Forthright
The reopening of the Disha Salian death case may not, by itself, spell the “end of the road” for Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray. But politically and legally, it certainly opens a new and potentially uncomfortable chapter for the Thackeray family. The Bombay High Court’s decision to direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)…
The controversy over a burqa-wearing woman being stopped at Mumbai’s Dr R.N. Cooper Municipal General Hospital is unfortunate, but the attempt to turn an apparent lapse in security procedure into a sweeping constitutional battle over the burqa is equally unwarranted. The first point must be made unambiguously: the security guard was wrong to demand that…
The Supreme Court’s decision to quash FIRs against students who participated in protests over the NEET examination controversy is, on the face of it, a compassionate and welcome intervention. No young person who merely exercised the democratic right to protest peacefully should have his or her academic future permanently damaged by a criminal case arising…
There is nothing wrong with dreaming big. Telangana certainly deserves world-class sporting infrastructure. But when a government talks about building a cricket stadium even bigger than the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, one cannot help asking a rather inconvenient question: what about the stadium Telangana already has? Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s grand announcement of…
For years, one familiar refrain dominated discussions on Bharat’s defence manufacturing: Bharat cannot even make a decent assault rifle on its own. The critics had a point once. Bharat’s small-arms story was hardly inspiring. The INSAS, despite being an indigenous effort, acquired a reputation for reliability problems, while the armed forces remained dependent on imports…
Was it a political faux pas, a reckless gamble—or sheer arrogance? Whatever the answer, Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has every reason to regret his decision to re-induct B. Nagendra into his Cabinet. The minister’s resignation on August 28, barely 25 days after being brought back into government, has turned what Shivakumar projected as a…
₹6.15 lakh crore! The number is certainly spectacular enough to make headlines, trigger outrage and provide ready-made ammunition for those who want to portray the Modi government as the great benefactor of corporate defaulters. But there is just one small problem with the screaming headline: ₹6.15 lakh crore of loans written off by Public Sector…
The devastating flash floods that have struck Nepal’s Rasuwa region, killing scores (160 and 750 missing at the time of writing this edit) of people and leaving hundreds missing, are a grim reminder of the extraordinary vulnerability of the Himalayan region. They are also a warning against a dangerous tendency that must be resisted: turning…
The fog surrounding one of the most intriguing episodes of Operation Sindoor has finally lifted. Former Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has now confirmed that a Bharatiya loitering munition did strike the Kirana Hills area in Pakistan during the 2025 operation. The clarification comes with an important caveat: the strike was not deliberately…
Bharat cannot afford the luxury of political denial when allegations of forced, fraudulent or inducement-based religious conversions are surfacing with disturbing frequency. The issue is not about targeting any particular faith. It is about protecting an individual’s freedom of conscience—and ensuring that nobody is bullied, blackmailed, deceived, financially induced or threatened into changing religion. That…
