By the twitching of my thumbs, fresh mischief is brewing over our northern frontier. The signs are ominous: there is renewed violence in Kashmir, including an attack on Amarnath pilgrims. There is Ms. Pamela Mountbatten’s titillating leak that London used Lady Edwina to manipulate Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and subvert … Read More
India’s internal affairs are increasingly witnessing an interventionist American nexus. Even as the Supreme Court asks the Centre to justify giving so-called Dalit Christians a share in Scheduled Caste quotas, it may be instructive to see how American policy has inveigled itself into our domestic discourse, while maintaining severe pressure … Read More
Far from expanding the aura of Islam, the recent Glasgow airport attack only underlines the shrivelling up of the sphere of influence of jihad and Muslim rage. This may seem surprising to those easily alarmed by media overkill about terror cells lurking in every locality, but a brief pause would … Read More
Even before runaway skeletons made her India’s most controversial Presidential candidate, Pratibha Patil earned fame as the most lustreless aspirant to this high office. Barring the slavish Congress party, none could whip up any enthusiasm for this ‘gender rabbit’ pulled out of the hat by the domineering UPA chairperson. Political … Read More
Never in modern India has caste been such a conundrum. If Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati’s varna amity forged a truly elephantine electoral constituency, the narrow jati-vad displayed at Dausa represents a grim challenge to social stability and political-constitutional order. Traditionally, jati has been mobile, mutable, yet resilient; simultaneously the … Read More
When the tele-serial Mahabharata captivated the nation with the power of performance and integrity of presentation, I noted that the forceful dialogues which captured the epic’s philosophical truths and psychological insights with unsurpassed perfection were penned by renowned Leftist, late Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza. Like Muslim artisans who chisel murtis … Read More
Bahujan Samaj Party leader Ms. Mayawati has reached the pinnacle of the Indian political pole by daring, like the eagle, to fly to the top, unmindful of opposition. It would be churlish to deny her credit for weaving a winning electoral combination in a State dogged by two decades of … Read More
Recent developments in Saudi Arabia, from the suspiciously timely unveiling of a plot against the royal family, oil wells and army bases, to a revived demand for constitutional monarchy and electoral democracy, suggest something is rotten in the desert kingdom. Some years ago, President George Bush trained his guns at … Read More
Recent years have seen the jaws of justice open and spew out the indigestible guilty, rich, and powerful. The killers of Jessica Lal and Priyadarshini Mattoo initially walked free. The BMW driver who mowed down five pavement dwellers got bail, a degree from America’s Columbia University, and a celebrated business … Read More
Independent India’s failure to base its polity and constitution on the core values of Hindu civilization has long invoked surprise or disdain from intellectuals and observers, depending upon their respective worldviews. Most analysts tend to privilege western democracy as the only legitimate form of government in the modern world; the … Read More
