Twilight of the dynasty

The electorate’s unequivocal snub to Ms Sonia Gandhi’s prime ministerial am­bitions, witnessed in the sharp decline in the Congress’s all-India tally, is entirely along expected lines, notwithstanding the sur­prise this seems to have caused amongst ded­icated secularists. Reality proved so far from the Congress’s self-prognosis that its claim to be … Read More

The year of the nationalist vote

For most political analysts and social scientists, Bellary is simply the constituency where an uncharacteristically aggressive BJP hopes to make Sonia Gandhi eat humble pie. Certainly Sushma Swaraj’s wholesome Hindu appeal and passionate declamation of the Congress president’s non-native origins have sufficiently underscored her ‘outsider’ status to cause profound unease … Read More