Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the Presidential Address in the Rajya Sabha was not merely a political rebuttal—it was a forensic dissection of a party that ruled India for most of its post-Independence history, yet left behind a legacy of stagnation, entitlement, and institutional decay. This came after his entry was stalled by some…
Democracy is tested not only by the strength of its laws, but by the conduct of those entrusted to uphold them. On Wednesday, India witnessed a troubling convergence of four incidents across its highest political and constitutional spaces—each distinct in form, yet united by a common thread of eroding institutional decorum. Together, they raised an…
On a day when India stood at the cusp of a renewed strategic and economic moment with the United States—marked by US President Donald Trump formally announcing a trade agreement after a late-night call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi—the spectacle inside Parliament told a very different story. After earlier floating tariff threats of 50 percent…
The Budget Session of Parliament was always expected to be noisy. What it did not need was a manufactured storm around selective, unofficial excerpts from the yet-to-be-cleared memoirs of former Army Chief General M.M. Naravane, dragged into the House to score political points rather than to illuminate policy. On the second day of proceedings, instead…
The Union Budget FY26–27 stands as a transformational document—one that goes beyond mere allocation of funds to chart a clear trajectory for India’s economic and strategic future. Notably, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has set a record by presenting the budget for the ninth time, a milestone many believe will be difficult to surpass. Against…
When Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey for FY26, she did more than present a government report card. She laid out a data-backed rebuttal to a growing chorus of geopolitical grumbling—much of it emanating from Washington—that would have the world believe India’s economy is somehow “dead.” The Survey’s numbers tell a very…
The Supreme Court’s decision to stay the University Grants Commission’s newly notified Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Regulations, 2026 has triggered a familiar, and often polarised, debate in India’s academic and political circles, besides Prime Time debates in some so-called national English channels. On one side stand those who view the UGC’s move as…
For more than seven decades, the “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States has been one of the defining pillars of Western geopolitics. From NATO’s founding to intelligence-sharing through the Five Eyes alliance, and from the Cold War to the post-9/11 world, London and Washington have largely moved in strategic lockstep. Yet…
For nearly two decades, the India–European Union trade agreement lay frozen in the deep freezer of global diplomacy—18 long years of stalled negotiations, shifting governments, and clashing priorities. On Tuesday, that ice finally cracked. Yes, it can rightly be called the “mother of all deals.” What emerged was not merely a trade pact, but a…
When political ground begins to tremble beneath a ruling party’s feet, the instinct is rarely introspection. It is diversion. In Tamil Nadu today, that diversion has a familiar face: the resurrected spectre of “Hindi imposition.” Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s latest campaign rhetoric is less a cultural crusade and more a calculated attempt to rally an…
