In an act of brazenness aimed at formally integrating Kashmir’s Northern Areas into the Islamic Republic, the Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on 29 August 2009 unveiled a plan to replace the existing Northern Areas Legislative Council with a Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly, a Governor, and a Chief Minister with … Read More
If anything has changed in the BJP, it is that after five years of sustained denial from the defeat of 2004 to the debacle of 2009, the party has finally admitted it is in crisis. This breaks the mental blockade that vetoed honest assessment of poor performance and barred corrective … Read More
The unwarranted expulsion of senior leader Jaswant Singh, who would possibly have been the sole critic of the BJP’s shoddy performance in the 2009 parliamentary elections at the so-called chintan baithak, showcases LK Advani’s Stalinist control over the party and signals a direct snub and challenge to the RSS Sarsanghachalak … Read More
The Supreme Court’s startling decision to award a staggering Rs. 10 lakh as compensation to the family of underworld character Sohrabuddin Sheikh bodes ill for India’s battle against jihadi terror and its native accomplices. Sohrabuddin and his wife, Kausar Bi, were killed by Gujarat Police in November 2005. On August … Read More
[In recent times, there has been much churning in society about the nature of Indian nationalism and the Indian state. Central to this debate is the status of the Hindu people, their religion and culture, in their natal land. Beginning with the repugnant colonial Aryan Invasion Theory to the Partition … Read More
[The unveiling of Tamil Jaina saint-poet, Thiruvalluvar’s, statue in Bangalore yesterday by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, is a virtual coup by Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyrappa, who retains the capacity to spring the quiet surprise. That this will be followed next week by Yeddyruppa unveiling the statue of … Read More
White America, represented by Vice President Joe Biden, was forced to put its weight behind first African-American President Barack Obama, to tide over an ugly spat over racial profiling in a nation where everyone admits skin colour and associated socio-historical issues still resonate deeply. It is to be hoped this … Read More
The acronym ‘SC’ could well stand for ‘Supremely Confident.’ How else does one describe the calibrated anger with which the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister created opportunity from the intemperate rhetoric of the state Congress chief, to awe the entire political spectrum? Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s odious oratory was followed by the … Read More
The Obama administration lost international credibility when obdurate Honduras coup leader Roberto Micheletti aborted the 10 July proposed mediation by Costa Rica President Oscar Arias. In an unsurprising anti-climax, Micheletti left San Jose without meeting ousted President Manuel Zelaya who insisted on reinstatement even as the usurper was adamant to … Read More
By a curious coincidence, the Justice S.C. Mohapatra Commission probing the Kandhamal riots of 2008 submitted its interim report almost simultaneously with the final report of the Justice Liberhan Commission on the post-1992 violence following demolition of the Babri structure in Ayodhya. The reasons for which the respective commissions were … Read More
