Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s sharp rebuke notwithstanding, the BJP Government has reason to be grateful to South Africa for unilaterally and irrevocably redefining non-alignment at Durban. Since South African President Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech suggesting Non-Aligned Movement’s (NAM’s) intervention in Kashmir was utterly unexpected, it understandably set the dovecotes … Read More
To all appearances, the mercurial AIADMK general secretary has kept the BJP on a short leash, making it difficult for the government to function with dignity, and casting constant doubts about its longevity. At a deeper level, however, Dr J. Jayalalitha’s tantrums have served to distract attention from the Prime … Read More
There is something sick about the manner in which women’s activists have recently been conducting themselves, obfuscating the core issue of women’s dignity and empowerment and reducing everything to what is politically correct (that is, beneficial), or politically inconvenient, in which case the entire corpus gets instant amnesia. Even a … Read More
Given the majesty with which he dominated the first half of this painful century, it is truly unfortunate that the debate over the virtual ban on Pradip Dalvi’s Marathi play has not stimulated a meaningful evaluation of Mahatma Gandhi’s historical role and lasting contribution to Indian society. Rather, the outpouring … Read More
Political pundits were rather quick to give the BJP-led coalition a poor report card for its hundred-odd days in power, despite its successfully conducting a series of nuclear tests and ensuring a non-sanctions regime that has protected the economy from undue strain, that too, at a time when Asian economies … Read More
Women activists must be feeling devastated that the legislation to provide 33 per cent reservations for women in Parliament and state Assemblies has once again been grounded in quicksand. This time, the proposed Bill could not even be tabled in Parliament owing to muscular opposition from recently united Yadav supremos. … Read More
Students of history would be aware that at least over the past decade, India has been intensely engaged in self-contemplation with a view to rediscovering and reasserting the beauty and might of her civilisational identity and role. Going deep into her soul, examining her true nature as well as the … Read More
A number of events have come full circle with somewhat unhappy implications for the nation, these last few days, and foremost is Jawaharlal Nehru’s ill-conceived decision to take the Kashmir issue to the United Nations in 1948, a fact that made it possible for the Security Council to contemplate intervention … Read More
The public apology by the commercially challenged MF Hussain has not just salvaged his proposed film project with cinestar Madhuri Dixit, but also quieted public passions on the sensitive issue. However, Hussain’s unexpected capitulation before the “watch-dogs of a political-religious outfit” must have come as a setback to the artists, … Read More
As was only to be expected, our breast-beating Cassandras have once again been proved wrong, and the worst of international hostility to India’s unexpected decision to go nuclear is already behind us. Even as opposition parties, leftists, secular intellectuals, and peaceniks got the knives out for the Vajpayee Government in … Read More
