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To All Members of COMMON CAUSE, The Annual General Meeting of COMMON CAUSE Society will be held in COMMON CAUSE HOUSE, located at 5, Institutional Area, Nelson Mandela Road, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-70 on March 6, 2010 at 11:00 A.M. Agenda will be as follows: Consideration of Annual Report and adoption of the Annual accounts alongwith the Auditors Report for the year 2008-09. Appointment of Auditors for the year 2009-2010 Activities and programmes Elections It may kindly be...

It would not have been easy for our founding fathers to adhere to the idea of a pluralist, secular state while India was being dismembered on the basis of religion. In the wake of the Partition, the bloodiest of communal conflicts, the trauma of the largest displacement of populations in history and the unrelenting aggression of a theocratic Pakistan were not able to shake their faith in the concept of a nation where people of different creeds, castes and cultures are able to live in harmony and...

The enactment of the Freedom of Information Act, 2002, since replaced by the Right to Information Act, 2005, is an important milestone in the citizen's struggle to secure information about the way he is governed. It has been a long and painful struggle and the state apparatus seems to have been embittered by it. Accustomed to operating under the protective shadows of the Official Secrets Act, it tends to regard the outcome as a major defeat, which has to be avenged in a million skirmishes wi...

The enactment of the Freedom of Information Act, 2002, since replaced by the Right to Information Act, 2005, is an important milestone in the citizen's struggle to secure information about the way he is governed. It has been a long and painful struggle and the state apparatus seems to have been embittered by it. Accustomed to operating under the protective shadows of the Official Secrets Act, it tends to regard the outcome as a major defeat, which has to be avenged in a million skirmishes wi...

The Indian democracy has endured for six turbulent decades and there is a general agreement that no other political system can hold together a country as complex and as diverse as India. Democracy is the Indian nation's only option, its only hope. We all have a stake in nurturing its institutions and in evolving conventions that strengthen them and raise their status in the eyes of the public. After sixty years of experience of a functional democracy, we are expected to have acquired the mat...

After more than six decades of Independence, the people of India are getting increasingly impatient for good governance, without which the objective of all round socio-economic development cannot be realized. They will not be satisfied with mere affirmations of commitment to governance reforms made by political parties in their election manifestos and the declarations of intent made by governments on assumption of office. The recent Lok Sabha elections have shown that even a modest investment in...

- Madhu Purnima Kishwar* India is facing unprecedented security threats from our hostile neighbours as well as from a whole range of home bred terrorists operating, not just in the Border States but also in large parts of heartland India. The US State Department has listed India “among the most terrorism affected countries” and noted that the archaic police system makes India ill equipped to meet the challenge. This is the first time that the failure of our Intelligence and secur...

It is universally accepted that dispensation of justice in a speedy, economical and efficacious manner is one of the primary functions of the sovereign. Unfortunately, the Indian state has not been able to discharge this crucial sovereign function despite repeated declarations of intent and commitment. The courts and other tribunals of adjudication are confronted with a mounting backlog of cases, which clogs the system of adjudication, demoralises the protagonists and prolongs the time taken to ...

- Ms. Nina Singh* OUTLINE ?? First rigorously evaluated Police reform project in the world. ?? 3-year collaboration between the Rajasthan Police and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) ?? Objectives: ?? Enhance police performance ?? Improve public perception ?? Gather objective information ?? Action: 4 reform initiatives evaluated in 150 police stations, 11 districts: 1. Transfers frozen 2. Rotation of duties and weekly days off 3. Community Observer...

It is universally accepted that dispensation of justice in a speedy, economical and efficacious manner is one of the primary functions of the sovereign. Unfortunately, the Indian state has not been able to discharge this crucial sovereign function despite repeated declarations of intent and commitment. The courts and other tribunals of adjudication are confronted with a mounting backlog of cases, which clogs the system of adjudication, demoralises the protagonists and prolongs the time taken to ...