Pillar of strength & stability
The recent terror crackdown in Bangladesh under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s dispensation continues to demonstrate her determination to cleanse the system of the poison that has long plagued Bangladeshi society and polity and had become especially acute in the last few years. Hasina’s persistence with the War Crime Trials, despite …
Scaling greater heights
On April 6, the BJP completed 37 years of its founding. 37 years of ceaseless sustenance and progression for an intellectual and political movement is indeed striking and in its 34th year, in 2014, when the BJP reached its peak, it demonstrated that it had entered its phase of robust …
The notion of ‘Bharatiyata’
Comrade Brinda Karat of “Dum Dum Dawai” fame, like her comrades and other co-ideologues, has started pontificating on nation, nationalism, culture, and the RSS. A favourite pastime for fascists is to indulge in trying to delineate, describe, and articulate issues about which they know precious little. Such obfuscation helps in …
The Indian communist
On a just concluded trip to Vietnam, I found myself repeatedly asking this question: what is it that makes Indian communists so disdainful of their motherland? Why is it that such a breed of mother-hating communists – cadres and leaders – are unique to India. The Indian communist and their …
Cong needs multiple surgeries
Stunned by the electoral verdict in Uttar Pradesh and other states in the just concluded Assembly polls, some political parties and their top leadership have lost balance and perspective. The rejection of their fear-inducing narrative, of their tales of division and of their overall myth has been so decisive that …
Who is the “Intolerant Indian”?
Who is the “intolerant Indian”? The intolerant Indian is one who cheers and showers plaudits on terrorists, whose sole aim, ideological and religious, is to break India and damage her democratic structure and spirit. The intolerant Indian is one who celebrates when ordinary Indian soldiers are mowed down by fanatical …
Forgotten by his own people
By the time he died at the age of 48 in September 1960, Rahul Gandhi’s grandfather Feroze Gandhi had played many roles, had accomplished many feats, and had left a distinct imprint on of India, especially on her Parliamentary traditions. Feroze had a high degree of maturity as a leader …
Instead of crying wolf, look within
The self-appointed “conscience keeper” of our national life has landed back in India in the course of his many peregrinations across the world. Each time there are elections in the country, Prof. Amartya Sen returns to excoriate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the dispensation he leads. Such repeated prattle keeps …
Tracing history in 2017
The year 2017 promises to be interesting in terms of historical evaluations. As Prime Minister Modi pointed out in his address to the nation on New Year’s Eve, 2017 is the centenary year of the Champaran Satyagraha – a movement that forever altered our approach to the struggle for freedom. …
National interest not utmost
When Naresh Agarwal of the Samajwadi Party hurled abuses at Hindu deities during a discussion in the Rajya Sabha, those who came to his vehement defence were the usual suspects, members of the Congress and the Communist cabal. They continued to defend Agarwal and tried to deflect and dilute the …
Menace of ‘organised elite’
Most of those revolutionary nationalists who died or suffered extreme deprivation because they dared to challenge the might of the British empire, would indeed find this debate on the singing of Vande Mataram absurd and incomprehensible. If only they had been around to witness the imposing discourse which takes a …