Silence please, we are in power!
“We don’t need to be told by media or opposition what we need to do for farmers. We would rather listen to farmers and not to carping, negative opposition...
Why India must play Pakistan more, not less
If paanwallahs in north India are a signpost for the election breeze, then taxi-drivers in London are often astute sports forecasters. When my London cabbie turns out to be...
Law above faith: Triple talaq is moment of truth for secular liberals
A good lawyer doesn’t allow personal convictions to get in the way of a challenging brief is one of the valuable lessons we were taught in law school. It...
Tale of Two Daughters of India
This is the story of two daughters of India, both victims of horrific sexual crimes. Jyoti Singh was a bright 23-year-old, dreaming of a career in medicine that would...
AAP and the end of Hope
On the day the exit polls for the Delhi municipal elections were predicting a BJP landslide, AAP spokespersons were in a defiant mood, blaming the EVMs for a looming...
Cow politics: Mahatma’s India vs Bhagwat’s Hindu Rashtra
There are many joys of living in Goa, but its gastronomic pluralism is easily one of the tiny state’s biggest attractions. On the day that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat...
TV news is in a crisis: Chapalgaonkar memorial lecture
Dear friends, members of the Chapalgaonkar family and fellow journalists of Pune, It is a great honour for me to be speaking at the Venkatesh Chapalgaonkar Memorial Lecture here...
When ‘fringe’ becomes Mainstream: Hindu vote bank has arrived
One of the more intriguing narratives being spun after the appointment of Yogi Adityanath as the new Uttar Pradesh chief minister is to liken his rise to Narendra Modi....
Can opposition take on Modi in 2019?
In the aftermath of the 2014 general election debacle, I asked a senior Congressman how his party would now battle the Narendra Modi juggernaut. “Not to worry, we have...
Modi 24 X 7, 365 days
In the final leg of the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi dramatically announced in a rally, “Yeh dil maange more”. It was a quintessential Modi soundbite: the BJP’s internal...