Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi has suddenly discovered that the Election Commission needs to be lectured on electoral purity, constitutional propriety and democratic values. How convenient! Before preaching to the present Election Commission, perhaps Quraishi should spare a little time to revisit his own record as CEC and explain why standards that appear so…
The Russia-Ukraine war has gone on far too long, exacting a terrible human, economic and geopolitical cost. Yet, despite repeated diplomatic initiatives, the world remains nowhere close to a durable settlement. It is in this difficult landscape that Bharat’s emerging role deserves serious attention—not as a country claiming to possess a magic formula for peace,…
Is the global economy once again approaching a point where its shock absorbers are wearing thin? That is the uncomfortable question the latest warnings about recession, stubborn inflation, geopolitical conflicts, elevated asset valuations and mounting sovereign debt should force policymakers and markets to confront. Nobel laureate Michael Spence’s warning that the world could be only…
The allegations of sexual harassment against Delhi Police personnel during Saturday’s protest near Jantar Mantar are serious. They cannot be dismissed, trivialised or explained away merely because the allegations have been made against members of the uniformed force. At the same time, neither can an allegation, however disturbing, automatically become an established fact. The truth…
There are moments when politics must stop at the doorstep of humanity, national pride and courage. The September 30 Flydubai FZ1073 incident was one such moment. A Bharatiya pilot, Captain Smit Machchhar, was brutally attacked inside the cockpit by his co-pilot while the aircraft was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Gravely injured and bleeding,…
What really happened aboard the FlySaudi flight may prove to be far more consequential than an isolated aviation incident. At first glance, an incident involving a commercial aircraft can be treated as a matter of aviation security. But when the aircraft, the individuals involved and the destination are viewed against the extraordinarily complicated geopolitics of…
There is a difference between political rhetoric and political irresponsibility. Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy appears to be coming dangerously close to crossing that line. His latest attempt to explain the Congress’s political fortunes through a supposed North-South religious divide has raised precisely the questions that a Chief Minister should avoid creating. Speaking at…
There is a point beyond which journalism stops informing society and starts manufacturing confusion. When a supposedly responsible media organisation sensationalises a sensitive issue involving an independent Constitutional institution, and political parties then seize upon that report to manufacture a narrative against the institution, the consequences can be far more damaging than an ordinary journalistic…
The Supreme Court’s sharp questioning of Rahul Gandhi’s description of Veer Savarkar as a British “servant” exposed a fundamental problem with political narratives built on selective quotations: history cannot be reduced to a convenient sentence, a political slogan or a social-media meme. The Court’s intervention was particularly significant because the argument before it involved the…
There is a fashionable argument in Bharat today that China is “far ahead” of us and that catching up with it may take decades. The first part is partly true; the second is largely a matter of perception. China is ahead of Bharat in manufacturing scale, infrastructure, urbanisation, exports, high-speed rail, shipbuilding and several strategic…
