An Olympian mistake

As gushing media acolytes crowed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her entire family had secured the coveted invitation to the Beijing Olympics in defiance of diplomatic protocol wherein the President or Prime Minister represents the nation, it was overlooked that an aspiring regional superpower was publicly upstaged at the … Read More

Deoband’s Dar-ul Islam

Deoband’s 31 May 2008 fatwa against terrorism marks official Islam’s most significant departure from the phase of unproductive violence adopted by this beleaguered faith since the advent of western colonialism, particularly in the last two centuries. Though slow in coming, the decision by Indian Islam’s leading seminary to repudiate terrorism … Read More

Saving the mangroves

India’s eastern coastline and regions east of India have been suffering serious environmental degradation without any sincere efforts at mitigation. The Orissa super-cyclone of 1999 smashed through huge tracts of land, taking countless lives and wrecking incalculable damage to crops, cattle, and property. The thirteen coastal districts along Tamil Nadu’s … Read More