2019
Kashmir: Time to heal: After conversion of state to UT, let opposition parties back into Kashmir
Whether you agree or disagree with the idea of getting 23 MPs from the European Union to visit Kashmir, the visit opened up key questions. Was it a limited public relations photo-op or the beginning of a new kind of diplomatic push by India? Will such an initiative strengthen India’s narrative on Kashmir, serving as […..]
No contest elections? Maharashtra and Haryana poll campaigns show why Congress needs to reinvent itself
Maharashtra and Haryana will be voting in ten days. At this point in the poll cycle the air is usually thick with political speculation, gossip and delicious imponderables that define an Indian election. Yet, in both these two states, which until 2014 were Congress citadels, the most striking thing about the current political discourse is […..]
NRC’s political googly: Assam’s NRC mess of unintended consequences changes politics as usual in the north-east
Imagine if you and your family have lived in your town for decades and you possess a legitimate Indian passport, Aadhaar card or ration card. Yet, if you can’t demonstrate that your parents or grandparents or other family members had a legitimate citizenship document that was valid before March 24, 1971, you would still be […..]
BJP’s political sixer on 370: Why the ruling party is winning the political argument on revoking Kashmir’s special status
The revoking of Article 370, which gave Kashmir special status, has unravelled what most thought was an untouchable status quo in our politics. It has also shown up a deep disconnect between left-liberal intellectual opinion, which is critical of the move, and the wider wellsprings of national thought cutting across ideologies. It is not just […..]
Don’t be miserly with disability pensions for faujis
For a government that is so invested in its public imagery to promoting the cult of the soldier as the vanguard of the republic, it is strange to see so much soldiering angst over what many in uniform regard as petty bureaucratic moves to curtail their entitlements. The latest flashpoint is the June 24 circular […..]
New Nehru for the Right? Modi’s and Nehru’s politics are inverted mirror images of each other
The one political leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often been compared to is Indira Gandhi. Like Modi, after all, she was the last Indian prime minister to win a renewed absolute parliamentary majority for her party after a full term. And like the prime minister’s thumping 2019 triumph in the face of what the […..]
