents of military rule took up arms, and large parts of the country are now embroiled in conflict. The military government has stepped up airstrikes against the armed pro-democracy People's Defence Force and ethnic minority guerrilla groups that have been fighting for greate

Nepal's recent political history tells us that the route to a return of monarchy cannot go through India despite friends in high places

The judgment also outlined a few guiding principles for courts to consider while scrutinising the proportionality of actions taken by the House against its member(s)

EAM S Jaishankar also slammed the West for backing non-democratic forces abroad while championing democracy at home

When the country all but ran out of cash and fuel, the burden fell disproportionately on women, who shoulder the domestic load

When President Donald Trump froze foreign assistance for 90 days, he argued that such a drastic step was needed to eliminate waste and block what he derides as woke spending that doesn't align with American interests. Experts say the suspension has another, far more serious consequence: emboldening authoritarian strongmen. Wrapped into the billions the US spends annually on foreign aid more than any other nation are hundreds of grants for grassroots groups dedicated to fighting for democracy in authoritarian countries around the world. Among the groups that won't be receiving critical funding is an organisation that trained poll workers to detect fraud in Venezuela's recent presidential vote, pro-democracy activists in Cuba and China and a group of Belarusian exiles behind a campaign to block the country's strongman from winning a sham election. Cutting funding to these essential efforts sends the wrong signal to dictatorships and undermines the brave individuals fighting for ...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also described his return as 'private citizen' as 'the highest calling in a democracy'

The public space is now privatised. It is not that democracy is dead, but that it has been fundamentally modified

Amid everything else on his desk the Iran hostage crisis, domestic economic turmoil, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and a gruelling 1980 reelection fight President Jimmy Carter elevated the independence of a country in southern Africa as a top agenda item. Carter hosted then-Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe at the White House soon after his country achieved independence and later described Zimbabwe's adoption of democracy as our greatest single success. Three decades later, Carter, who was long out of office, found the door slammed shut when he and other dignitaries sought to visit Zimbabwe on a humanitarian mission to observe reported human rights abuses after a violent disputed election in 2008. He had become a critic of Mugabe's regime and was denied a visa. Carter didn't give up. From neighbouring South Africa, he relied on emissaries from Zimbabwe for testimony on violence and allegations of electoral fraud. The effort reflected the former president's long commitment to ..

Why India's democratic system, despite its flaws, is attractive for trade, investment, and economic partnerships

Mark L Clifford writes in The Troublemaker, a brisk account of Lai's life and work, the gravity of his predicament began to set in, and Lai sent a laconic WhatsApp message to his associates

Can writers, artists, or citizens exist in a political vacuum? This collection of conversations by Githa Hariharan delves into culture, democracy, and dissent

Opening the Rajya Sabha debate on Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused previous Congress-led central governments of suppressing freedom of speech

If there is a lesson to takeaway from the institutional turn in political economy, combined with the political currents of populism, it is this: Institutional strength is both vital and fragile

Georgian police on Wednesday raided the offices of an opposition party and arrested its leader in an apparent attempt to squelch a wave of mass protests triggered by the governing party's decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union. During the past six nights, riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, who threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the Georgian capital's central boulevard. More than 300 protesters have been detained since Thursday and over 100 people have been treated for injuries. On Wednesday, the Coalition for Change opposition party said that police raided its offices and detained its leader, Nika Gvaramia. It shared a video showing several officers dragging Gvaramia into a car. Georgian media reported that police also raided the offices of several other opposition groups and non-government organizations. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party said the raids targeted those

The Prime Minister stated that the old criminal laws were the means of oppression and exploitation of Indians for the British regime

Forty-five prominent activists in Hong Kong were sentenced to jail for up to 10 years on Tuesday, sparking criticism from foreign governments and rights groups. The democracy advocates were among 47 people charged under a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2021 for their involvement in an unofficial primary election to pick opposition candidates. In the city's biggest national security case to date, they were accused of agreeing to veto government-proposed budgets indiscriminately after potentially securing a legislative majority to force a dissolution of the legislature and then the ouster of the city's leader. The case involved pro-democracy figures across the spectrum. Thirty-one of them pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit subversion. Fourteen others were convicted following a long trial. Two were acquitted. Australia Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her government was gravely concerned by the sentences for Australian citizen Gordon Ng and the .