Family first politics
In the build-up to the 2012 Uttar Pradesh elections, I was travelling with Akhilesh Yadav on a campaign tour. Our morning breakfast shoot was in a room where the...
Stop the ‘marketing’ of surgical strikes
In the 1980s when Rajiv Gandhi had chosen to attack his opponents by warning that “hum apne virodhiyon ko unki naani yaad dila denge” (we will make our opponents...
Modi’s firm message but can war-mongers be kept at bay?
In the universe of the 24×7 media, there is literally no place to hide. Which is why it should come as no surprise that a video of Prime Minister...
AAP at the crossroads
Writing obituaries of political parties can be a hazardous business. In July 2014, an international publication invited me to write an article on the political demise of AAP. This...
Measuring Democracy: TV and polling in India
“So why should we be paying so much if we cant get the exact number of seats right?” the news media baron asked imperiously. The Delhi election results had...
Pakistan is neither heaven nor hell
At a time when actor-politician Ramya has bizarrely had a sedition case filed against her for claiming “Pakistan is not hell”, let me test the waters of sedition by...
Dil maange More: a sports revolution
Kheloge kudoge to hoge kharab, padhoge likhoge to banoge nawab (if you play, you will be wasting your life, but if you study you will be a king). That...
Gau Rakshaks are Anti Dalit: why BJP should worry
One of the lesser known facts perhaps of the 2002 Gujarat riots is that Dalits were at the fore of much of the violence against Muslims in Ahmedabad. When...
25 years of Manmohanomics: Thank you Doc!
“I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the Opposition parties in Parliament”: Manmohan Singh in January 2014 announcing...
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...