Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Kapil’s Blunt Truth

Kapil Dev Nikhanj has never been known to mince words. India’s first World Cup–winning captain built his legacy not just on performances, but on straight talk. So, when Kapil recently questioned the very idea of a “Head Coach” for Team India, suggesting that the role is closer to that of a manager, he wasn’t being…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Dhaka’s Provocation

What is unfolding in Bangladesh today is not a spontaneous democratic uprising but a carefully stage-managed implosion—one that has cynically weaponised misled youth, radical street power, and diplomatic intimidation. The reported plans by provocateurs to attack the Indian Embassy in Dhaka mark a dangerous new low, exposing how lawlessness and mob coercion have replaced constitutional…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Political Treachery

There is something profoundly disturbing when political leaders begin treating India’s armed forces as collateral damage in their war against the government. On Vijay Diwas — a day meant to honour sacrifice, courage, and national resolve — former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chouhan chose to perform a political low that should shame even a party…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Nitish: Time to Restrain

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is once again in the news—but regrettably, not for his governance credentials or administrative record. Instead, a recent public interaction has triggered an avoidable controversy after he was seen adjusting, or pulling down, a minority woman’s hijab while handing over an employment certificate under his government’s job guarantee promise. The…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Viksit Bharat First

The Union government’s decision to replace MGNREGA with the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) – VB-G Ram G Bill, 2025, has triggered predictable political outrage. The loudest protest, unsurprisingly, is not about livelihoods, wages, or accountability—but about the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name. This reaction, while emotionally charged, avoids the real…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

C5: A Strategic Joke

Donald Trump’s foreign policy has never been accused of subtlety. But his so-called “Core 5” (C5) proposal—an alleged attempt to replace the G7 with a new power club comprising the US, China, Russia, India and Japan—takes strategic recklessness to an entirely new level. It is not a blueprint for a new world order; it is…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Mahabooba’s Wolf Cry

Every few months, a familiar script returns to India’s political theatre: a leader from the Congress–PDP ecosystem rises dramatically, points a trembling finger at the BJP, and declares that “minorities are under attack.” The latest performer is PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, who has taken to X to accuse the Centre of “erasing” Waqf properties. According…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Why Is DGCA Untouchable?

India’s aviation sector has just suffered one of its worst public humiliations in years, and yet the one agency at the heart of the disaster—the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)—remains curiously untouched. Instead, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has reached for its favourite crutch: punish the airline, scold the symptoms, and leave the disease…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Deepavali Honoured

UNESCO’s inscription of India’s Deepavali festival into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity is far more than a symbolic pat on the back. It is a global affirmation that one of India’s oldest and most unifying civilisational practices stands tall among humanity’s living treasures. And the timing could not have been…

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Columnist-M.S.Shanker

Modi’s Decisive Turn

Two crises erupting within days — Indigo’s spectacular operational collapse and Goa’s horrifying Birth Club inferno — have placed the 12-year-old Narendra Modi–led NDA government in an unusual position: on the defensive, not before a roaring Opposition in Parliament, but before an unforgiving and unusually united media. For once, the criticism didn’t come from political…

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