Dr Siraj Husain Shah

People undergo genuine opinion change over time. It is natural when this change is driven by new communication means, better information sources or new issues and agendas hovering in the environment are adding or replacing old ones. But when external agencies somehow control the opinionmaking process, this is where ‘mechanised opinion-making budding out. The paper, through the survey data, tries to find out how opinions are being manipulated and throw light on the political behaviour of voters in the context of their interaction with new media tools.

Democracy offers a promising system of accountability and citizen-centric governance in place. More than a system of governance, it refers to a way of life, a social structure, a method of establishing social and economic ties, and most importantly, a set of moral principles. Effective collaboration between the government and the populace leads to good governance. But it can be held that, we cannot have good governance in place without democracy. e article demonstrates through the Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) approach that “democracy and good governance are symbiotic and complement each other” heavily lean toward the assumption of “can’t’ have democracy without good governance".

Rural-Urban voters’ representation and participation contrast has been viewed by many psephologist in terms of direct and undisputed connection with the spatiality resulting in behavioural changes. If there is any form of inequality, be it social, economic or political,prevailing in a section of society, it inhibits the real participation thus affect the true meaning of democracy. The article analyses the potential reasons for the occurring phenomena in a qualitative and quantitative manner. The data is based on the Lok Sabha elections 2014 and 2019 collected from Kheri Parliamentary Constituency. The paper tries to establish direct relationship between the rural-urban political dichotomy and explainable socio-economic or political causes for the same. The study finds that rural-urban political behaviour shows explicit variations. These changes have reasons ingrained in the different socio-economic lifestyles of the two regions.

This article examines the status of political reservation provided to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in India. Using secondary data on political reservation provided to the SCs in India, this article is an attempt to scrutinise the impact of the policy designed for the political upliftment of the particular community. The analysis uncovers the intention behind providing political reservation and highlights the implication of reserving seats for SCs in constituencies as ambiguous. The data shows that seven decades of affirmative action has not contributed towards the cause of political upliftment of the people of SCs much in effect. The combined realities can be assessed having both positives and negatives in hand. Given how oppressed SCs have been throughout Indian history, their mere existence in the same House as other politicians can be considered a victory in and of itself. However, many unanswered questions remain unanswered, like how rational is delimitation and reshuffling of reserved constituencies? Or, how well are citizens of reserved constituencies served?

The global balance of power has been changing gradually in the past two decades and shifting towards Asia primarily due to the rapid and simultaneous rise of the two Asian powers, India and China. Central Asia lies on the old silk route and has been an arena of "great game" in the region. Three critical points for India's access to Central Asia are Bandar Abbas and Chabahar Port in Iran, Bamiyan in Afghanistan and Bandar Anzali on the Caspian Sea. Despite India's geographical proximity, economic potential, and growing strategic interest, New Delhi critically lags behind concerning other regional actors in Central Asia. Indian economic interests in Central Asia are not limited to importing energy resources but strategic and defence interests to grow regional cooperation. India's “Connect Central Asia Policy” (CCAP), which is focused on proactive agreements with Central Asian nations on both a national and international level in the economic, political and people-to-people realms, is currently focusing its emphasis on the region. Chabahar is a port located in the Islamic Republic of Iran having proximity to the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz. Chabahar port is a leading platform of economic, strategic and energy security interests for India to fulfill its multi-dimension requirements. Because of the Central Asian Republic's geostrategic importance, India needs to establish close relations with them and develop a new dimension of geopolitics. This paper will identify new strategic areas and analyse India's strategic interests and prospects in Central Asia.