An examination of the Lok Sabha elections from 1951 to 2011 reveals that there are large discrepancies between the seat and vote shares of political parties in each of the 15 elected Lok Sabhas in independent India, especially before liberalisation in 1991. In the post-liberalisation period, the extent of disproportional representation has come down, but is still high, even as the extent of electoral competition has increased.

The abduction of committed bureaucrats by the Maoists will win them no favours or friends. (Editorial)

Eleven state governments have enacted Right-to-Public-Services laws in the last couple of years without any pressure from the centre. All except one of these states are in the Hindi heartland which is known for its fractured polity. These enactments are perhaps an attempt to regain the faith of the middle class in the political and bureaucratic system. While there are limitations in their conceptualisation and implementation, the enthusiasm of the respective state bureaucracies in pushing for these laws is encouraging.

Government officials and functionaries still shudder at the name of Fatehpura taluka in Dahod, a tribal district in Gujarat. In August 2010, India’s first union of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) workers, called the Rashtriya Rojgar Khatri Kamdaronu Kayda Union (RRKKKU), had exposed a massive scam in which Rs 4.18 crores of NREGA money had been siphoned.