The Suryanelli rape case, which rocked Kerala 17 years ago, has returned to haunt the Congress party and the UPA coalition as the victim steadily maintains that PJ Kurien, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, was one of her tormentors. With the Government taking special interest in fast-tracking rape cases and framing … Read More
The Congress-led UPA coalition, anxious not to rock the boat with Pakistan despite the mutilation of the bodies of two jawans and beheading of one in the Mendhar sector on January 6, has still not asked Islamabad to rectify depiction of Manavadar and Junagadh towns as “disputed” in its physical … Read More
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, in jail for the past five years without any case of ‘Hindu terrorism’ being made out against her, has refused to take medical treatment for cancer unless released on bail. In a letter to the Registrar (Judicial), Mumbai High Court, on January 17, 2013, forwarded through … Read More
Tamil actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan’s woes, ostensibly related to Muslim protests over an unflattering portrayal of the community in his Rs. 125-crore blockbuster, Viswaroopam, could be linked to his advocacy of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram as the next Prime Minister. There could also be covert disapproval to the demeaning of … Read More
Though the ‘Pakistan Spring’ launched with fanfare at Lahore on December 23, 2012, fizzled out when the January 15, 2013 Islamabad rally failed to gather momentum, it’s enduring lesson is that nations targetted for ‘revolution’ by foreign-returned messiahs must subject the putative saviours to close scrutiny. Someone in Pakistan would … Read More
In his first presidential address to the nation on the eve of our 64th Republic Day, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee invoked the glorious heritage of Indian civilisation and History to rouse the nation to address its contemporary challenges in a manner befitting our great legacies. It was a glorious departure from … Read More
Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s formal ascension as vice president of the Congress can be said to be Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s ‘Dhritarashtra moment’, the occasion when Indian polity’s supposed great renunciate failed to resign her own post and transfer power to her aging son and heir-designate of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Far from … Read More
An unmistakable thread is now visible between the impressive victory of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Akbaruddin Owaisi’s diatribe aimed at polarising voters ahead of a possible election this year, the arrest of a Hindu sadhu who challenged Owaisi in Hyderabad, and the Union Home Minister’s attempt to revive the … Read More
Deft political management seems to have saved the beleaguered Pakistan government, and the January 15 crisis created by a simultaneous attack by the Judiciary and the Barelvi cleric Tahir ul-Qadri, which few believe was coincidental, has diffused somewhat. As crowds thin at Jinnah Square, it would be appropriate to examine … Read More
Above the sound of gunfire and improvised explosive devices was the deafening silence of the human rights industry. Binayak Sen, Arundhati Roy, Mahasweta Devi et al, quick to berate government for alleged atrocities against Maoist marauders, did not squeak when Maoists in Jharkhand planted IEDs in the bodies of two … Read More
