The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was enacted for a compelling and necessary purpose: to protect vulnerable communities from genuine discrimination, humiliation, violence, wrongful dispossession, and atrocities. There can be no argument against such protection. But precisely because the law is powerful, its provisions cannot be allowed to become a convenient…
There comes a time in the life of every civilisation when it must have the courage to revisit the stories it has been taught, separate history from hagiography and ask a simple but uncomfortable question: Are we honouring history—or merely inheriting a narrative? Bharat needs that debate today. The birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi…
The Delhi Police appears to have learnt something from the Jantar Mantar experience. With more than 700 protesters detained on October 2 during the demonstration demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the message is clear: the administration does not want a political protest to turn into a law-and-order challenge. But the real…
There is a difference between exposing genuine weaknesses in Bharat’s education system and constructing an exaggerated narrative around them. The latest portrayal by The Economist, with its description of Bharat’s education system as a “misery machine” and its suggestion that young people are being driven towards rebellion, appears to cross that line. The problem is…
The Narendra Modi government appears to have finally decided that demographic change cannot remain a subject of political whispers, partisan accusations or selective outrage. The Union Home Ministry’s decision to seek detailed, district-wise and religion-wise information from States and Union Territories is therefore significant—not because it prejudges the outcome, but because a nation of Bharat’s…
The BJP has spent years making parivarvaad one of its most potent political weapons against the Congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly attacks dynastic politics, entitlement and the tendency of political families to treat public life as hereditary property. Fair enough. But there is an uncomfortable question the BJP cannot duck: Does its anti-dynasty principle…
The Opposition has every constitutional right to question the government, scrutinise institutions and protest against policies it disagrees with. But there is a line between legitimate opposition and repeatedly casting constitutional institutions in a political light without establishing the charge. The Election Commission of India cannot become the latest casualty of this politics. With the…
The tragic death of an IIT Bombay student last week has once again opened a deeply uncomfortable debate: are some of Bharat’s finest educational institutions increasingly being dragged into caste and political narratives before the facts have been fully established? I raise this question deliberately—and as my personal view. Sahil Wakode, a second-year student at…
There is a growing tendency in a section of the media to manufacture a controversy first and explain the facts later. The latest attempt revolves around the Election Commission of India and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. What is being presented as evidence of an institutional rupture may, on closer examination, simply…
The tragic death of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode is yet another reminder of how quickly a campus tragedy can become a battleground of competing narratives. Wakode was reportedly caught using a mobile phone during a mid-semester examination on September 18. Hours later, he was found dead. His family subsequently alleged caste-based discrimination and mental…
