Forthright
The controversy surrounding senior IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma is not merely about one viral video, one election observer, or one political storm in West Bengal. It is a frightening reminder of how social media has transformed itself into a factory of misinformation, rumour-mongering, and deliberate psychological manipulation. What was once hailed as a democratized…
Victory, when incomplete, often demands compromise. For actor-turned-politician Joseph Vijay, that compromise may well define the credibility of his political debut. Sweeping into relevance with a strong mandate but falling short of a majority, his decision to seek support from the Indian National Congress is not merely tactical—it is fraught with historical baggage and political…
If there is one defining feature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade-long dominance, it is not merely electoral success—it is the systematic dismantling of India’s once-formidable regional power centres. What we are witnessing is not routine political churn, but a deep structural shift in the country’s power matrix, engineered through strategy, messaging, and relentless ground-level…
India’s power story has undergone a quiet but extraordinary transformation over the past decade—one that has fundamentally altered the narrative from chronic shortages to surplus capacity, from blackouts to resilience. The disappearance of India’s electricity deficit is not the result of a single reform or policy, but a combination of scientific innovation, strategic infrastructure, and…
Trusting Pakistan has never been a strategy—it has always been a gamble. And once again, events are proving that those who place faith in Islamabad do so at their own peril. The latest geopolitical manoeuvre by the Shehbaz Sharif–Asif Munir combine exposes a familiar pattern: say one thing to Washington, do quite another with Beijing—and…
When Narendra Modi reportedly asserted in a confidential setting that his government will “leave no stone unturned” to ensure the implementation of women’s reservation in legislatures, it was not just a routine political assurance. It was a loaded statement—one that carries within it both the weight of expectation and the ambiguity of intent. In Indian…
The campaign dust is settling on the second phase of elections in West Bengal, and beneath the noise, a far more consequential churn is visible. Strip away the slogans, the accusations, and the predictable outrage, and one uncomfortable truth begins to take shape: the political ground in Bengal is shifting—and perhaps irreversibly. The first phase…
There was a time when Arvind Kejriwal sold himself as the insurgent who would cleanse politics. Today, he looks more like a politician trapped in his own script—defaulting to theatrics, evasion, and institutional confrontation whenever accountability comes knocking. His latest move—seeking to avoid appearing before the Delhi High Court in the excise policy case—fits a…
How can threats of bombardment and invitations to negotiate coexist in the same breath? That contradiction sits at the heart of the current West Asia crisis—and at the centre of the diplomatic posture adopted by Donald Trump. It is not merely confusing; it risks being counterproductive at a moment when clarity, credibility, and consistency are…
At a time when the global economy is wobbling under the weight of war, energy shocks, and deep uncertainty, one question has triggered both curiosity and political discomfort: Why do institutions like the IMF and the United Nations still project India to grow at 6.4–7 percent? The answer lies not in political rhetoric, but in…
