The making of Brand Modi is complete
No more Modi. That’s what I repeatedly tell myself these days, vowing to stay off the issue for my own emotional wellbeing. Over the past few months there has been…
Peace in Syria?
The Russo-American accord on the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria, arrived at in Geneva last month, suggests three scenarios. The immediate one is covered by the agreed Framework for…
Democracy — a ghost story
I Have always seen a similarity in their modus operandi, the wily deception with which Narendra Modi sends his secular detractors on desperate leather hunts and the confident ease with…
Caught up in the bizarre
As a nation we have lost our ability to think clearly and rationally; perhaps even the ability to think at all. Quite when this process began is hard to define.…
Superior but terrified
Khayyam Mushir is like a brother to me. Being a chartered accountant, perhaps there is no other person in Islamabad of his age and in his profession, who is such…
Terrorism: flawed theories
WHY do people blow themselves up to kill others? There are two approaches to understanding terrorism. The amateur approach blames particular religions, especially Islam and Christianity, for causing terrorism. Scientists…
The urban battleground
THE al-Shabab gunmen, who took over the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya and held hundreds of people hostage for 80 hours, used advanced weapons and cellular technology to coordinate and…
In hindsight
A slew of new appointments were announced the other day. And very soon we will also have a new army chief and joint chief. Having got it disastrously wrong on…
Not a bad start
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s three-day trip to Washington concluded last week. Having observed the visit closely, and in talking to some of those involved, it seems to have gone better…
Death of rationality
We get readily inflamed on being accused of being a failed state or failing society. But can we fathom the reasons or logic to explain even to a sympathetic observer…
