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<title>World Malayalee Voice &#45; : OPINION</title>
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<title>Beyond the ballot: Democracy and the battle for trust in India</title>
<link>https://worldmalayaleevoice.com/beyond-the-ballot-democracy-and-the-battle-for-trust-in-india</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:37:45 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Why this delimitation is suspicious and it&amp;apos;s not what you think</title>
<link>https://worldmalayaleevoice.com/why-this-delimitation-is-suspicious-and-its-not-what-you-think</link>
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<description><![CDATA[ Special sessions of Parliament were historically called for crises and commemorations. In 2008, when the UPA government lost the support of the Left, in 1991 and 1977 to impose President&#039;s Rule in various states, and in 1962 during the war with China, special sessions were called in the wake of crises. Commemorative sessions have been called for anniversaries of the Quit India Movement, Ambedkar&#039;s birth anniversary, and the inauguration of the new Parliament, most recently in 2023. The current government has the distinction, twice, of asking for special sessions on occasions that were neither crisis nor commemoration. One was for the passage of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Act in 2017, and the other is now. Three bills,  none of which are urgent, are being tabled for passage within this three-day window. All of them relate to delimitation. Delimitation involves the determination of two things: the number of Parliamentary and Assembly seats in each state, and the geographical boundaries of the seats. The bills propose significant changes to delimitation. One change disconnects women&#039;s reservation from census and delimitation, a linkage that should never have been in the original 106th Constitutional Amendment of 2023 (Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam). This change betters bad law, and is also where the good news ends. A slew of other proposed changes are controversial. They raise the size of Parliament from 545 to 850, with 815 MPs from states, and 35 MPs from Union Territories. They delink delimitation from the census, with a constitutional amendment. They now subject delimitation to parliamentary writ, so it can be initiated at the pleasure and expedience of the Parliament. Such a de-constitutionalised delimitation no longer needs two-thirds majority.  The amendment also frees delimitation from the constitutional protections of seat freeze and boundary freeze. The 84th Constitutional Amendment (2002) had extended the seat freeze to continue to be based on the 1971 census by an additional 25 years, till 2026, while the 87th Constitutional Amendment legislated the use of the 2001 census for constituency boundaries. The proposed changes establish a Delimitation Commission, legislated to use the latest census at any time, but without publishing a formula for how seats are to be allocated to states. The terms of reference of the commission are to be set solely by the Union, with states having advisory but no voting or veto powers. They also decree that the decisions of the Delimitation Commission cannot be challenged in any court of law; this is not new.  Even without a published formula, any seat allocation based on the latest, i.e., 2011 census, will dramatically reduce the power of states that have acted responsibly toward the Union, in population control. Between 1971 and 2011, India&#039;s population more than doubled, from 54.8 crores to 121 crores. However, every single southern state controlled its fertility rate to below the national average (as did Odisha and West Bengal, but not Gujarat), contributing much smaller population additions. Naturally, southern share in India&#039;s overall population fell in this period. A fall so steep, that as a ratio of UP’s population, the combined population of Andhra Pradesh went down from 49% to 42%, Tamil Nadu’s from 46.5% to 36%, and Kerala’s from 24% to 16%. While Karnataka was not in its current shape and form in 1971, its Total Fertility Rate (TFR) at 2.0 (below replacement) in 2011, compared to UP&#039;s 3.6, guarantees its erosion of power.  Numerous estimates for seat allocations have been offered by various commentators, but the bills themselves are mum on the formula, leaving it to the incontestable, non-justiciable wisdom of the Delimitation Commission. For the South, what the usage of any census post-1971 spells, is dramatically dwindled prowess within Parliament, in which laws need only a simple majority to pass. If this proposed delimitation succeeds, any government, current and future, could pass the laws they please, bypassing the South completely. The southern contingent in Parliament would be rendered entirely irrelevant to much lawmaking. In fact, almost all laws could be passed using a clutch of north-of-the-Vindhyas-states: UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, MP, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, HP, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand together will likely occupy 50% of seats. These ten states may match the combined power of the other eighteen states: five of the South, eight of the North East, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, and Punjab. All this said, there is a compelling reason to delimit. Using the most recent census balances the under-representation of the populous states of the Hindi heartland. So, why are these bills so disquieting? It is because the focus on the falling numbers of seats in the southern states, stark and ominous as they are, misses the iceberg that could sink the ship. Democracy is the process, not the outcome. Politicians may care more about results, but fo ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Sat, 18 Apr 2026 16:47:23 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Trump attacks on Pope Leo will hurt GOP gains with Catholic Americans: Experts</title>
<link>https://worldmalayaleevoice.com/trump-attacks-on-pope-leo-will-hurt-gop-gains-with-catholic-americans-experts</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2026 12:35:38 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>Here&amp;apos;s what CEOs and top execs are saying about how the Iran war is affecting business</title>
<link>https://worldmalayaleevoice.com/heres-what-ceos-and-top-execs-are-saying-about-how-the-iran-war-is-affecting-business-126176</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:33:45 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>‘The problem is the male&#45;constructed notion of purity’: TM Krishna writes on Sabarimala</title>
<link>https://worldmalayaleevoice.com/the-problem-is-the-male-constructed-notion-of-purity-tm-krishna-writes-on-sabarimala</link>
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<description><![CDATA[ Follow TNM&#039;s WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.In the Indian context, the cultural and the spiritual are cohabitants of the same enclave. There are emotional crossovers between culture, religion, faith and spirituality. Our thoughts and practices belong to more than one of these categories. Spirituality, though described as a way to ‘realise the self’, is always stuck between belief, ritual and purity. More often than not, societal condescension and disregard of certain cultures is a judgement of their spiritual status.For long I have refrained from using this word to describe my musical experience. I was afraid that it would be highjacked by the religious and filed in the Religion rack. Clouded by that fear, I forgot that it could be the open door needed for the conservative faithful to join in a larger, catholic conversation. My musical experiences are spiritual; they are deeply moving philosophical dives that cannot be explained in words. But they are not otherworldly, nor are they transcendent or inaccessible to everyone else. And they most definitely do not place me at a higher level of consciousness.They are moments of reflection, when I am able to observe all the sensory inputs I receive sans pre-conceived judgement. This also means I am able to offer music without blocks or suspicion. Music breaks down the walls that isolate me. I stand before you with no protective gear. But there is one question that remains with me once I return from these enlightening musical voyages: Why am I not such a human being in my everyday life?For believers, perhaps this experience might arise when they stand before their lord—a state in which the disturbing voices of oppressors don’t haunt the oppressed. If that fleeting moment of uncluttered solitude exists for someone, no one has the right to snatch it away from them.I am reminded of an old woman I met when a few of us were trekking up Parvathamalai, a hill near the town of Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. It is a three-hour trek that includes a few tough stretches, a series of cement steps and finally, a precarious climb on and over a rock face. Waiting for us on the other side was lord Siva in the form of a linga. The weather in the month of May was blistering and dehydrating. As we neared the steps section, I noticed an old lady panting and scrambling over the steps. Every move was a herculean task. I was concerned for her well-being. Her son kept providing her water to drink as she stumbled along. Every few moments, she called out the name of the lord with whatever energy she had, pushing herself ever closer to the top. As she neared the temple, her voice got louder, she raised her arms in obeisance to Siva and her body suddenly moved with greater ease. It was as though god had given her new strength. On reaching the top, she stood up and walked towards the temple with an evident sense of expectation, like a lover would rush towards her beloved. She entered the temple in a state of thrall. She did not look around for validation, neither did she act as though the trek was an achievement. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her eyes remained transfixed on him, her god!The legend of Kannappa Nayanar is an evocative reminder that the relationship between god and devotee needs to be unhindered. Kannappan, a hunter, fed his Siva the meat from his hunts. He collected water in his mouth and spat it on the linga to bathe his Siva. Siva was decorated with the flowers that Kannappan plucked and carried in his own hair. Kannapan did not know that his every action threw brahminical rules of ritual to the wind. This was his offering, his personal relationship with his lord. The lord had no right to refuse. One day, Kannappan found that his Siva was bleeding from one eye. Unable to stop the bleeding, Kannappan gouged out his own eye and placed it on the lord’s. Soon, the linga’s other eye began to bleed. The only way to remove his own remaining eye and offer it to Siva was to use his foot as a place-marker on the linga as he gouged his eye out with an arrow. In the tale, Siva is testing the devotee. An elucidation of bhakti, this is also a story about being free, free from the fear of judgement. Kannappan decided how he would pray; that right was not just freedom, it was dignity. This dignity was born from devotion. Every religion has stories of society shunning people who surrender to god in the manner of their choosing. And one need not be a saint to have this right.The Sabarimala temple case, dealing with the denial of worshiping rights to women who menstruate, is about the dignity of the bhakta. When a specific class of women are systemically refused the right to experience the joy of meeting their god, it is a humiliation.Ritualistic traditions and mythological explanations are no defence for such discrimination. According to Hindu ritualistic practice, when the ‘eyes’ of a sculpted idol are opened, the deity comes alive. Once we attribute this quality to the idol ]]></description>
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<pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:17:13 +0000</pubDate>
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<title>നോമ്പ് കാല ചിന്തകൾ   </title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 06:50:27 +0000</pubDate>
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