| President Recep Tayyip to chair first cabinet meeting |
 In Turkey, the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that he will chair the cabinet meeting next month. Mr. Erdogan told reporters in Ankara that he would gather cabinet ministers at his palace on 19th January and it is allowed by the constitution. Earlier President’s including his predecessor, Abdullah Gul largely performed a ceremonial role. But Erdogan has made clear his ambitions to have an active role for the President in Turkish polity. His decision to chair the cabinet meeting is a first of its kind in the history of Turkey and is being seen as a move towards Presidential form of Government in the country. The founder of the ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, Mr. Erdogan has served as country’s all powerful Prime Minister during 2001 to 2014. |
Save Dissent to Save Democracy THE rising instances of physical violence and threats against political opponents and the inability to accept dissent must raise huge concerns amongst all of us who see democracy as perhaps the really stellar achievement since Independence. AAP’s attack on BJP headquarters and acts of arson committed under the very noses of their elite leadership; the attacks on Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Gujarat in the last two days; the recent manhandling of the caretaker of journalist Siddharth Varadarajan’s house by some garden variety thugs; and the violence and threats meted out regularly to their political opponents by political parties is surely deplorable and condemnable. This is a fatally flawed trend which will destroy the very foundations of our democratic institutions if not pushed back with all the strength and condemnation that the civil society can mobilise. Replaying the past To begin with, it must be clarified that we should ...
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