Discerning readers following the current controversy over the Indian Council of Historical Research’s decision to submit two volumes of the Towards Freedom series for review can be forgiven for thinking that it seems like much ado about nothing. They may wonder why camp followers and intellectuals of the Left have … Read More
Like the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the Spirit of the Indian Constitution must have walked on the night President KR Narayanan delivered his unprovoked warning to the National Democratic Alliance Government against appointing a Committee to review that august document’s five-decade performance. Speaking at a function to commemorate the 50th … Read More
There can be no denying that recent disclosures of CBI investigations into the Bofors payoff scandal are extremely damaging to the late Rajiv Gandhi. In fact, these will reinforce the belief that his wife, Ms Sonia Gandhi, tailored her debut into Indian politics precisely to prevent this painful public denouement. … Read More
Whatever the compulsions or machinations behind his unexpected arrival, there is little doubt that young Urgyen Trinley Dorje has challenged the uneasy status quo between his country and China, and reopened the question of Tibet in the eyes of the international community. Even as India cautiously treads the diplomatic waters, … Read More
UNKNOWN to most Indians, western anti-Semitism has informed much of the interpretation of our ancient history. Embarrassed by the emerging avalanche of archaeological data, modern scholars are beginning to accept that the political-cultural contexts of 18th to 20th century Europe, which included a strong anti-Semitic bias, led to a ‘tailoring’ … Read More
Caught between a rock and a hard place, India came off worst in the recent face-off with Pakistan-sponsored and Taliban-supported hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814. If there was the slightest doubt that the eight-day terror perpetrated by one of the world’s most vicious terrorist organizations had failed to … Read More
Wisely have sages perceived that while success has many fathers, defeat has none. It is so with Congress. Sonia Gandhi’s coterie and self-appointed bards in the media are having a tough time whitewashing her inglorious tally in the recent parliamentary elections and passing the buck elsewhere. Nevertheless, both have gone … Read More
The decision of the Mahoba district administration and the National Commission for Women (NCW) to call Charan Shah’s death a suicide rather than a sati is reminiscent of the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s assertion that commissions paid in the Bofors gun deal were ‘winding up charges,’ not kickbacks. The indisputable fact … Read More
Even as it gears up to take on the non-Christian world and “harvest” souls in its third millennium, the Roman Catholic Church is caught in the throes of an existential dilemma. At stake are the nature and status of both the Papacy and the Vatican City State. The core issues … Read More
As anticipated by leaders across the Hindu religious spectrum, Pope John Paul II has abused this country’s fabled hospitality and doggedly projected conversions as the Church’s sole agenda in India and Asia. Of course, he has made polite noises about our legendary religious tolerance, but it has been too scanty … Read More
