{"id":1161,"date":"2017-05-04T07:41:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T07:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2019-11-08T08:58:51","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T08:58:51","slug":"all-is-not-well-with-our-democracy-ashwani-kumar-former-minister-of-law-and-justice-speaks-on-the-challenges-in-indian-democracy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/2017\/05\/04\/all-is-not-well-with-our-democracy-ashwani-kumar-former-minister-of-law-and-justice-speaks-on-the-challenges-in-indian-democracy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAll is not well with our democracy\u201d: Ashwani Kumar Former Minister of Law and Justice Speaks on the Challenges in Indian Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

4th May, 2017, Sonipat<\/strong>: 91̽»¨ (JGU) hosted Dr. Ashwani Kumar, eminent lawyer and former Minister of Law and Justice to deliberate on his new book, \u2018Hope in a Challenged Democracy: An Indian Narrative<\/strong>\u2019 at its university campus in Sonepat, Haryana on 4th May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nbook titled \u2018Hope in a Challenged Democracy: An Indian Narrative\u2019<\/strong>\ncritically analyses issues of fundamental importance in the framework of the dignitarian\ngoals of the republic, the role of a \u2018living Constitution\u2019, the necessity of\nequilibrium between executive, legislature and judiciary, the role of media,\nimportance of equitable growth, a responsive justice system and a rising\nIndia\u2019s engagement with the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidst a full house audience, author Dr.\nAshwani Kumar were joined by JGU Founding Vice-Chancellor, Professor (Dr) C Raj\nKumar and Professor, Shiv Vishwanathan, Vice Dean, Jindal Global Law School for\nthe discourse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Ashwani Kumar<\/strong> said, \u201cIn its entirety the\nbook is a reflection on the politics and future of constitutional democracy. It is about\ncontested ideas for and competing equity, ideological preferences and proclaimed\nbiases, legacy of liberalism and impulses of parliamentary majorities, the\nsuborning of principles to political expediency and gradual erosion of\nconstitutional order. It is about the decline of deliberative democracy,\nleadership and ascendency of ceaseless competitive politics\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talking about his own long political journey, he was\nreflective about penning down his interventions in subjects that continue to be\nof utmost relevance to the future of our democracy\u200e to the future of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Ashwani Kumar also spoke about the dis equilibrium\nin the functional space of our constitution and \u201cissues that go to the root of\nthe future of our democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking about the intriguing issues that pose a\nthreat to the democratic set up, he opined that \u201cunless we <\/strong>\u200e<\/strong>openly and candidly admit that all is not well with our democracy, that there are challenges that need to be faced\nand addressed, we will not be able to protect it and nurture it or to\nstrengthen it\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor (Dr) C Raj Kumar<\/strong>, Vice Chancellor Jindal Global University taking part in the discourse\nsaid, the book despite its multiplicity of themes, which are at times seemingly\ndisparate still successfully weaves an in-depth narrative\nof Indian democracy. It provides\na statesman\u2019s perspective on addressing challenges and optimizing responses\nwith a view to transforming our democracy as a true reflection of the\ncollective conscience of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Shiv\nVisvanathan,<\/strong> Vice Dean, Jindal\nGlobal Law School said, the book is of multiple\nnarratives, it is a study in law, study in democracy, study in politics, and\nit’s also a personal story what he dubbed as an \u201cepithet to memoir\u201d. He said\nthat the book strongly hides under the backdrop of tensions between Congress\nversus BJP with the rising power of BJP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publication has also received some\nnotable reviews from both India and abroad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A book with a profound historical perspective, which\nenriches the analysis and encourages to show great ambitions for the country.
\n–Dominique de Villepin, former Prime Minister of France<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book is a must-read for students of politics,\nphilosophy and history. A tour de force indeed!
\n–Lord Karan Billimoria, CBE DL, Member, House of Lords<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book illuminates an astonishing range of the\nissues with perceptiveness and wisdom, informed by an increasingly rare sense\nof values. We need more leaders like him.
\n–KS Bajpai, former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, former Indian\nAmbassador to Pakistan, China and the United States of America<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author poses in this highly readable book the\nquestion: can we invest our politics with dignity and anchor it in high\nprinciple? Nothing is quite as important to India\u2019s democratic future as the\nanswer to this question.
\n–Gurcharan Das, author of India Unbound and The Difficulty of Being Good.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr.\nAshwani Kumar, an eminent lawyer, author and veteran parliamentarian was member\nof the Rajya Sabha for fourteen consecutive years till his retirement in April\n2016. During this time, he held various ministerial positions including\nMinister for Law and Justice, Special Envoy of PM Manmohan Singh to Japan\n(2013) and chaired several important parliamentary committees. Dr Kumar\nrepresented the Indian Government at the highest forums of diplomacy including\nin the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the World Economic Forum. He\nis a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, a former Additional Solicitor\nGeneral, widely recognised for his eloquence as a spokesperson of the Congress\nParty and for the intellectual depth of his writings and parliamentary\ninterventions. He was honoured with Honoris Causa by Punjab University in 2005,\nwas a visiting Distinguished Fellow at the Trinity College Dublin (2016) and has\nspoken at the Oxford Human Rights Hub, The Fletcher School of Law &\nDiplomacy, University of Birmingham and Kings College London amongst others.\nHis publications include Laws, Ideas & Ideology in Politics: Perspectives\nof an Activist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th May, 2017, Sonipat: 91̽»¨ (JGU) hosted Dr. Ashwani Kumar, eminent lawyer and former Minister of Law and Justice to deliberate on his new book, \u2018Hope in a Challenged Democracy: An Indian Narrative\u2019 at its university campus in Sonepat, Haryana on 4th May. The book titled \u2018Hope Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsroom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1329,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions\/1329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}