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Pakistan Army & art of elections

This is the first time in its history that Pakistan's people have risen to vote against the Army and defeat it. If this isn't a win for democracy, how would you describe it?

3 defining political blunders

Indira Gandhi targeting the RSS during the Emergency, Rajiv deciding to give up the mandate in 1989, and Vajpayee and Advani advancing elections - these errors changed the course of India's politics

What Modi read in 'school'

Is this government really so mysterious? Is there a key to breaking the code of this BJP's politics? The answer lies in understanding old texts on the BJP-RSS ideology

Populism, not politics, missing in Budget

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

Resetting the Republic

Legatees of political forces Indira Gandhi locked up during Emergency are now redefining some of India's foundational principles. They can be challenged, just as she was in the 1970s

Two sides of political Islam

Depending on one's viewpoint, global political Islam is either at its strongest or weakest. But the real unwinnable wars are between Islamic states

Flunking the temple test

Could the Congress not have joined the Ram temple celebrations while also criticising Modi, BJP, RSS?

How not to fight Modi

Instead of getting diminished by incumbency, Mr Modi continues to grow stronger. The Opposition, mostly the Congress, has struggled to convince enough voters about the relevance of its issues and why

DDA & the market's revenge

A DDA flat was a privilege in a city where almost nobody could build anything. Its inventory of unsold flats exceeds 40,000 at Rs 18,000 crore. It's still building more

The North-South fallacy

The argument that Indian polity is divided into a BJP-loving North and a South that continues to reject it is lazy and simplistic. Contest for 2024 is between the 'BJP heartland' and the peripheries

The Modi-Congress mismatch

It's counter-intuitive, but Modi's own popularity has grown with the length of his tenure. He had always seemed the front-runner by some distance for 2024, and this gives him more tailwind

Mission Punjab, not Pannun

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

Return of bad ideas

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, campaigning in the ongoing elections without their usual big ideas, are locked in a race to the bottom with the Opposition with unimaginative politics

Blue Revolution

Story of Indian cricket is that of a rise over two decades. It is no fleeting moment of glory like in 1983. The game has seen systemic changes, with pace attack, fitness, fielding as its key pillars

Islam's struggle with nationalism

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

Cup, country, club

Club sport and professionalism have softened hard nationalism. It began with football and is playing out in cricket - the ongoing World Cup is proof

Israel & limits of military power

The last eight decades following WW-II and Israel's experience show that relying on military power, however formidable, is an ineffective approach to achieving a larger political, strategic objective

No passion, no partisans, no sport

It's not a good idea to bring religion into the game, but all competitive sport is about passion. To expect a crowd not to be partisan when India and Pakistan play on each other's turfs is a fantasy

Beyond the war in Gaza

Netanyahu persisting with his sledgehammer approach where a scalpel might have worked is not wise. In the war of dead-baby pictures, the question of who's the real victim will be inevitably obfuscated

What Bihar thinks today

Kanshi Ram was a genius and a political visionary, his ideas gave India an OBC Prime Minister. But Bihar-style caste census will be a very sad offering to the rest of the country