Gujarat: Urban-rural is split wide open
If there is any city that is seen to represent the public anger over demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, it is Surat. Textile traders had shut shop...
The battle for Gujarat: Ten Takeaways
Having spent more than a week in Gujarat –a state that I regard as both karmabhoomi and Janmabhoomi –over three recent trips, here are ten takeaways from an election...
battle for Gujarat: BJP is winning election, losing narrative
It may be coincidental, but it is perhaps only appropriate that the Gujarat elections are being held in the week of the 25th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition....
Elections above parliament
In the winter of 1994 when I first moved to Delhi from Mumbai, the chance to cover Parliament was a major attraction. Entering Central Hall and gazing at the...
The ‘Congress-ification’ of the BJP
The image was telling: Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad effusively welcoming the newly-inducted BJP member, Mukul Roy with flowers at the party headquarters. A former Trinamool Congress leader,...
Dilli Dur Ast for Congress
As the seasons change, there is a spring in the step of the Congress which suggests that a long and harsh summer in the political wilderness maybe ending. Rahul...
Remembering Sachin Tendulkar’s iconic Ranji Trophy debut
I had joined the Times of India in Mumbai in October 1988 and was struggling to find my young feet in the Old Lady of Boribunder. Having returned from...
Cricket, My Father And Other Heroes
In a corner at home that I choose to call my private “cricket space’, there are pictures of my teenage heroes like Sir Viv Richards and Greg Chappell. There...
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is still not out
On his first foreign tour as an India A player to Kenya and Zimbabwe in July 2004, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s roommate was the Delhi and India opening batsman Aakash...
Cricket is about merit not dynasty
This is a problem in all our political parties. Akhilesh Yadav is a dynast. Stalin is a dynast… Even Abhishek Bachchan is a dynast… so are the Ambanis… Don’t...