INTELLECTUALS, YES, BUT WITH CLOSED MINDS
Historian Ramchandra Guha’s academic capacities may be considerable, but they are severely compromised by the biases he holds, and which colour his opinions Cricket historian Ramchandra Guha recently called Professor BB Kumar, the newly appointed Chairman of the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), a “semi-literate Sanghi”. These words …
BJP’S JOURNEY TO SCALE NEW HEIGHTS HAS BEGUN
Observers and political practitioners have spoken of the organisational restructuring of the BJP as a challenge that needs to be addressed. But the party has already initiated the process ever since Amit Shah took over While inaugurating the second BJP State library named after the Jana Sangh stalwart and social reformer Nanaji Deshmukh, in …
Reflections on “A New India”
The successful articulation of a political and governance narrative is indicative of the positive health of a political party and movement. The BJP, in the last two years or so, is in a constant process of self-renewal – which is multi-directional and ideologically re-invigorating. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s narrative has …
Hindus are getting a raw deal in West Bengal and Mamata’s to blame
Mamata Banerjee’s criticism of the RSS resolution passed in its recent ABPS 2017 held at Coimbatore expressing “grave concern on jehadi violence in West Bengal” exposes her own culpability and close involvement in allowing the expansion of jehadi and Islamist elements in the state. This is the first time that …
Imam Barkati, Mamata and the destruction of Bengal
The Imam of the Tipu Sultan Masjid in Tollygunge, Kolkata, the voluble and large Nurur Rehman Barkati, who has lamentably emerged over the years as the chief political adviser and guru of Mamata Banerjee, needs to be stripped of his Imam-hood and subjected to a thorough examination – of his …
Mamata Banerjee must apologise to the nation for casting aspersions on the Army
The rabble-rouser of Kalighat is doing what she has always excelled in – frantically running about, mouthing expletives, spewing venom, entreating people to riot and revolt. While the jawans of our armed forces battle marauding packs of desperate terrorists trying to infiltrate our borders, and while the entire nation prays, …
Modi – the statesman with a will – is the Sardar Patel of our time
“…So long as we know that we are doing the right thing”, wrote Sardar Patel to VV Dravid, then commerce minister of the Madhya Bharat Union, “we should not be afraid of any criticism from any quarters. Over-sensitiveness to criticism in a man who is in charge of public affairs …
Yechury’s absurd views on India-Pakistan ties reflect Indian communists are ailing
The infatuation of Indian communists with “internationalism” at times borders on the absurd or simply reveals their out-of-depth status in India. This obsession with “internationalism”, which I have termed as the “Comintern syndrome”, sees Indian communists come up with the most ludicrous and insensitive statements, ideas or actions right in …
Marxist Historians with Stalinist Mindsets
“Eminent” Marxist historians possessing an intolerant Stalinist mindset have struck again. By referring to the Prime Minister in an inane resolution full of the pathos of the dying embers of an intellectual era and worldview that is fast decaying, they have spoken of the need to “isolate history-writing from chauvinistic …
Why Modi’s Myanmar visit signals the beginning of a realignment
Some time in the middle of June 1950, when the sacred relics of Buddha’s two chief disciples Moggallana and Sariputta had already travelled all over Myanmar for about two months, the Cultural Studies Group of the Rangoon Ramakrishna Mission Society convened an international conference on India’s cultural and civilisational linkages …