Some months ago, mocked by orthodox international groups for hosting the world’s largest Kartikeya mūrti, Muslim-majority Malaysia felt stressed enough to plan a Bamiyan-style demolition. The iconoclasm was staved off only by the fear that this would expose Malaysia as a grim and joyless hub in Islam in South East … Read More
Among the two major coalition formations, the BJP has the distinct advantage of having an agreed prime ministerial candidate; political parties that may join the NDA in the post-election period will have no interest in re-opening this issue. The Congress, by contrast, has already hinted that Dr. Manmohan Singh will … Read More
On the eve of another Republic Day, we face the tragic continuity between a freedom struggle of litigants to the British Crown and a contemporary regime of supplicants before imperial Western capitals. Nothing underlines the sad disconnect between the challenges facing the nation and the Marie Antoinette-like nature of the … Read More
Odd appears to be the new normal with the Indian Judiciary. It is at odds with every other institution, at odds with established convention, and proud to be so. The gains to the nation, if any, from the Judiciary’s sudden desire to defy all norms and emerge as primus inter … Read More
In a world that dithers in the face of minority separateness and secessionism, tiny Sri Lanka has demonstrated lion-hearted resoluteness in crushing the three decade old Tamil insurgency, refusing to surrender to minority unreasonableness in order to maintain national unity. For an India which made its armed forces fight with … Read More
