Trends In The Indian Electoral Scene
Prof. Kuma David
There have been a couple of interesting developments in India, a new star in the Lok Sabha and recent State elections, which I am sure will interest to my readers. A meteor detonated in the in any case rumbustious chamber of the Indian Parliament and it has for a change been a woman. State Elections have been a moderate, but only moderate setback for Modi and the BJP but since there is no sign of an alliance that can be cobbled together to form an alternative government, on current trends India is heading for an inclusive result in 2024.
Blunders That Changed The World
Prof. Kuma David
History teaches much and the people of Lanka should learn them well or the threats of dictatorship may overtake us. I will abstain from drawing too many parallels, leaving readers to their judgements. However, I need to say at the outset that it seems the JVP-NPP-Left (excluding the Dead-Left) is gaining ground and there is some interest in AKD’s interventions in Parliament. These entities may be more active than civil society, religious dignitaries, Sajith-SJB or Tamil and Muslim bodies hence I hope they will reflect on these lessons. It is important that international actors too don’t screw up Lanka and Burma, two recently endangered creatures. A list of blunders between the end of the First and the early stages of the Second World War follows. It is frightening that such things happened.
China’s Linearized Polity
Prof. Kuma David
Last week I used the adjective linearized to refer to China’s polity and upon reflection came to realise that it carried more substance than I had realised. I am using ‘polity’ to include organisation of the state, structure of constitution and certain socio-political aspects of society and ‘linearized’ to indicate political tractability and homogeneity. In the case of China, for the purposes of this essay, I touch on the CCP, the Chinese economic system and the unique Chinese social-family arrangement. Quite a handful you might say. Well yes, but there are many novel elements to the subject. Interestingly the PRC Constitution [Ref. 1] does not mention the 90 million member CCP by name anywhere but Article 1 describes China as “a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants” which alliance can be interpreted as the Party. Technically C
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Woe The Ides Of March Approaches In Geneva!
Prof. Kuma David
The next session of the United Nations Human Rights Council will run from 22 February to 23 March in Geneva – the dreaded Ides of March (15 March) beckons. The Ides, the 74-th day in the Roman calendar, is set apart for settling debts. Will the regime in Colombo settle the debt it has evaded for a decade? It will not, it cannot! It is bound hand and foot to saffron robe and native pride. Nobody knows as yet what contrivance the military-stuffed Gotabaya regime (Executive) and the allied Mahinda government (Parliament and Cabinet) will try in a survival bid; and it is possible tension between the two wings of state may surfaces. To believe domestic and international reports Lanka’s reckoning in Geneva will be grim. The home scene is a failing economy, an out of control pandemic, back and forth confusion about the East Container Terminal and the rupee in free-fall as debt default looms.