Communism, observed British conservative philosopher Roger Scruton, “is through and through dependent on paranoia – a kind of grand conspiracy theory designed to manufacture illusory enemies so as to maintain itself in being.” In the last three and a half years that Narendra Modi has been in power, there have …

Many an Indian apologist for Chinese expansionism have, over the last one month and more, prolifically written on how the Narendra Modi government’s handling of the current Doklam issue will only aggravate the situation and will not serve the cause of India’s stability and the larger cause of “peace” in …

Sometime in 1982, a youthful and energetic worker of the Gujarat BJP, in charge of managing venues and logistics for party meetings and for ensuring that there was a sufficient supply of water and tea, had argued, in a letter, written to a senior leader of the state that a …

Dialogue of civilisations and through it, a deeper and lasting coalition of civilisations and of cultures is what is needed in order to create and restructure future global alignments. The increasing challenges to the dimensions of civilisations as we see them today are making leaders – intellectual, political, religious and …

Nehru’s colleague in the Cabinet, Independent India’s first Communications Minister, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, once observed to veteran journalist Durga Das, that ‘Jawaharlal has performed the last rites not only of Gandhi but of Gandhism as well…’ in a similar vein, one can confidently say that Nehru’s great grandson and present …

In his tribute to Syama Prasad Mookerjee, one of the tallest leaders of modern India, Acharya JB Kripalani, expressed and articulated the emotions of millions of his countrymen when he movingly wrote, ‘I wish to record the great and passionate love that he had for Bharat Mata and her unity. …

Before his lonely and confined death on June 23, 1957 at the age of 52, in then faraway Srinagar – then Governor of West Bengal H.C. Mookerjee describing Syama Prasad’s death had said, ‘what has added to the poignancy of our grief is that he died in detention, while still …

One of the observations that BJP President Amit Shah made last week while addressing intellectuals and eminent citizens during his tour of Chattisgarh, was that the Congress was a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for seeing freedom through and that it had no single binding ideological thread. Shah had also observed …

The CPI(M) and its politbureau-centric leaders some of whom are nearly out of job within the party itself like comrade Prakash Karat have recently wished that the Indian army ‘suffer irreparable damage’ in its operation against terrorists in the Valley and against those whose work is to facilitate, aid, abet …

So dominant, so focused, and so compelling has been the India narrative that Narendra Modi has succeeded in generating, in the last three years, that it is continuously and ceaselessly occupying centre stage in all our debates and discussions. The Indian dream, the Indian growth story, the Indian civilisational dimensions, …

As one increasingly heard and followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially from November, when he made one of his most “disruptionist” announcements of demonetisation, one could not but help recall the words of deep prescience that Dr S Radhakrishnan, philosopher, statesman and former President of India, spoke in the Constituent …

On a recent visit to Myanmar, I called on Daw Than Than Nu, daughter of the first Prime Minister of Myanmar, the legendary U Nu. I had carried along with me a collage of photographs of U Nu with Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, from the time when Dr. Mookerjee, as …

On April 25, BJP national president Amit Shah started his fifteen days ‘vistarak’ sojourn from the non-descript but historic Naxalbari village in north Bengal. Shah declared that he was one among 3 lakh 68 thousand workers who have pledged to dedicate 15 full days for the party. There were two …

While honouring the descendants of those who had participated in the Paika Revolt of 1817 in Bhubaneswar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a very pertinent observation. He said that the narrative built around the struggle for India’s freedom had been limited to a few episodes and a few families while …