Fifty Different Tellings of the Quran
In the recent cacophony on ‘intolerance,’ many left-wing writers, journalists and intellectuals routinely mentioned the A K Ramanujan article ‘Three hundred Ramayanas’. To them, its removal from the Delhi University history reading list few years ago was also an example of ‘intolerance’. Apparently the left-wingers have mastered the Goebbelsian More...
18 Months Down: An Objective Analysis of the Modi Government
On the eve of the 16th Lok Sabha election results, a group of friends—many of whom had quit jobs or taken time off from businesses to volunteer for the BJP—decided to meet at a resto-bar in Delhi’s Connaught More...
And you Thought Modi Was Doing Nothing?
After Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in May 2014, a lot of people have bemoaned the lack of action against the corrupt and no convictions. But the Indian system is slow and Modi cannot singlehandedly change More...
Lessons From BJP’s Bihar Election Fiasco
Reams have already been written on the drubbing received by the BJP in the crucial Bihar assembly election. Let me attempt to add my own two cents’ worth to the series of postmortem reports that have been More...
Open Letter To Indian Cricketers
Dear Indian Cricketers, I am a fan of your game and have been following it ever since Sachin got the bloody nose in Pakistan. I vividly remember that Chetan Sharma delivery and that Javed Miandad six. Images of More...
Turkey Downs Su-24: What Went Wrong Over Syria?
The downing of a Russian Su-24 by the Turkish Air Force is a reminder of the harsh reality of wars in the Middle East. Unlike the Vietnam or Korean Wars – when downed pilots could safely eject without fear of More...
Acchhe Din Are Already Here
Jawaharlal Nehru ruled as Prime Minister from 1947-64 and laid such amazing economic foundations that we went bankrupt in 1991. His daughter Indira Gandhi comes second in the number of years ruled and has the worst More...
The Elephant in the Room – I
Prologue In a letter dated 14 October 2015, the Minister of State (Environment, Forests and Climate Change; henceforth MoEF & CC in the series), Shri Prakash Javadekar wrote to the Minister of Women and Child More...
Indian Secularism Views Indian Muslims As Pakistanis
Secularism as practised in India is a threat to Indian Muslims as this essay will demonstrate. As per purely academic definitions, there are primarily two meanings of secularism. First, it is a movement of ideas More...
A Very American Tradition
The first thing that strikes about the place is how cold and quiet it is. For a place with 25 workers, there is hardly any banter, or the usual complaints about pay. And then you notice the long row. Of turkeys. More...