Varun Hari Prasad

Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh passed away on 26 December 2024, ending one of the most illustrious innings of over 6 decades in public service. Dr Manmohan Singh had a tough childhood as he faced the troubles of partition and came to India at the age of 14. He studied with the help of scholarship and always used to stress on the importance of public funding in Education. This humble origins enabled him to enact the landmark Right to Education Act and introduce reservation for SC/ST/OBC in public educational institutions. I will not reflect on his tenure as Finance Minister in 1991. I would like to reflect on three specific aspects of Dr Manmohan Singh, during his stint as Prime Minister: The Myth of being 'Weak PM' There has been this argument that Dr Manmohan Singh was a  'weak' Prime Minister. But if one carefully observes the tenure of Dr Singh as Prime Minister, one will observe that he was not 'weak' as portrayed by the BJP and certain media. Some ...

The Karnataka Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had staged a day long protest in New Delhi on 7th February 2024 accusing the Union Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of committing injustice to Karnataka in allocation of funds. Even though the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has responded to allegations by dismissing it as politically motivated, this is not the first time that Karnataka has expressed concern over injustice in allocation of funds. In this essay, I share my thoughts on the concerns raised by the southern States, especially Karnataka, on the injustice in allocation of funds. What are Karnataka's concerns ? 1. The Decision to use 2011 Census Data The primary concern raised by Karnataka is against the 15th Finance Commission using the 2011 Census data instead of the 1971 Census. This concern is being raised because States that failed to implement population control measures effectively will have an unfair advantage over the States that hav...

On 23rd July 2024, the Union Finance Minister Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman presented her seventh consecutive Union Budget. With this being the first Union Budget after the Lok Sabha election, there was considerable enthusiasm towards the Budget. The Impact of Election result on Budget    The Budget speech of the Finance Minister clearly shows us that the Lok Sabha election result has shaken the BJP to some extent. The principal ruling party, known for its arrogant approach over the past ten years, was forced to accommodate some of the demands of its key allies the JDU of Bihar and TDP of Andhra Pradesh. The Finance Minister, who was dismissive about the unemployment crisis earlier, was forced to mention the words 'unemployment' and 'jobs' more than 20 times in the Budget Speech. The Impact of Budget on the four 'castes' In paragraph 4 of her Budget Speech, the Finance Minister said: " As mentioned in the interim budget, we need to focus on 4 major castes, namely ...

India's Lok Sabha election is the largest democratic exercise of its kind in the world. As I write this essay, the polling process has been completed in five phases of the seven phase election to the Lok Sabha. In the course of this election we have seen many instances where the ordinary citizen would have expected the Election Commission to be proactive and take measures that would further increase the confidence of the people in the election process. In this essay, I will share my thoughts on one such issue. The change in vote turn out percentage & initial delay The voter turn-out data for the first two phases of the ongoing General Elections to the Lok Sabha published by Election Commission of India (ECI) on April 30 has been published after 11 days of the first phase of polling held on 19th April and 4 days after second phase of polling held on 26th April.  On April 19, after the first phase of polling, the ECI issued a Press Note stating that the tentative figure of voter ...