Columns

India, we are told, has now entered a “New Normal” after that little “menage a trois” with Pakistan and China in the first week of May in which we still don’t know who came out on top, as it were.  And there is certainly plenty of evidence to back this claim, viz. that we have […]

One has to be either a fool or in government not to fear a nuclear conflict. Fools need not worry; they live in their own paradise. Governments make provision for their safety in case sirens blow. It is we – the vulnerable citizenry of nuclear states – who are unprotected, when the doomsday button is pushed.

CHINA is India’s real-time nightmare. India’s paranoia is discussed in Ram Udhav’s book Uneasy Neighbours (2014). He quotes a prediction that India’s threat will come not from Pan-Europeanism but from “Pan-Islamism and Pan-Mongolianism”. He repeats the warning given in 1950 to Pandit Nehru by his home minister Vallabhbhai Patel: “In the guise of ideological expansion

Press Release & Video: India is becoming a nation of duffers and we’re evolving back to the neanderthal stage: Avay Shukla, Author ‘Holy Cows and Loose Cannons: The Duffer Zone Chronicles’ to Karan Thapar for The Wire. In an interview to mark the publication of his recent collection of blogs called ‘Holy Cows and Loose

THE whereabouts of Hitler’s charred remains are still a mystery. His spirit though has been reincarnated in numerous elected dictators, most recently in B. Netanyahu and N. Modi. No two modern leaders have shown such a flagrant disregard for societal norms, religious precepts, and legal undertakings. They deserve a Nobel Prize — for ethnic cleansing.

Despite the military’s technological prowess and tactical victories, India’s international standing collapsed under the weight of reckless media sensationalism, diplomatic overreach, and the unchecked proliferation of communal hate speech that alienated potential allies. Going beyond the nitpicking about the number of “assets” lost by India and Pakistan, it is now clear that we have inflicted

Going beyond the nit picking about the number of “assets” lost by India and Pakistan, it is now clear that we have inflicted significant losses on the latter. In doing so our defence forces have also demonstrated the technological and air power to enforce the Prime Minister’s stated resolve to extract a heavy price for

First, the context. It’s not working. The planet is headed for armageddon in this century itself if we continue with our present unsustainable life styles. The Paris Accord red line of 1.5* C temperature increase has been breached, CO2 levels have gone up by 125% above pre-industrial levels and at 425 ppm are approaching the

‘When the family is together, nothing is difficult.’ This is the underlying theme of Bollywood film journalist Bhawana Somaaya’s heart rending memoir ‘Farewell Karachi.’  I first came across this book through an Instagram post and I’m not embarrassed to admit that the blurbs on the front cover by Hrithik Roshan, Shobhaa De and Karan Johar