@ThinkTank · 1:40
Democratic Accountability and Political Transparency: The Story of Association for Democratic Reforms
And that's precisely what the association for Democratic Reforms does. I'm honored to strike this conversation today with Dr. Chilochan Shastri. He's a leading academic at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. He was one of the main petitioners in the Right to information campaign. He's also the founder of the association for Democratic Reforms. So, Dr. Shastri, the purpose of this conversation is to get an idea of the mission of the association of Democratic Reforms. It's truly a great institution
Trilochan Sastry
@trilochan · 0:34
You. Our mission is very simple. It is to help improve democracy and governance in India. And our strategy at present is to bring in greater transparency in the whole system. This includes bringing in transparency on candidates and political parties, in informing voters, and on some strategic litigations that we do in the Supreme Court so that we are able to achieve our mission
Trilochan Sastry
@trilochan · 2:39
So it shall now include the Prime Minister, the leader of the Opposition, as well as the Chief Justice of India, so that we ensure that the appointments are nonpartisan and nonpolitical. So these are some of the important things that we continue to do
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 1:12
Hello, Mr. Shastri. It is lovely to hear this. It looks like ADR was formed after I left India, which is why I have not been aware of the important work this organization has done in the electoral process in India. Could you speak a bit to how you're organized? How many people constitute your organization? Is it volunteer years? The little I know, I know from Wikipedia. But it would be lovely to understand how you operate right now