Forthright
For decades, one of the most corrosive myths circulating within India’s own strategic and defence “thinktank” ecosystem has been this: India cannot design, develop, and deliver complex military platforms on its own. That belief—often whispered in seminars, shouted in television studios, and sanctified by retired uniforms with colonial hangovers—was repeatedly aimed at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited…
Washington’s latest chest-thumping over India’s energy policy says more about American political theatre than any seismic shift in New Delhi’s strategic calculus. US President Donald Trump is now claiming that India had agreed to immediately halt purchases of Russian oil and instead divert energy imports—reportedly worth $500 billion—towards the United States or Venezuela. He coupled…
In recent years, surveys, social media debates, and academic research have pointed to a striking shift in how young Indian women perceive marriage. Once regarded as a near-universal milestone of adulthood, marriage is now increasingly treated as one option among many—sometimes postponed, sometimes reshaped, and in some cases consciously rejected. This shift has sparked both…
When former US President Donald Trump reportedly picked up the phone to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Tuesday night (as per IST) to seal a trade understanding that trims tariffs to an 18 percent threshold, it was more than a transactional moment. It signalled a revival—real or symbolic—of a political chemistry that once…
Pakistan’s decision to refuse to play India in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup has little to do with cricket and everything to do with politics. It is a calculated move designed to manufacture leverage, provoke reaction, and inject sentiment into what is meant to remain a rules-governed global tournament. The louder calls within India…
For years, Canada perched itself on a moral high horse, lecturing India about democracy, free speech, and the “right to dissent.” Ottawa wrapped its political indulgence of Khalistani separatist elements in the comforting language of civil liberties, even as New Delhi repeatedly warned that this was not peaceful activism, but the romanticization—and at times rehabilitation—of…
If international cricket still pretends to uphold a “spirit of the game,” then the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) seems determined to demonstrate just how easily that spirit can be bent, bargained with, and ultimately discarded when it becomes inconvenient. The controversy that erupted on the eve of the ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to begin…
So, here’s the latest chapter in Indian political theatre — an air crash tragically claims the life of Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, and within hours the usual suspects in the discredited Opposition started performing their predictable somersaults. Now, let’s be clear: this was a plane crash, not an episode of X-Files. The DGCA…
In a country that loudly proclaims “unity in diversity,” it is ironic that Hindu institutions are expected to apologize for preserving their own sacred boundaries. The recent decision by the Kedarnath and Badrinath shrine boards to restrict entry to Hindus is not an act of exclusion—it is an assertion of constitutional, civilizational, and spiritual sovereignty….
The Opposition’s furious reaction to the Modi government honoring R.V.S. Mani, a former senior officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs (with G.M. Pillai then serving as Home Secretary and P. Chidambaram as Home Minister), with a Padma award reveals less about the man himself and more about the fragility of a political narrative that…
