December 13, Terror Over Democracy

December 13, Terror Over Democracy

Author: Nirmalangshu Mukherji

Publisher: Bibliophile South Asia

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9788185002576

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

On the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 and the accused trials.


Democracy on Trial

Democracy on Trial

Author: Jean Bethke Elshtain

Publisher: House of Anansi

Published: 1993-11-08

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 0887848540

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Is democracy as we know it in danger? More and more we confront one another as aggrieved groups rather than as free citizens. Deepening cynicism, the growth of corrosive individualism, statism, and the loss of civil society are warning signs that democracy may be incapable of satisfying the yearnings it itself unleashes - yearnings for freedom, fairness, and equality. In her 1993 CBC Massey Lectures, political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain delves into these complex issues to evaluate democracy's chances for survival.


13 December: A Reader (r/e)

13 December: A Reader (r/e)

Author: Roy

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780143103233

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Contributed articles on the attemped terrorist attack on the Parliament of India committed on December 13, 2001, and the trial proceedings related to the incident.


The Hanging of Afzal Guru and the Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament

The Hanging of Afzal Guru and the Strange Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament

Author: Arundhati Roy

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2016-07-27

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9386057549

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

On 13 December 2001, the Indian Parliament was attacked by a few heavily armed men. Eleven years later, we still do not know who was behind the attack, nor the identity of the attackers. Both the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court of India have noted that the police violated legal safeguards, fabricated evidence and extracted false confessions. Yet, on 9 February 2013, one man, Mohammad Afzal Guru, was hanged to ‘satisfy’ the ‘collective conscience’ of society. This updated reader brings together essays by lawyers, academics, journalists and writers who have looked closely at the available facts and who have raised serious questions about the investigations and the trial. This new version examines the implications of Mohammad Afzal Guru’s hanging and what it says about the Indian government’s relationship with Kashmir.


The Case For Democracy

The Case For Democracy

Author: Natan Sharansky

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2009-02-23

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0786737069

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Natan Sharansky believes that the truest expression of democracy is the ability to stand in the middle of a town square and express one's views without fear of imprisonment. He should know. A dissident in the USSR, Sharansky was jailed for nine years for challenging Soviet policies. During that time he reinforced his moral conviction that democracy is essential to both protecting human rights and maintaining global peace and security. Sharansky was catapulted onto the Israeli political stage in 1996. In the last eight years, he has served as a minister in four different Israeli cabinets, including a stint as Deputy Prime Minister, playing a key role in government decision making from the peace negotiations at Wye to the war against Palestinian terror. In his views, he has been as consistent as he has been stubborn: Tyranny, whether in the Soviet Union or the Middle East, must always be made to bow before democracy. Drawing on a lifetime of experience of democracy and its absence, Sharansky believes that only democracy can safeguard the well-being of societies. For Sharansky, when it comes to democracy, politics is not a matter of left and right, but right and wrong. This is a passionately argued book from a man who carries supreme moral authority to make the case he does here: that the spread of democracy everywhere is not only possible, but also essential to the survival of our civilization. His argument is sure to stir controversy on all sides; this is arguably the great issue of our times.


Democracy and Political Ignorance

Democracy and Political Ignorance

Author: Ilya Somin

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2013-10-02

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0804789312

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely.


The State, Democracy and Anti-Terror Laws in India

The State, Democracy and Anti-Terror Laws in India

Author: Ujjwal Kumar Singh

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2007-01-12

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 9780761935186

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Laws like the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) are enacted to address what the state describes as extraordinary situations and put in place exceptions to the ordinary legal and judicial procedures. By examining public debates surrounding extraordinary laws like POTA and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and also specific cases, trials and judgements under the Acts, the author - argues that extraordinary laws have ramifications for people’s lives, political institutions, the rule of law and democratic functioning; - shows how such laws assume ‘normalcy’ and acquire a place of permanence in state practices; and - examines the ways in which such extraordinary laws manifest dominant configurations of political power and ideology. While exploring the unfolding of POTA in specific contexts, the book shows how the law was enmeshed in the politics of Hindutva, electoral and coalition politics, centre-state relations, the politics of repression and reconciliation against nationality struggles, and issues of poverty and development.


Listening to Grass-hoppers

Listening to Grass-hoppers

Author: Arundhati Roy

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0670083798

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

'What happens once democracy has been used up? When it has been hollowed out and emptied of meaning?' Combining brilliant political insight and razor-sharp prose, Listening to Grasshoppers is the essential new book from Arundhati Roy. In these essays, she takes a hard look at the underbelly of the world's largest democracy, and shows how the journey that Hindu nationalism and neo-liberal economic reforms began together in the early 1990s is unravelling in dangerous ways. Beginning with the state-backed killing of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, she writes about how 'progress' and genocide have historically gone hand in hand; about the murky investigations into the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament; about the dangers of an increasingly powerful and entirely unaccountable judiciary; and about the collusion between large corporations, the government and the mainstream media. The collection ends with an account of the August 2008 uprising in Kashmir and an analysis of the November 2008 attacks on Mumbai. 'The Briefing', included as an appendix, is a fictional text that brings together many of the issues central to the collection.


Perilous Power

Perilous Power

Author: Noam Chomsky

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-03

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1317254317

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The volatile Middle East is the site of vast resources, profound passions, frequent crises, and long-standing conflicts, as well as a major source of international tensions and a key site of direct US intervention. Two of the most astute analysts of this part of the world are Noam Chomsky, the preeminent critic of U.S, foreign policy, and Gilbert Achcar, a leading specialist of the Middle East who lived in that region for many years. In their new book, Chomsky and Achcar bring a keen understanding of the internal dynamics of the Middle East and of the role of the United States, taking up all the key questions of interest to concerned citizens, including such topics as terrorism, fundamentalism, conspiracies, oil, democracy, self-determination, anti-Semitism, and anti-Arab racism, as well as the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the sources of U.S. foreign policy. This book provides the best readable introduction for all who wish to understand the complex issues related to the Middle East from a perspective dedicated to peace and justice.