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Michael Eric Dyson said black Americans have historically served as the "measure and magnitude" of American democracy in commentary on the filibuster Monday on MSNBC. Dyson told MSNBC host Tiffany Cross, guest host for MSNBC's Joy Reid, that white people are feeling a "kind of schizophrenia" because they are used to seeing blacks as a measuring tool for democracy.

"This is a prelude to the kiss-off of an American democracy. To a certain degree, the apocalypse is before us. We speak in these apocalyptic terms," Dyson described support of the filibuster. "People who are not used to being trampled on, who are not used to being assaulted, who are not used to being attacked then feel themselves for the first time under even the briefest and the most cursory form of assault feel what we've been talking about all along."

"We have been the measure and magnitude of American democracy," Dyson said of black people. "What black people have done with this country, what we've done with resources has not only made our culture better but our country better and so now people who are not used to seeing black people be the indices, the index, the measure of who we are as a nation feel a kind of schizophrenia. On the one hand, they think we lost our minds and on the other hand, they know they lost theirs."

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: This is a prelude to the kiss-off of an American democracy. To a certain degree, the apocalypse is before us. We speak in these apocalyptic terms. People call us exaggerators, 'Oh my God, won't you stop over-responding.' And yet the bottom line is that as you said, people who are not used to being trampled on, who are not used to being assaulted, who are not used to being attacked then feel themselves for the first time under even the briefest and the most cursory form of assault feel what we've been talking about all along.

On the other hand, many who have not been in the ditch with us, many who have not been in the trenches with us don't understand the necessity of the warning, don't understand the degree to which we say to America we have been the bellwether and the benchmark. We have been the measure and magnitude of American democracy. What black people have done with this country, what we've done with resources has not only made our culture better but our country better and so now people who are not used to seeing black people be the indices, the index, the measure of who we are as a nation feel a kind of schizophrenia. On the one hand, they think we lost our minds and on the other hand, they know they lost theirs.

And so the truth about American democracy is it is only as good as we're willing to fight for. It is only ever been what we have made it to be. This may be an exaggerated point, a kind of serious inflection point but the truth is Martin Luther King Jr. in fighting Bull Connor was fighting for the future of democracy and when we understand the degree to which we have been willing to fight for it, it reminds us that democracy is in our grasp but only if we continue to fight for it in the most fundamental fashion.

See the article here:
Michael Eric Dyson: Blacks Have Been "The Index" To Measure American Democracy, Made Culture Better - RealClearPolitics

There is no real separation of powers between the Legislative and Executive in India - and that means our votes have no real value.

This is a simple explainer of a big problem most of us dont realise exists, and an appeal for all of us to demand better. So, stick with me.

In primary school civics lessons, when we are introduced to concepts like democracy and to the Indian Constitution, we are taught that there are three pillars of democracy in India. The Legislature, the Executive, and the Judiciary have separate functions and powers. The Legislature that is the Parliament and state Assemblies make laws; the Executive that is, the government ministries, agencies, and bureaucrats implement laws; and the Judiciary the Supreme Court, the High Courts, and various lower courts uphold laws and Constitutional principles.

The idea that these three branches should be separate and independent the doctrine of separation of powers has been followed by governments since ancient Greece, to ensure that no single person or group of people can amass too much power. Independently and together, these three branches of government or pillars of democracy are crucial for the functioning of a country. And if the three branches are separate and independent, the system can survive even if one branch fails becomes corrupt, or is filled with incompetent people. One branch, as per the doctrine of separation of powers, cannot interfere with the other two.

In India, we have a problem. There is no outright declaration anywhere that these three branches have separate powers and should remain independent. There are Articles in the Constitution that imply the separation of powers though. For instance,Article 50says that the state should keep the executive and the judiciary separate;Article 122says courts cannot look into proceedings of Parliament;Article 121restricts Parliament from discussing the conduct of a Supreme Court or High Court judge (unless the legislature is looking for impeachment);Article 361says the President or a Governor cannot be called for a criminal proceeding during their term.

However, practically, the way the three branches of the government function, there is no real independence. For instance, the Chief Justice of India is appointed by the President that is, the Executive (President) has a hand in Judiciary appointments. The Legislature can impeach a judge, thereby having power in Judiciary functions.

The worst part of this non-separation, however, is between the Executive and the Legislature, which has pretty much rendered the Legislature toothless and redundant. And this is a problem for Indian citizens for you and me because the Legislative is the one branch that we have a say in. The Legislative is voted in by us, but it has little to no power, and that means our votes have little to zero real value.

As I mentioned before, the job of the Legislature that is, the Parliament and state Assemblies is to make laws. This means, drafting Bills, debating them, amending them, etc. The Legislature also holds the Executive accountable which is why, in Parliament and in Assemblies, we have slots like Question Hour and Zero Hour, where legislators question the work done by the Executive, and we have Parliamentary committees that look deeply at the functioning of different ministries.

But think about who actually makes laws in India. The answer is, the Executive. The government has made a law, we usually say and hear, and by government, we explicitly mean the Executive. The Executive the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, and Chief Ministers and their Cabinets are the ones who come up with ideas for laws to be passed in the country. They draft the Bills. The Cabinet, or an Empowered Group of Ministers, clears these Bills. A Minister then introduces the Bill in Parliament or Assembly, and if the supporters of the Executive are in the majority, these Executive-ideated, Executive-drafted, Executive-introduced Bills become law without any trouble.

Yes, there is a debate in the Legislature and even that is becoming rare these days. Yes, there is a vote and even that is becoming redundant now with the propensity for voice votes, and with brute majorities in the Houses. But the Legislature only has as much power as any single member of the Legislature does and that, currently, is zero.

Ideally, an independent Legislative would have members legislators coming up with ideas for new laws based on what their constituents want and need. They would then draft the Bill with the help of researchers, and people on the ground, giving inputs. The Bill would then be introduced in Parliament and debated fairly, with other legislators bringing in their points of view, and bringing in amendments that they believe are important for their constituents. The Bill would then become law after the members vote on it, and the Executive would be given the mandate of implementing it. Ideally.

Where we are however is far from it. And the reasons for this futility of the Legislature are many.

The most basic reason is that the Executive, by design, is part of the Legislature. That is all of our ministers in the government are members of Parliament and state legislatures. So in a sense, if the Executive is accountable to the Legislative, our ministers are pretty much answerable to themselves, especially if their party or coalition has a brute majority. Essentially, the ministers who are the Executive can, as part of the Parliament and Assemblies, introduce Bills, and get them passed. Further, the Bills passed by the Legislature have to be signed by the President or Governor (who are both part of the Executive) to become laws.

And as if that wasnt enough Legislative Power for the Executive, ministers, with the permission of the President of India or Governor of a state, can pass Ordinances when the legislature is not in session. For instance, the recently repealed Farm Laws were first passed as Ordinances, without even a semblance of a Legislative process.

The third problem is subordinate legislation that is, Rules that are passed under a law by the Executive. Technically, this provision exists to make it easier for the Executive to implement laws without going through a cumbersome and long process. For example, if a law says fines can be imposed if a person breaks a traffic regulation, the Executive can make Rules under the law to decide the amount of fine. However, Rules have been used by the Executive to impose provisions far exceeding what the parent law prescribes, like in the case of the recently passed IT Rules, which prescribe Executive control over the content published on digital media without having gone through any Legislative process.

The fourth problem is the Anti-Defection Law, which binds every single legislator to their partys diktats, essentially making your and my vote for any member useless. As per the anti-defection law the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution any legislator who doesnt follow their partys whip can be disqualified from being a member of the House. So essentially, its only in name that were electing individuals to the House, because no legislator can actually take a call on whether they like a Bill or not. They have to stick to the party stand.

The fifth problem is that Private Member Bills or Bills brought in by actual legislators who are not part of the Executive are pretty much redundant. Technically, any legislator can introduce a Bill in Parliament. But to date, only 14 such Bills have been made into laws in India. The time for discussing Private Members Business which includes Bills and Resolutions is only the second half of Fridays when the Parliament is in session. And the last time a Private Members Bill was made into law was in 1968. The closest the Parliament has come to passing a Private Members Bill in recent times was in 2015, when DMKs Tiruchi Sivas Bill for protecting the rights of transgender persons was passed in Rajya Sabha. In the Lok Sabha, the Executive asked for the Bill to be withdrawn and promised to bring in their own Bill to this effect which has been criticised for being a much-diluted version of Tiruchi Sivas Bill, and for being highly problematic.

So how do we give the Legislative its teeth back? How do we make sure that the people we elect, actually represent our interests?

The first step is to understand why separation of powers is important, and the very next is demanding that our votes are valued. The next time a government passes an Ordinance, speak up against it, whether or not you support the party in power. Because at some point, the party in power may not be one you like, and the only thing you can depend on is solid, independent processes. The next time Rules are brought in to legislate through the backdoor, speak up. The next time the government passes a Bill in Parliament without any discussion, speak up.

The next time people come to you for votes, speak up. Ask questions about how theyre actually representing you. And demand answers.

Views expressed are the author's own.

This piece was first published in TNM's award-winning weekly newsletter Here's The Thing. To become a TNM Member, click here.

Link:
The three pillars of democracy is a lie - The News Minute

Farmers are starting their own political party. I am of course, using the word farmers here casually, because it should be obvious that not all farmers are in this group. Modi could not be PM without support from farmers who we are told make up to 50-60% of our population. So a better way of saying that is some persons that claim to represent the interest of farmers are starting a political outfit.

Be that as it may, it is good news.

Why?

Farmers, at the end of the day, are an interest group. If you cut away all the tearjerker melodrama about annadata and such, conveniently forgotten by corrupt media frauds when the same farmers are agitating against dynasty ruled states, what remains is that they are an interest group. 100% legitimate interest group, but still an interest group.

Of course, farmers are of many types. There are landless farmers, or sharecroppers and farm labour, far more in number, whose interests are very different from the landed. They dont get to see much of state bonanza such as free electricity, subsidised fertilisers, loans that dont have to be repaid and ever increasing MSPs. Many toil in farms for fixed wages. They are not the ones that can gridlock the streets of Delhi with airconditioned SUVs and tractors and have pizza for lunch.

Even if you are a landed farmer, obviously where that land is and whether it has irrigation make a difference. How much is another big issue most hold land thats only about 1-2 acres. Then comes which crop you grow. Not all get MSP protection. So even within the tiny fraction of landed farmers, interests may not always align.

It is of course, 100% legitimate to espouse the cause of farmers, even if you assume the ones claiming the mantle of leadership only represent the landed, already well taken care of minority of farmers that too from one or two states.

But then there are so many interest groups!

You can slice and dice Indian society like a Rubik cube in many ways. Language, region, caste, religion are well known. Then there are youth, students, old age pensioners, urban poor, factory workers, unemployed, middle class, daily wage earners like construction workers or cobblers, small traders, SMEs, weavers and artisans theres hundreds if not thousands of such interest groups and classes, most of whom have grievances, most of which are legitimate. Indeed, when a bridge gets inaugurated by Modi, (not SoniaG of course) even boatmen that used to ferry passengers become an interest group for leftist journalists to shed tears for!

Thats where the beauty of democracy comes in!

The saying is, death is a great leveler. But so is democracy. Particularly when you are forced to move away from espousing one interest group, however large it is, and find that it is only one of the hundreds or thousands out there.

Getting into electoral politics, with aim to capture power in meaningful quantity (not just a few seats to turn into minister post for the chief or his son) means, accommodating interest groups other than your own, including those that have diametrically opposite interests.

In the unlikely event of these farmers capturing Punjab assembly majority, they still have to accommodate non-farmers and their interests. They still have to tax (somewhat) responsibly and use that money at least partially for other purposes. If not they can never get re-elected.

And in the more likely event of them getting a few seats to bargain with, or play king maker, they can still hope to score small wins for their cause along with wins for other causes by other such king makers.

But they will wake up to the reality of how complex India is, especially when you have power. And that can be sobering.

They will know that blocking trains and roads for months or years will mean they have less tax money to play with and more unemployed hitting the streets against them. At least the ones that cannot get Canadian visa.

And the fact that only a few can become leaders or ministers means at least some of these farmers will seek their fortunes in other parties, bringing their agendas with them. They cannot be suddenly de-legitimised, although corrupt media will still try if they choose to align with BJP.

So let us say three cheers and welcome farmers to the arena of democracy!

Originally published by the author on substack, republished with permission. You could read the original articlehere.

Read more:
Farmer groups, politics and democracy: Why the new political outfit is one of the best news in recent times - OpIndia

Hong Kong The construction crane arrived hours after dark, along with tarps, gold-coloured plastic fencing, and a steel shipping container. As electric drills whirred, more than a dozen workers in hard hats dismantled an iconic statute before dawn at the University of Hong Kong.

The eight-metre (26-foot) Pillar of Shame a thin tower of 50 contorted and frightened faces painted in a vivid hue of earthy rust depicted the massacre of hundreds of pro-democracy protesters by Chinese troops at Beijings Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

To many Hong Kongers, the statues removal was a callous and ironic blow and justified with strange excuses amid a continuing crackdown on Hong Kongs own democracy movement.

The statues Danish creator, Jens Galschiot, said he loaned his work permanently to the Chinese-controlled city in 1997. He said the statue was removed without any discussion or notification by the university officials and meant to send a clear message to the residents.

Dont do anything. Dont talk about the crackdown. Dont say anything about China we dont like Dont talk about the party. Dont talk about Xinjiang. Dont talk about Tibet. Dont talk about anything that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) doesnt like to hear, Galschiot told Al Jazeera over the telephone.

This is a way to oppress the population.

The university, according to the sculptor, made a series of violations. This is a monument about a crime, a states crime against the population, he said.

Its a crime against the democracy movement in Beijing a peaceful movement. Also, its a monument against the decision by the Chinese government to kill all those people to do an attack against their own young people. Now, its a monument about what happened in Hong Kong.

The University of Hong Kong, known locally as HKU, defended its decision, citing safety and legal risks.

The latest legal advice given to the University cautioned that the continued display of the statue would pose legal risks to the University, said a three-paragraph statement posted online by HKU, which also cited an ordinance that contains a colonial-era ban on seditious material against the government.

The destruction of monuments, the eradication of culture After one or two generations, people forget, Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong, who recently moved to Taiwan, told Al Jazeera.

He noted that local art institutions or students have not condemned the statues removal. Its awfully quiet in Hong Kong, he said. Its like it didnt happen.

Every year since 1989, tens of thousands of Hong Kongers would gather on June 4 to remember the Tiananmen victims, an event that drove a democracy movement in Hong Kong even before the United Kingdom relinquished the colony to China in 1997.

The demonstrators gathered last year as well, even after the government banned the vigil, citing the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities have also prosecuted key vigil organisers who wanted free speech and expanded voting rights.

In 2019, Hong Kong witnessed mass protests as millions of residents marched and held night-long street battles against Beijings move to alter an extradition law that would have allowed the city to transfer fugitives for trial in courts in other jurisdictions, including mainland China.

Soon, the protests expanded to include demands for fair elections and inquiries into accusations of police brutality.

Beijing responded by imposing a harsh national security law in 2020 and dozens of activists, politicians, union officials, news editors, and even lawyers were arrested under the law.

Hong Kongs determination to remind the world about the Tiananmen massacre clashed with Chinas efforts to erase the events memory. In mainland China, residents are barred from discussing or even mentioning references to the massacre.

Hong Kong was the only part of the Communist Party-ruled nation where people openly discussed, shared photos and watched films about the event and its aftermath. Many Hong Kongers helped student leaders in China escape the mainland after the 1989 killings.

Under Chinas security law, Hong Kongs educational campuses are devoid of much activism, indeed of much art. Students unions at some universities have been disbanded.

After some members of HKUs students union issued a statement in support of a man who stabbed a police officer before killing himself, the police charged the undergraduates with security crimes.

A democracy wall at the university that used to display posters and slogans is now empty. Another wall, named after singer John Lennon, that overflowed with drawings and posters depicting scenes from the 2019 protests was also removed by the university last year.

In fact, HKU indicated in October that the Pillar of Shame was next. After hearing about it, sculptor Galschiot told reporters he would fly to Hong Kong to remove the artwork himself. He said the university did not return his calls or reply to his emails.

On Wednesday, when HKU was empty due to a holiday break, the universitys administrative council voted to remove the statue and decided to block journalists and witnesses from recording the incident.

Workers erected tarps and set up a large plastic fence around it as some shooed reporters away. A large metal container was driven in to cart off the statues sections.

To me, it is not the act, but the rhetoric around it, Sean Tierney, an American film studies lecturer who has taught at HKU for years, told Al Jazeera.

Tierney said a safety concern about the statue was never raised earlier. As an educator, thats most galling, Tierney said. I am trying to tell these kids that its important to be grounded in truth and fact.

The academic said the people who run the government or the university are not stating the truth or facts.

They dont need it; they have power. They will say things that are blatantly false and untrue. And they dont care if you notice.

See more here:
Crime against democracy: Danish creator of the Tiananmen statue - Al Jazeera English

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at Agenda Aaj Tak. (Image credits: Rajwant Rawat)

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar lashed out at the Mamata Banerjee government, levelling a series of charges against the Trinamool Congress regime at Agenda Aaj Tak on Friday. He said the situation in Bengal was such that it resembles a gas chamber for democracy.

Dhankhar said, Bengal has become a gas chamber for democracy. People are so scared that they cant talk about that fear.

He said Bengal saw excessive violence after the assembly poll results were announced in May this year. He said, A retired judge of the Calcutta High Court who heads the state human rights commission told me, My human rights commission is in ICU. This is the state of affairs in Bengal.

He said the Constitution was not being followed in Bengal. As Governor of Bengal, I addressed the Bengal Assembly twice. It was blacked out both times, he said.

Over a dozen vice-chancellors were appointed without my knowledge. The governor is the VC of universities in a state but this happened without my knowledge, said Dhankhar, claiming that the Mamata Banerjee government was not allowing him to function as the governor of the state.

Dhankhar said CM Mamata Banerjee did not provide the information sought by him over the matters of the state in two years. He said the governor enjoyed the power to seek a response from the chief minister, but in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee refused to provide any answer.

READ MORE: Bring MSP law, public will bless you in polls: Rakesh Tikait to Centre | Agenda Aaj Tak

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Bengal a gas chamber for democracy: Governor Dhankhar ...