The topi has to fit
In the early 1990s, when TN Seshan as Chief Election Commissioner was the flavour of the season, a packed Rotary club meeting in Mumbai asked him to stand for...
Playing to the gallery
Dear Mamata-di, Let me at the very outset express a sneaking admiration for the manner in which you have proved your critics wrong yet again: you don’t just bark,...
An ugly parochialism
Dear Raj, This is the second open letter I am writing to you since, as was the case four years ago, you refused to do interviews in any language...
Douse the fire, now
For a city which has seen so much bloodletting in recent years, it is rather strange that Mumbai’s elite still gets shocked every time the city erupts into another...
Tyranny of distance
In an emotionally surcharged and polarised polity, even riot politics can become a zero-sum game. So any television debate on Gujarat 2002 must necessarily draw an analogy to the...
Game for democracy
July 26, 2012 These are not the happiest of times for the aam admi. A paralysed government, an obstructionist opposition, an economy in decline, a deficit monsoon, why even...
Don’t play it safe
Salman Khurshid is easily among the brightest politicians in the country: a former Oxford don, he became a union minister at 38. When he speaks, it is with a...
Clash of the titans
Before a major heavyweight boxing title bout, there are sideshows on the day’s entertainment. Call it a teaser or a trailer, the aim is to whet the appetite of ...
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....
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...