M.S Shanker

Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Banking on Authority: A Traffic Rule Too Far

Sometimes, governance sounds less like policy and more like a late-night WhatsApp forward. Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s recent warning that traffic challan penalties may be “automatically deducted” from violators’ bank accounts belongs firmly in that category—dramatic, attention-grabbing, and deeply disconnected from how India actually functions. At first glance, the statement seems well-intentioned. Traffic…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Will Temples Be Freed from State Control?

Will Hindu temples finally be freed from the clutches of the State, or will India’s version of secularism continue to operate with one eye shut? This question, long whispered in legal corridors and debated among devotees, has returned to centre stage following a significant observation by Supreme Court judge Justice Surya Kant, who made it…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Congress and the Politics of Mungerilal ke Haseen Sapne

The forthcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections—expected in 2026—may well turn into a referendum on a question long dismissed by the Dravidian establishment: is Hindu consolidation finally underway in Tamil Nadu? For decades, the state was portrayed as immune to religious polarisation. That assumption is now being stress-tested, largely due to the ruling DMK-led alliance’s own…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Consensus Struggle: Why Democracies Argue, Drift, and Still Move Forward

One of the great myths sold to the public—especially by so-called opinion-makers in television studios and editorial rooms—is that national consensus is achievable on complex issues of statecraft. In reality, consensus has rarely existed, at least not in any meaningful or durable form, within functioning democracies. Not in my lifetime, and certainly not in any…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Time Is Running Out: India Must Speak Before Silence Becomes Complicity

India today stands at a dangerous crossroads—externally challenged, internally tested, and geopolitically squeezed at a moment when hesitation could prove fatal. What is unfolding around us is not a series of disconnected events but a pattern—one that New Delhi can no longer afford to ignore or downplay. Reports emerging from Bangladesh over the past weeks…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Litmus Test: The Thackerays’ Political Relevance in Maharashtra

The Thackeray surname, once synonymous with power in Maharashtra politics, is today facing its severest political test. What is increasingly being described as an “existential crisis” for the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is no exaggeration—it is a reflection of shrinking electoral space, eroding cadre loyalty, and diminishing public…

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Columnist M S Shanker, Orange News 9

Are Hindus Awakening in India?

The question of whether Hindus are “awakening from their slumber” has become a recurring theme in public discourse—often raised with emotion, sometimes with apprehension, and frequently with political overtones. Yet, beyond slogans and counter-slogans, this question deserves a calmer, more thoughtful examination rooted in history, demographics, and contemporary global developments. Hinduism—Sanatan Dharma—is not merely a…

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