Forthright
The Supreme Court of India has once again put the spotlight on the principle of reservation — not by striking it down or expanding it, but by asking a fundamental question: should the benefits of caste-based reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) continue to flow unabated through generations of the same families,…
By any measure, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s nearly hour-long press briefing on the findings of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has pushed the Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi into the eye of a political and national-security storm. The Chief Minister did not merely trade in insinuations; he chose to publicly outline what he described…
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Malaysia was not just another stop on a busy diplomatic calendar. It was a statement—quietly firm, strategically layered, and unmistakably confident—that India under Modi is no longer content reacting to global events but is actively shaping outcomes. In an increasingly fragmented world, Modi’s foreign policy is emerging…
The India–US trade deal has finally happened. And no, this is not the moment to play childish games of who blinked first or who had the last laugh. Diplomacy is not a street fight; it is a chessboard. Those who mistake it for arm-twisting eventually discover that patience, not pressure, decides the endgame. The India–US…
For decades, one of the most corrosive myths circulating within India’s own strategic and defence “thinktank” ecosystem has been this: India cannot design, develop, and deliver complex military platforms on its own. That belief—often whispered in seminars, shouted in television studios, and sanctified by retired uniforms with colonial hangovers—was repeatedly aimed at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited…
Washington’s latest chest-thumping over India’s energy policy says more about American political theatre than any seismic shift in New Delhi’s strategic calculus. US President Donald Trump is now claiming that India had agreed to immediately halt purchases of Russian oil and instead divert energy imports—reportedly worth $500 billion—towards the United States or Venezuela. He coupled…
In recent years, surveys, social media debates, and academic research have pointed to a striking shift in how young Indian women perceive marriage. Once regarded as a near-universal milestone of adulthood, marriage is now increasingly treated as one option among many—sometimes postponed, sometimes reshaped, and in some cases consciously rejected. This shift has sparked both…
When former US President Donald Trump reportedly picked up the phone to call Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Tuesday night (as per IST) to seal a trade understanding that trims tariffs to an 18 percent threshold, it was more than a transactional moment. It signalled a revival—real or symbolic—of a political chemistry that once…
Pakistan’s decision to refuse to play India in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup has little to do with cricket and everything to do with politics. It is a calculated move designed to manufacture leverage, provoke reaction, and inject sentiment into what is meant to remain a rules-governed global tournament. The louder calls within India…
For years, Canada perched itself on a moral high horse, lecturing India about democracy, free speech, and the “right to dissent.” Ottawa wrapped its political indulgence of Khalistani separatist elements in the comforting language of civil liberties, even as New Delhi repeatedly warned that this was not peaceful activism, but the romanticization—and at times rehabilitation—of…
