Since 20 November 2008 when the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act was invoked against Sadhvi Pragya, Lt. Col. Shrikant Purohit and others for alleged involvement in the 29 September Malegaon blast that killed six persons, the elaborately conceived ‘Hindu terrorist’ plot has been falling apart. Yesterday [16 December] the … Read More
Archaeology of Fatehpur Sikri: New Discoveries is a meticulous work of excavation and discovery in an area once regarded as confined to the medieval era, with no new surprises to captivate art lovers. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had no idea at all that any pre-Akbar ancient civilisation or … Read More
Camels and cows constituted an astonishing Bakr Id fare in distant parts of the country this year, reinforcing a trend growing over the past few years. Under a pernicious Saudi attempt to Arab-ize and Wahab-ize Indian Islam, Muslims are increasingly transporting camels to various states for the Id sacrifice, spurning … Read More
Girija Vyas has disgraced the office of chairperson of the National Commission for Women and must either be sacked outright, or forced to resign. Not only has the lady been utterly negligent in fulfilling the mandate to care for the legal and constitutional rights of Indian women – the raison … Read More
Hindus voted the BJP to power in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh; Hindus turned away from the BJP in Rajasthan and Delhi; and Hindus have no meaningful presence in Mizoram. That, in a nutshell, is my view of the recent Assembly results. Elections are fought on the basis of ideology; development … Read More
On 20 September 2008, when Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel was gutted by a massive suicide bombing that killed 62 persons and injured over 120, I recalled with a shudder that barely two weeks prior to that grisly devastation, my sister-in-law, her son and father, had enjoyed a brief stay at that … Read More
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) must be ruing the day it agreed to persecute Sadhvi Pragya, Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit and others on grounds of “Hindu terror.” That the case was patently cooked up became visible from the moment the initial shock and surprise wore off, and with every … Read More
Girilal Jain compared the demolition of Babri Masjid by faceless actors on 6 December 1992 with the surfacing of the Patal Ganga in the Indian polity, an event of such magnitude that it literally transforms the landscape. This riverine symbolism made a literal appearance in November 2004, when the arrest … Read More
While there is no way the sartorially elegant Shivraj Patil could have survived the gory 62-hour blood-and-bullets nightmare that descended upon Mumbai last week, the appointment of P. Chidambaram as Union Home Minister, after a disastrous innings as Finance Minister, hardly inspires confidence. Coupled with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s refusal to … Read More
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) must be ruing the day it agreed to persecute Sadhvi Pragya, Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit and others on grounds of “Hindu terror.” That the case was patently cooked up became visible from the moment the initial shock and surprise wore off, and with every … Read More
