Political pundits were rather quick to give the BJP-led coalition a poor report card for its hundred-odd days in power, despite its successfully conducting a series of nuclear tests and ensuring a non-sanctions regime that has protected the economy from undue strain, that too, at a time when Asian economies … Read More
Women activists must be feeling devastated that the legislation to provide 33 per cent reservations for women in Parliament and state Assemblies has once again been grounded in quicksand. This time, the proposed Bill could not even be tabled in Parliament owing to muscular opposition from recently united Yadav supremos. … Read More
Students of history would be aware that at least over the past decade, India has been intensely engaged in self-contemplation with a view to rediscovering and reasserting the beauty and might of her civilisational identity and role. Going deep into her soul, examining her true nature as well as the … Read More
A number of events have come full circle with somewhat unhappy implications for the nation, these last few days, and foremost is Jawaharlal Nehru’s ill-conceived decision to take the Kashmir issue to the United Nations in 1948, a fact that made it possible for the Security Council to contemplate intervention … Read More
The public apology by the commercially challenged MF Hussain has not just salvaged his proposed film project with cinestar Madhuri Dixit, but also quieted public passions on the sensitive issue. However, Hussain’s unexpected capitulation before the “watch-dogs of a political-religious outfit” must have come as a setback to the artists, … Read More
As was only to be expected, our breast-beating Cassandras have once again been proved wrong, and the worst of international hostility to India’s unexpected decision to go nuclear is already behind us. Even as opposition parties, leftists, secular intellectuals, and peaceniks got the knives out for the Vajpayee Government in … Read More
It is an irony that as the secular condemnation of the ransacking of Maqbool Fida Husain’s Mumbai residence reaches a crescendo, saner voices in the Muslim community are being edged out of the debate. As self-styled liberals and defenders of artistic freedom jostle for centrespace in what could have been … Read More
We are currently witnessing a spate of writings voicing misgivings about the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hidden agenda, and rejoicing that the compulsions of coalition politics have forced it to shelve contentious issues, notably the construction of a new temple at Ayodhya, abolition of Article 370 conferring special status on Jammu … Read More
Ms Sonia Gandhi has clearly decided not to repeat the mistakes of her ancient compatriot, Julius Caesar. Indeed, the alacrity with which she has accepted the Congress crown brings to mind the wisdom of another Italian notable and his rather acute observation: “Men more readily forgive the murder of their … Read More
