Forthright
A passing remark by the Chief Justice of India appears to have triggered a national debate that is far bigger than the word that sparked it. While commenting on the growing tendency to attack constitutional institutions through social media, the Chief Justice reportedly referred to certain elements as “cockroaches.” Predictably, outrage arrived faster than facts….
India today stands at a fascinating crossroads. It is simultaneously battling global uncertainties and pursuing ambitious dreams. It is the world’s most populous nation, the fastest-growing major economy, an emerging military power, and a technology hub that increasingly competes with the best in the world. Yet, it remains heavily dependent on imported energy and vulnerable…
A terrorist attacks the nation from outside the constitutional framework. An anarchist politician attacks it from within. That is why the latter can be far more dangerous. The recent outrage expressed by Trinamool Congress leaders over alleged hostility faced by MP Abhishek Banerjee during his visit to violence-hit areas in West Bengal would have evoked…
For nearly one-and-a-half decades, West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee and the All India Trinamool Congress was repeatedly accused of turning a blind eye to unchecked illegal infiltration from neighbouring Bangladesh. What was once dismissed by critics as “political rhetoric” now appears to have exploded into a national security concern. Reports emerging from the border districts…
The Hyderabad Cricket Association’s proposed TG20 league was supposed to be a revolution. For once, many believed Hyderabad cricket would finally escape the suffocating grip of middlemen, academy cartels, backdoor selectors, and the invisible power brokers who have reduced one of India’s proudest cricket centres into a marketplace of favouritism and manipulation. Instead, before the…
For decades, Bharat was mocked as a country that would forever remain energy-hungry, import-dependent, and technologically trailing behind the developed world. Those predictions now lie shattered under the blazing Indian sun. Bharat, under the able and decisive leadership of Narendra Modi, has officially emerged as the world’s second-largest solar power market in terms of annual…
For decades, India avoided an uncomfortable conversation. Every time concerns were raised over unchecked illegal immigration and demographic shifts in sensitive regions, the issue was either dismissed as “communal politics” or buried under the rhetoric of vote-bank secularism. The latest decision by the Union government to constitute a high-level committee to study demographic changes across…
The Union Government’s decision to reclaim the 27.3-acre land housing the Delhi Gymkhana Club has triggered outrage in elite circles, emotional appeals about “heritage,” and predictable accusations of state overreach. Yet stripped of sentimentality, the larger question confronting India is far more fundamental: can a developing nation of 140 crore people continue allowing vast tracts…
The rise of aggressive media scrutiny in India is not an accident. It is a consequence. A direct consequence of institutional paralysis, delayed justice, selective investigations, and the growing public perception that powerful individuals often receive extraordinary legal protection while ordinary citizens languish in procedural darkness for years. In such an atmosphere, what critics dismiss…
The world order is changing faster than many in Washington are willing to admit. The age when the United States could dictate terms to the world as the unquestioned “Big Brother” is steadily eroding. Ironically, the country that once projected itself as the defender of global order today appears increasingly desperate to preserve fading dominance….
