Shekhar Gupta

Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity

If the Pakistanis think they can do better than the Americans, an Indian partisan can again say, go ahead, make my day

The "foreign hand" was always American. Its adversaries, the Soviet Union and its allies, were natural friends

This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they'd seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe

In the exact period that Gen Munir has been consolidating power, his counterparts in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal have eschewed it with remarkable dignity and professionalism

The India-South Africa series-defining fact is the catastrophic decline of Indian red ball cricket, where a visiting team can mock us with the 'grovel' word

Bihar is blessed with a land more fertile for revolutions than any in India. Why has it fallen so far behind then? Constant obsession with politics is at the root of its destruction

If China is an exporting superpower, America is an importing one. Mr Trump has turned what would usually be a liability into an asset

Public, loud, upfront, filled with impropriety and high praise, sometimes laced with insults. This is what we call Trumplomacy. But the larger objective is the same: American supremacy

It is safer to presume that the Chinese now see Pakistan as an extension of their Western Theatre Command

Everybody in Pakistan, and indeed in India, knew strikes were a matter of not 'whether' but 'when'. The Modi govt utilised these 14 days after Pahalgam to build an impression that there was no hurry

Among Shastri's contributions were the Green Revolution, appointing C Subramaniam as his food minister, and recognising the talent of M S Swaminathan

Those of us who were so excited by that flurry of reforms and hailed it as a true and virtuous example of not wasting a crisis are now chastened

The calling for halt to rash of 'masjids built over mandirs' claims could stem from realisation that it will be impossible for BJP government to maintain order if the issue spirals out of control

A changed reality for Modi govt in its 3rd innings is by no means rise of a new phenomenon. It's a return to old normal where even majorities had to routinely wrestle with storied million mutinies

Read this Budget, therefore, as a declaration of victory a month before the Lok Sabha elections are announced

There is a need to focus back on Punjab. Working with credible political forces there, even adversaries, would serve the national interest better than fighting in the courtrooms of New York

By reigniting West Asia just when we had begun to believe it had gone into deep sleep, Hamas has underlined the many contradictions within, and questions about, the Islamic world

For most of us, the Manipur crisis is out of sight, out of mind. The story in a state so small and so far out is a 'Big Yawn' for many. I try to persuade you to wake up

The causes of anger are broadly four: Existential threat, incarceration of Bandi Singhs, those accused of sacrilege not being caught, and a rhetorical one, what's wrong with a Sikh Rashtra?