Banakacherla dispute demands dialogue, not drama In a mature democracy, especially in a federal setup like India’s, disputes—no matter how contentious—are meant to be resolved through negotiation, transparency, and consensus-building. When issues as vital as inter-state river water sharing become hostages to political grandstanding, the real losers are not politicians but the people. The fresh…
When Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla steps back onto Earth today after an 18-day journey beyond its atmosphere, he won’t just be returning as a passenger of space. He will come back as a bearer of India’s rising ambition in the final frontier — space exploration. In what is being hailed as a historic moment for…
The political turbulence unfolding in Karnataka is neither new nor unexpected. It is a predictable consequence of Congress’s internal contradictions—an organization that has long struggled to balance competing ambitions, high-command interference, and ideological hollowness. The current standoff between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D.K. Shivakumar is just the latest chapter in a party where…
MS Shanker The rot in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has deepened dramatically, with last week’s crackdown by the Telangana State CID following a damning Vigilance and Enforcement Directorate (VED) report. Five arrests have already been made — including HCA President Jaganmohan Rao, CEO Sunil Kante, Treasurer CJ srinivas, and others linked to the infamous…
The preliminary findings of the Air India crash have arrived — and with it, an unsettling mix of half-answers, speculative conclusions, and the familiar scent of bureaucratic insulation. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which functions under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, on Saturday made public a 15-page report that has sparked more confusion than…
Why the Amarjit Dulat episode deserves more scrutiny than spin I’m rather tempted to make that ‘viral video’ the subject of this week’s column. It’s the one where a journalist poses a pointed question. The camera rolls. And what the nation sees next is both shocking and revealing—a former RAW chief, yes, one of India’s…
A Fight for the Soul of the Game: Why Revanth Reddy’s Crackdown Must Go All the Way This is in continuation of my pursuit to expose who is responsible for ruining Hyderabad cricket—not just through corruption and incompetence, but by systematically dismantling an ecosystem that once produced legends, pride, and a legacy few cities in…
“Merit Is Dead”: Former Hyderabad All-Rounder Slams Rot in State Cricket MS Shanker As part of my continuing series, “How to Revive Hyderabad Cricket,” this week I sat down with one of the city’s most quietly impactful cricketers—M.V. Ramanamurthy. A gritty allrounder who played his cricket in the 1980s and early ’90s purely on merit,…
God save the Nobel Peace Prize Once a symbol of rare virtue and global statesmanship, the Nobel Peace Prize has now become the unofficial trophy for delusion and self-congratulation. And this year, the stampede is real. Everyone with a microphone, a modest PR team, or a record of doing the bare minimum for peace—or in…
In a world teetering between old alliances and emerging multipolarity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s just-concluded five-nation tour — Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Brazil, and Namibia — stands out as a strategic masterstroke. Lasting eight days, this was Modi’s longest overseas visit in the last ten years. While the global media is busy dissecting power…
