BBC raids show India’s shrinking media freedom
At around 11 a.m. on Feb 14, some 20 Indian tax officials and police burst into the BBC’s offices in New Delhi, shouting at staff to step away from their…
BBC tax raids put India press freedom in spotlight
Just weeks after the BBC aired a documentary examining Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in deadly 2002 sectarian riots, tax inspectors descended on the broadcaster’s offices. Modi’s Hindu nationalist…
Shakespeare on the BBC
My first close encounter with Shakespeare came when I was a first year student at Karachi University in the early Sixties, and a couple of young lecturers decided to stage…
Understanding austerity
There is a general confusion in Pakistan, whereby austerity policies are taken as belt-tightening in terms of prioritising against less important expenditures or reduction in expenditures with regard to running…
One year of war
Last year on February 24, the war between Russia and Ukraine started. One year on, Ukraine is facing the worst kind of destruction, reportedly the casualties of tens of thousands…
Double standard?
On January 24, Twitter took down links to a two-part BBC documentary titled ‘India: the Modi Question’, at the behest of the Indian government. The documentary presented the role Narendra…
Gandhi’s ‘mission impossible’
Released in 2008, the Bollywood movie ‘Shaurya’ (meaning bravery or gallantry) depicts the court martial of a Muslim officer of the Indian army for having shot his senior during a…
Modi’s forever war
India’s tax authorities raided the BBC’s offices in Mumbai and New Delhi last week. This incident may have forced the world to reluctantly wake up to Narendra Modi’s strong dislike…
Our Broken Heart Syndrome
Science has long discovered that heart break is not just emotional trauma. It has severe physiological manifestations also. This physiological condition is called Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy or a temporary heart condition…
The Modi question
The two-part BBC documentary titled ‘India: The Modi Question’ has caused quite a stir in India. The documentary tracks Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s complicity and inaction in the notorious…
