Forthright
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…
A republic cannot survive on selective respect for the Constitution. When elected lawmakers swear allegiance to the Constitution on one hand and openly glorify those accused of orchestrating communal violence on the other, the danger is no longer rhetorical—it becomes existential. The Supreme Court of India has, after careful consideration, denied bail to Umar Khalid…
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…
At a time when the world is exhausted by ideological violence and religious extremism, it is imperative—especially for Indian Muslims—to pause, introspect, and decisively reject the path of radicalisation that has brought nothing but ruin wherever it has been tried. This is not a plea born out of hostility, but one rooted in realism, lived…
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…
New York’s new Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has projected himself as the face of a “new era” in American urban politics—audacious, ideological, and unrestrained. But audacity without responsibility quickly mutates into arrogance. That line appears to have been crossed when Mamdani openly declared solidarity with Umar Khalid, an accused conspirator in India’s anti-CAA violence cases, while…
There comes a moment when neutrality stops being a virtue and begins to resemble complicity. Indian cricket—and by extension the Indian Premier League—has reached that moment with Bangladesh. The growing demand by Hindu religious leaders and civil society groups to bar Bangladeshi cricketers from IPL 2026 is not an eruption of irrational anger, as some…
