School of Law, Governance and Public Policy

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Rupak Kumar

Ph.D., Jawaharlal Nehru University

Rupak Kumar

Ph.D., Jawaharlal Nehru University
Rupak.k@chanakyauniversity.edu.in
Institutions, Governance, Public Policy, Political Processes, Parliament

My current research deals with the interdisciplinary areas of politics, public policy, governance studies, legislative studies and intersection between law, policies, and processes. My work on the effectiveness and functioning of the Joint Parliamentary Committees (JPCs) in the governance model of India focuses on the structural, empirical and substantive aspects of the role of institutions in evolution of the idea of good-governance and the critical role that committees play in the formulation of the public policy in India. This study is done at the interface of the political processes and the institutional fulcrum impacting the policy changes and variations in the country. My work on Parliamentary Opposition deals with the significance of legislature as a tool of governance imperative apart from being a crucial actor in democratic setup. My work deals with how the representational assertion in Indian politics enabled both the expansion of the Opposition, but by generating fragmentation and making ideologically-neutral coalitions both possible and necessary, which also contributed to its weakening as a mechanism of exacting accountability.

Rupak Kumar is an author and Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the School of Law, Governance and Public Policy, Chanakya University, Bengaluru. His book “Making of the Parliamentary Opposition in India” from Routledge (Taylor & Francis) published in May 2025. Previously, he taught in Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore and at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, New Delhi. He holds a Doctoral Degree from Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. After graduating from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi in 2013 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science (Honours), he completed Masters’ in Political Science from the Centre for Political Studies, JNU in 2015. In 2015, he enrolled for the M.Phil-PhD integrated programme at the interdisciplinary centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University. He worked on the effectiveness of the Parliamentary Committees in India in his M.Phil dissertation between 2015-2017 and on the making of Parliamentary Opposition in Ph.D between 2017-2021. He was also the Junior Research and Senior Research Fellow of the University Grants Commission, Ministry of Education in 2019.

He is trained to pursue research and teaching in interdisciplinary areas on politics, public policy, governance studies, legislative studies and inter-section between law, policies, processes and social sciences. Previously, He also worked at the Election Commission of India to prepare a concept paper on Democracy and Elections in India after Independence. He was selected for the Mittal Institute India Fellowship (MIIF) at the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, supported by Harvard Global Research Support Centre India (HGI) for 2022-2023. However, He had to decline the offer for this fellowship.

  • Ph.D., Law & Governance, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2021
  • M.Phil., Law & Governance, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2017
  • M.A., Political Science, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2015
  • B.A., (Hons) Political Science, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, 2013

Authored Book

  1. R.Kumar, “Making of the Parliamentary Opposition in India”, Routledge, Taylor & Francis, London & New York, 2025

Journal Articles

  1. R. Kumar, Special Article- “Joint Parliamentary Committees in India: Evolving Patterns and Frameworks”. 61 (7). 14 Feb 2026. Economic and Political Weekly. https://www.epw.in/journal/special-articles/joint-parliamentary-committees-india.html 
    https://doi.org/10.71279/epw.v61i07.41556
  2. R.Kumar, “Quasi-Democratic Imagination: How the Constituent Assembly Envisioned the Parliamentary Opposition,” National Law School Journal (NLSIU): Vol. 18: Iss. 1, Article 5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55496/SJVI7042 Available at: https://repository.nls.ac.in/nlsj/vol18/iss1/5
  3. V. Tripathi & Rupak Kumar, “Executive in India: From Nehru to Modi.” Indian Journal of Public Administration. Sage Journals. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/00195561241309145
  4. R. Kumar, “Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: Case for Parliamentary Reforms.” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol LIX(32). 19-24. (10 Aug 2024).
    https://www.epw.in/journal/commentary/never-let-serious-crisis-go-waste.html 
  5. R.Kumar, The Making of India’s Resilient Opposition in the 1970s. South Asian Survey. Sage. August 2024. https://doi.org/10.1177/09715231241264933
  6. V.Tripathi & Rupak Kumar. Parliament amidst Pandemic: Situating the Opposition. Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. LVI. No. 33. 2021.
    https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/33/perspectives/parliament-amidst-pandemic.html 
  7. R. Kumar, Review Essay. Interrogating the Social in Indian Civilization. on Himanshu Roy (ed). Social Thought in Indic Civilization. Sage. Indian Journal of Public Administration. 70(1). IIPA. Sage. 2024.
  8. K. Murari, A.P. Singh & Rupak Kumar. “भारतीय लोकतंत्र में संविधान की केन्द्रियता.” 15(2). लोक प्रशासन. इंडियन इंस्टिट्यूट ऑफ़ पब्लिक एडमिनिस्ट्रेशन. न्यू डेल्ही. 2023.
  9. R. Kumar, The Ideas of Swaraj in India. Dialogue (Quarterly). Vol. 21:4. April-June 2020.
  10. R. Kumar. Book review of Shaping Policy in India: Alliance, Advocacy, Activism by Kaushiki Sanyal and Rajesh Chakrabarti. Oxford University Press. 2017. Indian Journal of Public Administration (IIPA). 64(4). Sage
  11. R. Kumar, “Telangana: Reshaping State’s Electoral Landscape”. in Lok Sabha Elections in India 2024: Mutual Embeddedness of State and National Politics. Edited by A K Verma, K C Suri & Vikas Tripathi. CSSP
  12. R. Kumar, “Political Representation and Policy-Making: Role of Tribal MPs in Indian Parliament”. Sage Handbook of Tribal Politics in India. Edited by Virginius Xaxa and Jagannath Ambagudia. SAGE. 2021
    https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/handbook-of-tribal-politics-in-india/book275886#description

  • Received ICSSR Grant (4.5 Lakhs) to organise National Seminar on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 150th birth anniversary celebration (March 2025). organised on 4-5 August 2025 at VIT, Vellore.

  • CSDS-Lokniti Summer School on Quantitative Methods in Politics, Bangalore (10 July-20 July 2019). Trained in SPSS software for statistical Analysis of large data in Social Sciences
  • ‘Researching the Contemporary 2016’, Centre for the Study of Developing Society. Successfully completed CSDS two months intensive study programme

  1. Cabinet in Coalition government: Modi, NDA and beyond. https://www.indiatodayne.in/perspective/story/cabinet-in-coalition-government-modi-nda-and-beyond-1055889-2024-07-24
  2. An idea of the robust opposition: Pitfalls and expectations. https://www.indiatodayne.in/perspective/story/an-idea-of-the-robust-opposition-pitfalls-and-expectations-1034686-2024-06-24
  3. India’s Realpolitik is Making Joint Parliamentary Committees Almost Toothless. The Quint. 3 April 2023. https://www.thequint.com/opinion/joint-parliamentary-committees-partisan-motivations-succeed-bofors-2g-scam-coalgate
  4. Why arithmetic isn’t enough for opposition unity. The Indian Express. 7 September 2021. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/parliament-opposition-parties-unity-ruling-bjp-nda-government-7495026/ 
  5. Invited Lecture, “Fragmentation and Crisis of Opposition: Unmaking of the Parliamentary Opposition in India”. 25 March 20026. Easwari School of Liberal Arts. SRM University, AP.
  6. Invited Lecture- “Sardar Patel’s vision of Parliamentary Democracy and Institutions”, 21 August 2025, Department of Politics and International Studies, Pondicherry University, Puducherry.
  7. “Quasi-Democratic Imaginations: Envisioning the Parliamentary Opposition in the Constituent Assembly”. Presented at NLSIU PACT Conference | Project on Pluralist Agreement and Constitutional Transformation. organised by PACT collaborators SOAS University of London, Universities of Oxford, York, the Centre for Law and Policy Research, Bengaluru and NLSIU. 02-03 August 2024. Bengaluru.

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