If the Congress’ Srinagar conclave intended to launch an ideological offensive against the BJP, one must conclude that it failed on account of its unwillingness to address key issues of concern to society. Long overtaken in crucial states like Uttar Pradesh by upstarts like the Bahujan Samaj Party and stalwarts … Read More
In the midst of a singularly lacklustre election campaign, the Rajasthan chief minister showed undue panic by floating the balloon of reservations for economically needy (sic) sections of the forward castes. Brahmins dismissed the move as gimmickry since additional reservations require Central legislation, and demanded that the State include them … Read More
Even if it is not immediately apparent, the May 12 car-bomb attacks in Riyadh are no ordinary episode in the jihad currently menacing the world. Though foreigners were the physical victims of the well planned horror, its political targets were the ruling house of Saud. It must have shaken the … Read More
A leading newspaper just performed a sterling service by publishing a photograph of the “Ganesh chappals” that have so enraged the Hindu-Indian community in America. Without the photograph, it would have been difficult for people in this part of the world to envisage how something so deeply offensive could have … Read More
An AIADMK leader in Pondicherry recently sounded the alarm over a conversion spree in his constituency, Uppalam, which is resulting in an open assault on Tamil culture in the area (New Indian Express, 18 April 2003). In a debate in the State Assembly, Mr. A. Anbalagan alleged that married women … Read More
But soon a wonder came to light, That showed the rogues they lied: The man recovered from the bite, The dog it was that died. – Oliver Goldsmith, Elegy Either by instinct or consensus, India’s uniquely secular national press simply ignored the recent discovery of a broken pillar with a … Read More
Notwithstanding an American admonition to “get the hell out of there,” Ankara seems likely to keep its troops deployed in northern Iraq to pre-empt Iraqi Kurds from creating an independent state on the ruins of Saddam Hussein’s crumbling regime. As Washington desperately needs overflight rights over Turkey to deploy its … Read More
A god who was once a king on earth, a king who is also God, may soon win judicial reprieve and mercifully end centuries of bloody disputation over His legitimate birthplace. The March 5 order of the Allahabad High Court directing the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to excavate the … Read More
A strange paradox seems to have benumbed the Bharatiya Janata Party even as it seeks to put a confident face forward in the forthcoming elections in Himachal Pradesh. The party had virtually conceded the State to the Congress until Mr. Narendra Modi’s mind-boggling victory forced it to recognize the burgeoning … Read More
The two-day lightening strike by Government and private doctors in Bihar, following the abduction of orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Bharat Singh by suspected extortionists, is only the latest instance of lawlessness in the eastern badlands of India. The almost simultaneous arrest of a CPM activist in a scandal of alleged rape … Read More
