Rahul Gandhi’s “Chhatron Ki Goonj” in Indore was billed as an outreach to students and an occasion to put their concerns—education, examination irregularities, recruitment and unemployment—at the centre of political debate. Yet, as the event unfolded, politics and entertainment appeared to compete with the very issues the programme was expected to highlight. The most contentious…
After watching Andhra Pradesh and national politics closely for nearly four decades, I have learnt one basic lesson: political parties are rarely born in a vacuum. Some emerge from a long ideological struggle, some from sustained organisational work, some from social movements—and some from a particular political moment that suddenly creates space for a new…
What we wrote and reported in our editorial columns during the three-day Operation Sindoor, launched following the killing of 26 innocent people by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists at Pahalgam, is now vividly reflected in this remarkable video series. What the illiterate terrorists triggered was captured in that chilling moment when a woman was pleading with them to…
For decades, Bharat’s inability to design and manufacture a powerful indigenous aircraft engine has been cited by critics as proof of the limits of its defence-industrial capability. The Kaveri story, however, is beginning to tell a very different tale. The pessimists may have had plenty of ammunition in the past. Kaveri did not meet the…
The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement is already facing its first serious credibility test—and Pakistan appears to be quietly backing away from the very commitment it so loudly celebrated. Signed on August 7 by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye in Makkah, the agreement declares that an armed attack against one of the three countries shall be…
Has better sense finally prevailed on US President Donald Trump? President Donald Trump’s latest pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacking Russian oil refineries and diesel infrastructure may represent more than a tactical intervention in the Russia-Ukraine war. It reflects a growing realisation in Washington that wars fought thousands of miles away can…
Yesterday it was the G20. Today it is SAARC. Tomorrow it could be another global grouping where Bharat is not merely a participant but a power shaping the conversation. This is not diplomatic coincidence. It is the visible outcome of a fundamental transformation in Bharat’s foreign policy. The secret is simple: Bharat no longer picks…
The much-hyped “Gen Z movement” built around social-media theatrics has suffered a potentially devastating credibility blow. The arrest of nine persons, including four juveniles, by the Punjab Police in connection with two alleged ISI-backed cross-border terror modules raises questions that the self-proclaimed champions of a so-called youth uprising cannot simply wish away. The police have…
Tamil Nadu politics has a habit of declaring political winners and losers rather quickly. But if there is one national party that has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to absorb electoral setbacks and keep working towards a distant objective, it is the BJP. The 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election was certainly not the breakthrough the BJP…
There is a point at which journalism ceases to be journalism and becomes theatre. The latest controversy surrounding Amruta Fadnavis is a classic example of how an innocuous or legitimate statement can be stretched, twisted and packaged into a political controversy that was never really there. Of late, sections of the English-language media appear increasingly…
