Too soon to say goodbye
The three most influential politicians of the 1990s were Narasimha Rao, Vishwanath Pratap Singh and LK Advani. At a time when the last of the triumvirate prepares to fade...
The enigma of silence
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win!: Mahatma Gandhi Sonia Gandhi is no Mahatma (although sycophantic Congressmen would have you believe...
Connecting with youth: Modi has edge over Rahul
In the age of marketing, there is perhaps no social category as attractive as the urban ‘youth’ brand. The MTV generation has spawned channels, products, a lifestyle designed to...
Get past the potholes
Tweeting can be risky business in the age of the Senas as celebrity author Shobhaa Dé has just found out. Her comment suggesting that Mumbai could be carved out...
Not secularism, stupid
How does one define a tweet as secular or communal? Last week, I sent a morning greeting wishing people Happy Ekadashi. A particularly auspicious day in Maharashtra, it is...
Devolution for evolution
There is a story, possibly apocryphal, on Babasaheb Bhosale being made Maharashtra chief minister in 1982 when AR Antulay had to resign in the wake of the cement scandal,...
Lalu model re-caste
For the political journalist who thrives on caste arithmetic, Bihar is perhaps the last refuge. Even on a whistle-stop visit to Patna to interview the Bihar chief minister, every...
With him or against him
If elections were to held in the social media, Narendra Modi would almost certainly be ‘crowned’ prime minister. Modi has more than 17 lakh followers on twitter, more than...
How the mighty fall
First a confession: I am a T20 convert. I find the T20 game inventive, exciting and almost addictive. I have even learnt to take Sidhu’s pun-a-minute motor mouth in...
Bowling a dot ball
If not in politics, Pakistan’s world cup winning captain Imran Khan has certainly always been a larger than life cricketer. My favourite Imran story dates back to a Sharjah...