Why The Economist has got it wrong on the Modi-Biden meet
The upcoming Modi-Biden diplomatic Tango in Washington D.C has all the makings of a “super summit”. President Biden is going the whole 9-yards to make Prime Minister Modi’s India feel special. The first designated “state visit” since 2009 will witness the Indian PM becoming only one of four leaders (Mandela, Churchill and Zelensky) to the […]
Read MoreSecular Schizophrenia: Mamata and the meme fest on Modi and the Adheenam
Modi should give the opposition what it wishes for – true blue secularism and then sit back and watch the fun. Bengal’s Chief Minister and firebrand leader Mamata Banerjee and several of her cohorts in the Opposition are besides themselves with grief. They are mourning the death of Indian secularism the remains of which they […]
Read MoreIs the AAP honeymoon getting over? The party’s claims to be BJP’s toughest challenger need to pass a few tests
Two images. In one frame Aam Aadmi Party’s CM candidate for Gujarat Isudan Gadhvi cuts a forlorn figure. He has just been routed. In the other image his party boss Arvind Kejriwal is smiling, thanking the people of Gujarat for conferring ‘national party status’ upon his “chhoti si” party. Kejriwal’s AAP may have been rejected […]
Read MoreFiery violence after France trounced Morocco wasn’t random hooliganism but an obligation
Football, was once with some consideration, described as “socialism without the politics.” The phrase was said to have been minted from behind the once impregnable Iron Curtain by Polish writer ryszard kapuscinski. He wasn’t wrong, the game is within everyone’s reach. Rich, poor, black, white, upper caste, lower caste, LGBTQI, all, if they have the talent, can step […]
Read MoreShraddha reached out after Aftab abused her. But did political correctness prevent people from helping?
How does this happen? How does an enterprising, independent, liberated young woman who placed all her faith in one man end up in the refrigerator of their home chopped into 35 different pieces? Some betrayals are so diabolic that they leave you chilled to the bone, too inert to comprehend the meaning of love and […]
Read MoreIf Muslims, Europeans and Blacks can reclaim sacred spaces, why can’t Hindus?
Latest pictures may not reveal this but the Kaaba, the black cube in the centre of Mecca, Islam’s holiest site was once encircled by arched porticos erected 300 years ago by the Ottoman Turks. But in November 2014 these vestiges of Turk rule were pulverized by the Saudi government to make way for the expansion […]
Read MoreWhy aren’t Indian activists marching for Iranian women? Seeing hijab brutally imposed there, makes it harder to defend it as woman’s choice here
In May 2020 George Floyd suffocated to death under the knee of a police officer. Floyd’s pitiful stomach-churning cry “I can’t breathe” soon became a rallying cry for rights activists around the world. It was argued that the cry summed up the predicament of African Americans facing state repression in the US and millions demonstrated […]
Read MoreLeft ecosystem links Islamophobia to NDA’s crackdown on PFI. This is a profound disservice to India’s Muslims
The Popular Front of India (PFI) has been banned for the next 5 years. The only surprise is that the Modi government took as long as it did to take the decision. From its very inception in 2006, the Popular Front of India has worn its “intolerance” on its sleeve. Most of its founding members […]
Read MoreRein-in the ‘sar tan’ brigade. The future of democracy is at stake.
In street after street of old Hyderabad, politicians linked to Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM have been leading mobs chanting an illegal slogan invoked to avenge blasphemy in Islamic republics like Pakistan. Tragically, in thistheatre of obscurantism, children too have been co-opted to chant “gustakh-e-rasool ki ek hi saza, sar tan se juda, sar tan se juda”. It […]
Read MoreIndia’s I-Day celebration is too boringly sarkari: We should learn from Americans how to make it a fun party instead – of the people and by the people
When we turned on the TV first thing yesterday morning, we witnessed Prime Minister Modi unfurling the Tricolour from the ageless ramparts of the Red Fort. Right under the lectern from where he addressed the nation sat the usual array of VVIPs. Protocol officers would have taken extra care to ensure that each dignitary would […]
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