As India prepares to welcome the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, as Chief Guest for Republic Day, the symbolism could not be louder. Beyond the pageantry and protocol, a far more consequential event is unfolding in the background: the likely signing of what many are already calling the “mother of all deals” —…
India’s cultural conversation has always thrived on its ability to hold contradictions in the same frame. A country that sings in a hundred tongues, prays in a thousand ways, and watches the same silver screen together also knows how quickly applause can turn into argument. That tension resurfaced recently when Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman spoke…
In 1945, the United Nations was born from the ashes of a world torn apart by imperial ambition. Its founding promise was simple and solemn: no nation, however powerful, would again be allowed to redraw borders by threat, coercion, or force. Eight decades later, that promise lies in tatters — not because the rules are…
The verdict from Maharashtra’s civic polls is not merely a tally of seats—it is a political statement, loud and unambiguous. The Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the dominant force, not just in Mumbai’s prestigious Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), but across the state’s urban landscape. Exit polls projected it, ground reports confirmed it, and the…
If there was any lingering doubt about who stands for constitutional order and who thrives on political anarchy, the Supreme Court put it to rest on Thursday—firmly, unequivocally, and publicly. By staying the petitions filed against Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, the apex court delivered a stinging rebuke to West…
Donald Trump’s politics have never been subtle. It is coercive, transactional, and unapologetically destabilising. When he threatens Iran today with military action, sanctions, and economic strangulation under the familiar pretext of “regime behaviour,” the world would be naïve to see it as an isolated episode. Iran is merely the current theatre. The method—pressure, humiliation, internal…
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s first official visit to India isn’t just another diplomatic pageant — it is a milestone in the evolving India-Germany relationship, setting the tone for a pragmatic, future-focused partnership that spans economic dynamism, security cooperation, people-to-people mobility, and shared global priorities. What’s more, Chancellor Merz’s engagement — including the humane lifting of…
When the President of the United States speaks with reckless inconsistency and his envoy rushes in to apply diplomatic balm, the question is unavoidable: whom should India believe—Donald Trump or Sergio Gor? US ambassador-designate and Special Envoy to South and Central Asia Sergio Gor wants New Delhi to trust Washington. He urges India to look…
The claim that Bharat is “rewriting history” is both dishonest and revealing. Dishonest, because history in India was never neutrally written to begin with. Revealing, because those raising this alarm have thrived for decades on distortion, suppression, and selective amnesia. What is unfolding today is not erasure, but recovery. Not revisionism, but reclamation. For nearly…
The latest outbursts from U.S. President Donald Trump—particularly his threats of imposing punitive tariffs of an almost absurd scale on India—expose not strength but frustration. The trigger appears to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s refusal to approach Washington before an arbitrary deadline set by the U.S. administration. That expectation itself reveals a dangerous misreading of…
