The BJP rank and file’s seething resentment against the nominations to the Rajya Sabha seems to have taken the leadership by surprise. Still in denial mode about the causes of the May 13 debacle, it sought to make amends with the half-hearted nomination of former Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie as … Read More
“The need of the moment is not one religion, but mutual respect and tolerance of the devotees of the different religions.” – Mahatma Gandhi The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s sudden decision to revoke the State’s anti-conversion law has brought the spotlight on the morality, if not legality, of religious … Read More
Over three decades after Dharampal’s classic, The Beautiful Tree, established that pre-Macaulay India had a literacy rate of around 73% and virtually every village had a school, the nation stagnates with a literacy rate of 65%. If memory serves me right, over the past two decades, we have managed to … Read More
Indians who believe ‘White is right’ may be shocked to learn that as the 17 June 2004 deadline for finalizing the European Union constitution approaches, the continent stands ruptured by God. Europe is deeply divided over whether her constitution should include reference to her Christian heritage, which has impacted upon … Read More
Ms Sushma Swaraj expressed the deep anguish of thousands of Indians with her threat to resign from the Rajya Sabha if the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi seizes the country’s top executive post. Ms. Gandhi had pointedly withdrawn from the prime ministerial stakes in the course of the election campaign in order … Read More
As Iraq gets murkier and Uncle Sam loses credibility in the war on terror, American analysts are waking up to the extent to which Saudi funds have penetrated the nation’s soft underbelly. According to Lee Kaplan, Saudis have pumped massive funds into leading educational institutions as part of a concerted … Read More
A major reason why the West is faltering in its response to Islamic fundamentalism is its attempt to straddle two leaky boats. It struggles to revive a dying Christian ethos as a counterpoint to Islam, and simultaneously clings to post-War artifices like secularism and pluralism. Failure is built into such … Read More
Even as political parties debate whether India is ‘shining,’ a momentous – though unreported – international academic consensus has established that there was no Aryan Invasion of India. This intellectual breakthrough has staggering implications for us as a nation. Not only has a colonial falsehood been overturned, but the origins … Read More
Even disregarding New Delhi’s understandable dismay at the US elevation of Pakistan to the status of major non-NATO ally, there are serious problems with Washington’s approach to the containment of terror. Since the end of the Second World War, America has been undisputed leader of the white western democracies, the … Read More
As we have just observed the anniversary of Women’s Day (March 8), it seems appropriate to examine the status of Indian women through the vicissitudes of time and cull valuable lessons for the future. We need neither glorify nor demonise the past, but should examine it dispassionately to extract such … Read More
