Rajdeep Sardesai

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The Bihar Wave: My takeaways

A) Elections are always about arithmetic, occasionally about chemistry. 2015 Bihar has been about a bit of both: the caste arithmetic of the “Mahagatbandhan” with the chemistry of Nitish as a ‘decent’ ‘hard-working’ chief minister propelled a wave election.

B) The BJP cant put all their eggs in Narendra Modi’s basket in election after election. The prime minister is easily the country neta’s number one, is a charismatic politician, but there are limits to personality-based politics,

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Jai Khanistan

Long before Sharukh Khan, there was the original post Independence superstar: Dilip Kumar, or rather…

Bihar 10 takeaways

 After almost a week of criss crossing Bihar, the big question remains: who is winning…

Lalu-Nitish joshi: twist in a Bihar tale

There is a wonderfully poignant story, possibly apocryphal, about the original Hindi cinema ‘phenomenon’ Rajesh…

Dadri vs Moodbidri

The pseudo-patriots are at it again. Having behaved disgracefully after the  Dadri murder — witness…

This is not Cricket

 Should India and Pakistan play cricket in times of terror? Ask me this question eleven…

Modi, Bihar And Reforms

A year is an eternity in Indian politics: a year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi…

The Silence of Mumbai

Long before Sudheendra Kulkarni, there were the likes of Nikhil Wagle and your humble columnist.…

Open letter, part 2

What a fine letter you have penned (without wasting any ink!): it is reassuring to…

My Dear Aditya

Since this seems to be the season of open letters, I thought I’d write one to you too. Especially since we went to the same college: as a fellow Xavierite, I feel we share a bond, and as a senior alumni, might even dare to offer some advise. This morning when I woke up, I was feeling bright and cheery: October’s bracing weather can do that to you in Delhi. And then, I returned home and switched on the TV only to plunge back into depression. The screaming breaking news was that Sudheendra Kulkarni, former BJP national executive member and a former aide to both LK Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee, had been attacked with black ink. His crime? He had organised a discussion in Mumbai on former Pakistan foreign minister Khursheed Kasuri’s book. The Shiv Sena we were told was angry with the presence of a Pakistani on Indian soil and wanted to register their protest. So, ink had to be spilled on the streets of Mumbai yet again. Last week Ghulam Ali, this week Kasuri: the Sena is back in the news.