The reloading of ‘clash of civilisations’: When Samuel Huntington’s thesis lost credibility in the West, it thrived in the Islamic world
“Why do they hate us?” That question was posed by bewildered Americans who watched in horror as the gleaming twin towers of Western industriousness were eviscerated by Islamist terrorists. In the days after the 9/11 attacks many attempted to supply answers. One of those answers found favour with neoconservatives in then American President George W […]
Read MoreHow GoI can send a message to Taliban: Implement CAA, even if it can’t help minorities in Afghanistan now. The symbolism is important
Taliban has been let out of the dungeon. And some leading regional powers are obscenely courting this blight, which is reimposing a repressive, regressive, Islamist dogma on Afghanistan. It hasn’t taken very long for the unbridled bigotry of Taliban to embolden other Islamist extremists in Afghanistan and beyond. Bleak future for minorities The head of […]
Read MoreOpposing Sedition Law is Good Optics & Politics: With Section 66A and Article 35A ended, NDA govt should do the same for Section 124A
The Supreme Court has given the Centre till today, July 27, to clarify its position on public interest petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the sedition law. At the last hearing the apex court wondered why the government, which has repealed many stale laws, had not opted to scrap Section 124A of the penal code. […]
Read MoreBagram abandoned, soon all of Afghanistan to be left to Taliban, and where is the global left’s commitment to liberalism?
The left believes that the pandemic has exposed the world’s “strong men’’. Trump’s dethronement, it suggests, confirms that the very qualities that help populists seduce masses prevent them from delivering compassionate governance needed to handle a once-in-a-century humanitarian crisis. That the nationalist’s vision has proved to be too inward-looking, too conceited, to allow for a […]
Read MoreAtmanirbharta’s bitter pill: Second wave has shaken the carefully curated image of a country with decreasing reliance on the world
The sight of asphyxiating patients thrashing about on the floors of barely-there hospitals brought the world to India’s door. Over the last few weeks, as India has struggled to cope with the second Covid wave, foreign friends have delivered much-needed lifelines. These oxygen cylinders and oxygenators are helping us tide over the greatest irony: They’re […]
Read MoreTomorrow will see winning contestants no doubt celebrate – mutedly one hopes – but what is there to celebrate?
In one scene patients ravaged by Covid-19 wait desperately outside hospitals and dispensaries as life slowly ebbs with each passing gasp of breath. All they want is a bed hooked to oxygen – the proverbial breath of life. As they wait – suspended between the gates of deliverance and death – their kin scour pharmacies […]
Read MoreThe unfortunate paradox: Agnostics, atheists and seculars all clutching at Muslim faith to secure their political fortunes
When the dust settles, the five ongoing assembly elections will be remembered for a paradox: A contest where the agnostic, the atheist and the secular all clutched at the straws of faith to secure their political fortunes. At least four of the five battleground assemblies are witnessing alliances between mainstream political parties – traditionally sworn […]
Read MoreIndia needs a national green party. The ‘guerrilla gardeners’ with covert political affiliations are just not cutting it
Children in schools, morning walkers in parks, executives on the metro – India was masking up much before the world was hit by Covid-19. Even cricketers on the field had taken to checking the AQI more often than their performance averages. Unbreathable air, toxic water and carcinogenic residue from chemical fertiliser in the soil are […]
Read MoreProtesting farmers have more to fear from the agendas of their supporters than the farm laws
Much as in Jonathan Swift’s parable Gulliver’s Travels, the protesting farmer at the Delhi border has come to resemble Gulliver. Indeed, the gallant of modern Indian myths, the ‘annadata’ has little room left to manoeuvre as he finds himself strapped to the ambitions of a varied cast of 21st century Lilliputians. For the workers of the […]
Read MoreThe Jammu & Kashmir experiment in direct democracy: Why the mood has swung to cautious optimism
The recently concluded district level election in Jammu & Kashmir could potentially trigger a tantalising role reversal: the state handing power back to the people rather than the people being forced to cede liberties to the state. There is immense faith among ordinary citizens in the transformative potential of the newly constituted District Development Councils […]
Read More