Forthright
When Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks about returning frozen assets to Ukraine and pledging a reported $1 billion to a Trump-promoted “Board of Peace,” the world would be naïve to hear charity where strategy is being spoken. These are not off-the-cuff remarks or goodwill gestures from a besieged leader. They are carefully calibrated geopolitical signals,…
I walked into the hall “accidentally,” they say. But sometimes accidents are divine interventions. The topic on the banner — “Anubhavalu and Gnapakalu” (A Journalist’s Experiences and Remembrances) — was too tempting to ignore. Organized by the Veteran Journalists Association, the very idea itself felt like a quiet act of rebellion in an age when…
Of late, Indian politics seems to have discovered a curious new science: the art of the impossible comparison. Leaders, cutting across party lines and ideological spectrums, appear convinced that the surest way to sway the public imagination is not through careful planning, grounded policy, or measurable outcomes—but by invoking grand metaphors, global benchmarks, and cultural…
There was a time when the Nobel Peace Prize stood as a moral lighthouse in a stormy world — a symbol of conscience rising above convenience, principle towering over power. Today, that lighthouse flickers. And with the extraordinary spectacle of Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado “presenting” her Nobel Peace Prize medal to U.S. President…
In an age where television studios brandish the tricolour as a badge of moral authority, one would expect a corresponding sense of national responsibility. Yet, a troubling trend has emerged—sections of the media, masquerading as “true nationalist” channels, magnify isolated issues into sweeping indictments of the nation itself. The result is not journalism. It is…
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…
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…
Should India accept the United States’ invitation to join Pax Silica as a permanent member? At first glance, the offer appears flattering—almost overdue. But scratch beneath the diplomatic varnish, and the invitation looks less like strategic generosity and more like a reluctant concession from a power that has suddenly realised it can no longer dictate…
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…
The Indian National Congress today is no longer driven by ideology, policy alternatives, or even electoral arithmetic. It is driven by a singular obsession: Narendra Modi. In that blind pursuit of political vendetta, the party appears willing to undermine India’s credibility, dignity, and global standing—careless of the fact that it is simultaneously eroding whatever little…
