Elections 2022: Fight for Democracy

Elections 2022: Fight for Democracy - Criminality and Elections
2022-02-03 10:30 - 11:30 UTC | Online
The relationship between crime and politics has a long tradition in India. And this interweaving of criminality becomes critical when analysing elections. Can free and fair democratic elections be held alongside this growing criminality? Candidates with a history sheet are actively courted by political parties; muscle men or 'bahubalis' operate to sway the choices of the electorate.

The panel discusses this nexus of money, muscle and politics to demonstrate an alarming trend that has long term impact on the future of the world's largest democracy

Elections 2022: Fight for Democracy - Data and Elections
2022-02-08 10:30 - 11:30
Indian elections are where weaponisation of data takes interesting turns. The ease with which digital tools and data analysis ingest massive blocks of correlated data to create fine grained tactical plans often put democratic contests in peril. This is one side of the data platform problem. The other side is how to source, process and report based on authentic data sources - a challenge that newsrooms are finding to be a very contested space. There is a third angle to this - the alternative realities and narratives created by data - deliberately manipulated, sometimes forged and often packaged into incendiary formats.

The panel will be exploring these aspects in context of India's elections - both in the past and the present.

Election 2022: Fight for Democracy - Electoral Bonds
2022-02-24 12:30 - 13:30
Publicly available documents obtained through RTI activism reveal the extent of misrepresentation around the topic of Electoral Bonds. The Parliament, the Election Commission and the citizens of India were not provided with the correct, contextual and complete information - including the fact that the India's Central Bank - the RBI had serious objections to this controversial scheme. As it happens one hand the then Finance Minister said in his budget speech that this was all about "transparency in electoral funding" while at a media interaction explained that the bonds are designed "to keep the donor anonymous".

The panelists discuss the toxic effect of this scheme and how it impacts democratic contests.
