Blog 3 columns

When Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 British rule had been established firmly in India. After the uprising of 1857, India had passed under British tutelage so effectively that her political subjection had been reinforced by intellectual and moral servility. When Gandhi was felled by[...]

A prominent newspaper editor elected to the Lok Sabha routinely joined protests that disrupted proceedings in the House. Asked by a fellow-scribe why he couldn’t be ‘different’, he said, much as he would like to make his mark with his speeches, he knew that his joining slogan-shouting[...]

Political grace and experience has made Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh to reconcile with Navjot Singh Sidhu, foisted as party chief by an incompetent Hugh command. The lack of both these qualities, plus the blackmail factor – that he could switch to the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has [...]

Thirty years ago in 1991, it was on July 24, Dr Manmohan Singh, as the then Finance Minister, presented his first budget in the Lok Sabha, changing the course of the destiny of the country while the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao looked on nervously. Little did he know that la[...]

For India, history is poised to repeat itself in Afghanistan, with prospects that appear to be worse than they were when a government in Kabul it supported collapsed in 1992. By that time the Soviet Union with which India was aligned had withdrawn — and had disintegrated. India [...]

Two Grand Old Parties (GOPs) the democratic world has known are in doldrums. Donald Trump took the Republican Party to its defeat with his narcissist behaviour, inward-looking policies that immensely offended his people and the world outside. The last straw was his contemptuous disdai[...]

Some may think India’s tough diplomatic challenge is dealing with China as it confront on the land border and surrounds it on the sea. Others may think it is finding a worthy place of its own in the Quad that it has joined with the US, Japan and Australia. And there is the perennial c[...]

Founding President of Zambia and a true friend of India, Dr Kenneth Kaunda passed away on June 17 at the age of 97. I was fortunate to have met him on two occasions and would like to share both those experiences. The first was in 1987 at Vancouver, which was the venue for the Commonwe[...]

It was precisely two decades back that Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan raised hopes of an Oscar that were dashed as it lost in the final round. But the film, now one of the classics was, and remains, much more than a film festival entry.   Two decades after it was released (on June 15, 2001[...]