Don’t write off Smriti Irani
Life on Twitter can be nasty, brutish and short. Which is perhaps why within moments of the news breaking that Smriti Irani had been shifted out of the HRD...
The Muck Of Indian Politics
History repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce, but in Indian politics, the farce plays out so frequently that the tragic element is obscured. Four recent instances highlight...
Netas and the love for land
In Maharashtra, and arguably across the country, the state is increasingly identified with real estate. Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan tells a story of how passing any legislation...
The Greatest
I never saw Muhammad Ali fight on television, never saw his great fights with Joe Frazier on live tv. We didn’t have multiple sports channels in the 1970s to...
PM Modi and the TINA factor
“We will change the face of India in ten years,” thundered Narendra Modi in a victory speech in Vadodra on May 16, 2014 within hours of his famous general...
Amma and Didi: Cult of the ‘Supremos’
On the face of it, Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee are as different from each other as idli sambar is from macher jhol. The Tamil Nadu chief minister is the...
Terror and politics
“Where you stand is determined by where you sit,” remarked Congress MP Shashi Tharoor recently, in a reference to the changing positions of political parties when in and out...
IPL is the soft target for water crisis
“Everybody loves a good drought” was award-winning journalist P Sainath’s rather intriguingly titled book a few years ago on rural poverty. In the last few weeks, even prime time...
How you can help Marathwada
A number of people have been asking me how they can help the farmers of Marathwada. Here is how: Dilasa Janvikas Pratisthan Bank: State Bank of India, Station Road,...
Towards a ‘Congress Mukt’ Bharat ?
We want a Congress Mukt Bharat,” thundered Narendra Modi in the 2014 general election campaign, a slogan echoed repeatedly BJP president, Amit Shah. The declared goal was not just...