MS Shanker The Congress and its political allies may not like it, but they can no longer conveniently dismiss the RSS as a communal organisation without confronting a rather uncomfortable question: what exactly does its chief, Mohan Bhagwat, mean when he unequivocally says that a Hindu who believes Muslims should not live in Bharat is…
MS Shanker Welcome to the golden age of Indian print journalism, where methodology is a myth, reality is optional, and glossing over basic political arithmetic is standard editorial policy. In its latest cover story, a self-proclaimed “national publication” released its flagship popularity survey. The findings? Prime Minister Narendra Modi predictably leads the chart with 49%,…
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge appears to have discovered a wonderfully convenient defence for the controversy surrounding Vande Mataram: if what Congress leaders did on Independence Day was a crime, then Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and even Atal Bihari Vajpayee must also be booked. After all, Kharge argues, they too sang the same version…
MS Shanker The controversy at the Congress headquarters on Independence Day may have begun with a few seconds of a video clip, but it has quickly turned into something much larger: a political test of how Bharat’s oldest national party relates to one of the most emotive symbols of the freedom struggle. During the Congress…
MS Shanker There is a growing need to distinguish between a genuine democratic protest and a politically engineered confrontation masquerading as a student movement. The distinction is not difficult to make if the entire evidence available in the public domain—including live television footage, CCTV recordings, police video, social-media posts and investigative findings—is examined objectively. A…
MS Shanker There is an old saying in politics: leaders deliver the speeches, but it is often the nameless faces in the crowd that pay the price. A few hours of slogans can sometimes become a few years of litigation. That is perhaps the most uncomfortable truth that thousands of young Bharatiyas are never told…
MS Shanker The loudest protests against the latest amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2026, tell us something important. Those who claim that the new regulations are an attack on civil society would have the country believe that transparency itself is a threat. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The fundamental question is…
MS Shanker There are few places in Bharat where status, wealth and political power ought to dissolve the moment one steps inside the sanctum. The sacred abode of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala is one such place. Before the deity, there are no Chief Ministers, ministers, legislators, bureaucrats or industrialists. There are only devotees. That is…
MS Shanker Politics is often judged by promises made during election campaigns, but history remembers governments for the promises they actually fulfil. If one were to view recent developments in West Bengal through that prism, the decision to rename Kolkata’s Suhrawardy Avenue as Gopal Mukherjee Road can be seen as more than a routine administrative…
Politics is no longer public service. It is a profession. MS Shanker There was a time when entering politics was considered an act of public service. Today, it has become one of the most lucrative professions in Bharat. That single transformation perhaps explains why political parties are breaking up at an unprecedented pace across the…
