Lots of jealous and ignorant comments here. Please look at the bios of Vidhi's staff. They represent the cream of the crop. All graduates of top NLUs and Jindal, with postgrad degrees from the world's best colleges. All publishing top-notch research in the best journals and newspapers. Vidhi overtook CPR long ago, much before CPR's troubles started.

Everyone has a political agenda. National interest is not the same as elite people's interests, politicians interests and corporate interests. The 'tribals' are not only a part of this nation, they are the oldest part of it. All the rest of are invaders ke aulad, from the aryans onwards.

As for JNU and TISS, law is closer to social sciences and humanities? If lawyers display the same amount of ignorance in these fields as people from IIT, that would be a bad thing. These are whole fields of study and they are not called emotionalism. They are also knowledge relevant to our work. IIT people learn to program and do maths. We have nothing in common with them except for a very competitive exam.

Thoda padh le. Reasoned criticism isn't hate. No need to get so emotional. If you work there then sorry your feelings were hurt but it is what it is.

Vidhi seems to have a tie up with TOI where every week we are subjected to articles following this servile template:

- X is a big problem in India (e.g. urinating in the streets)

- It’s fantastic that Modiji is enacting a law to address the problem (e.g. one road one toilet)

- In our view, the govt can consider adding a clause to the law which does Y (e.g. expand the definition of road to include bylanes)

- Let us hope that X will soon be a thing of the past (e.g. Stinky Bharat becomes Sugandh Bharat)

In contrast, a CPR article will have more depth and address structural causes of the problem, along with hard hitting criticism.

I don’t understand the hate against Vidhi and Arghya. A legal think tank should never have a political agenda. It should try and give recommendations in national interest to the government and judiciary, regardless of who is in power. Young law grads must think rationally like IIT scientists or IIM managers, not emotionally like JNU or TISS humanities people. This is where CPR went wrong with their opposition to Adani mining projects. It’s in national interest for us to mine precious metals and minerals, else we will be forever dependent on China. Yes, tribals will be displaced in the process, but it simply cannot be helped. It’s not like the tribals are being dumped in the river. They are being given alternative accommodation. Please let us abandon the confused povertarianism of the Medha Patkar-Arundhati Roy gang.

I stand by Vidhi.

You are right, but you have to be pragmatic. Success in today’s world belongs to those who are opportunistic and not moralistic. So that is why Vidhi is the best. Better to earn well and eat at nice restaurants than earn a pittance and go hungry. Can morals and values fill your belly?

Opportunism is not non-ideological. Imagine describing a think tank that basically acts like a communication firm for the state, even if the state abuses its power and then advising people to go work for it. Did you think to ask where Vidhi's money comes from or why its donors want it to suck up to the government?

It's clear from this article that CPR (which is FYI headed by Mani Shankar Aiyar's daughter) cannot be a viable career option. So I guess this leaves Vidhi as the best option? Unlike CPR, Vidhi is non-ideological and has good relations with whichever party is in power, as well as the judiciary. Its associates help ministers with speeches, reports, etc, regardless of the party in power. You will never see Vidhi people writing newspaper articles attacking the government. So IMO this makes Vidhi a safe bet whether BJP or Congress is in power.

Is this correct?

https://www.ft.com/content/ee2b8b03-315b-4074-acac-173b8c2e7124