Forthright
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…
There is an adage in politics and warfare alike: success has many fathers, failure is always an orphan. The brief but decisive India–Pakistan military confrontation of May 7–10, 2025, has proven this saying truer than ever. Months after the dust has settled, global power centres are queueing up to claim credit for “stopping” a conflict…
The death of Anjel Chakma, a young student from Tripura studying in Dehradun, is not merely a criminal incident—it is a moral indictment of a society that continues to deny, normalise, and excuse its deep-seated prejudices against people from India’s North-East. Chakma succumbed to his injuries after being brutally assaulted by local goons, reportedly under…
When senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh publicly praised the RSS–BJP ecosystem last week, calling it a disciplined organisation where even a grassroots worker can rise to the very top, it was not just another stray tweet. Accompanied by a telling photograph of Narendra Modi seated humbly at the feet of L.K. Advani, the remark detonated…
The sudden and dramatic return of Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and scion of one of Bangladesh’s two dominant political dynasties, marks a pivotal moment in the nation’s political evolution. After nearly 17 years in exile, Rahman arrived in Dhaka to a massive, emotional welcome — an event that could…
The sudden warmth between Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray has triggered predictable excitement in sections of Maharashtra’s political commentariat. Old photographs are being dusted off, emotional appeals to “Marathi asmita” are resurfacing, and whispers of a united Thackeray front challenging the BJP—especially in Mumbai—are growing louder. But beneath the optics lies an uncomfortable question: is…
The unprecedented protests witnessed across India following the brutal killing of a Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, in Bangladesh mark a turning point that can no longer be dismissed as episodic outrage. From New Delhi—outside the Bangladesh High Commission—to Jammu and Kashmir, Kolkata, and Hyderabad, thousands of ordinary Hindus came together with a single, unmistakable…
A viral social media video has added a controversial and politically sensitive layer to the already condemned incident involving Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the hijab-lifting episode during a government appointment event. While the Chief Minister’s act drew widespread criticism across party lines for being inappropriate and indefensible, the narrative being circulated online now…
