SENIOR JOURNALIST & BESTSELLING AUTHOR
In a democracy, the citizens have the right to question the government.
Jantar Mantar was built to observe the heavens. For three decades, it gave citizens a place to challenge power on earth. Its closure raises an urgent question: can a democracy survive by pushing dissent out of sight?
From a 23-day hunger strike to the barricades of Jantar Mantar, Neha Bora has emerged as a striking voice of India’s youth, defending dissent, citizenship and the right to vote.
Ram Rajya existed centuries before the word secularism entered political language. Yet its ideal of just rule, equal protection and the welfare of all can help us understand why secularism has become central to modern India.
An election can change a government overnight. But if citizens begin to doubt the institution that conducts it, the damage can reach far deeper: it can shake democracy itself.
When a citizen must sign a declaration before entering a church, India must ask whether freedom of religion is still a constitutional right—or a privilege that minorities must prove they deserve.
