Rajdeep Sardesai – Page 49 – Breaking Views

June 14, 2012
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

No questions, please

Move over George Bush, Baba Ramdev is here. In the course of a recent interview, I asked India’s tele-friendly yoga guru-turned-black money avenger, the source of his great wealth....

May 30, 2012
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

It’s a cosy little club

Politicians are notorious for doublespeak, which is why their public positions are often dictated to by private agendas. So when a Lalu Prasad calls for a ban on the...

May 17, 2012
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

No laughing matter

The grand old man of Indian cartooning RK Laxman has a delightful anecdote that embodies the charm of political cartooning. Soon after the 1962 Sino-Indian war, Laxman lampooned Prime...

April 18, 2012
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

Not a luxury suite

Five years ago, one ‘almost’ broke the story of India’s next president. Amid feverish speculation, a source sent an SMS: “Congratulations! India is getting its first woman president and...

April 4, 2012
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

No country for saints

It is not without reason that AK Antony is referred to as ‘Saint’ Antony. When you’ve spent four decades in public life and don’t have a whiff of a...

March 24, 2012
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

Orders from HQ

Forget a week being a long time in politics, in India it can take just a few hours for a zero to become a hero and vice versa. On...

February 22, 2012
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

Try a little kindness

Has Gujarat really moved on ten years after the terrible violence of 2002? The answer depends on who the question is asked to. Chief minister Narendra Modi, for example,...

April 14, 2010
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

Let’s play it straight

Here’s a story that perhaps best exemplifies how far Indian cricket has travelled. In the mid-1950s, India was playing New Zealand. At the time the players were paid a...

March 31, 2010
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

Face the nation

On the face of it, a Narendra Modi’s politics is as different from Mayawati’s as a Gujarati dhokla is from a Lucknowi seekh kebab. One is a Hindutva icon,...

March 10, 2010
Rajdeep Sardesai
Columns

Running out of steam

Lalu Prasad is the Pied Piper of Patna. One of the more special moments in journalism was travelling with the RJD chief to Pakistan in 2003. Indo-Pak relations were...