As Faiz would exhort his friends
The search has begun among India’s fractious opposition groups for a strategy to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two years from now. A dire situation should require an enlightened coming…
Saffron storm, hard cash
A young man described himself as a dejected Muslim, and punctured the sharp analysis that was under way about the Uttar Pradesh defeat. The venue was a well-appointed seminar room…
India’s divided opposition
Mayawati cut a rather forlorn figure as she angrily stomped out of parliament. In a statement later, the BSP chief declared she had quit the Rajya Sabha after being “gagged”…
Growing threats to the idea of India
As India marks 68 years as a constitutional republic, there’s a great deal to celebrate. The country can rightly look back on its eventful journey and all the large strides…
Making India beg for its own money
Narendra Modi’s arbitrary and unprecedented trashing of 86 percent of high denomination notes has not just brought the world’s fastest growing economy to a grinding halt, it has also landed…
Only a dream can end a nightmare
India may be waking up from its unwarranted nightmare. A call has gone out from the head of its most impoverished and second-most populous province to cobble an anti-Hindutva alliance…
Who’s afraid of Shahrukh Khan?
Dubai eye The writer is a Middle East based columnist. Shahrukh Khan may not be the finest actor of his generation but he is certainly one of the most loved.…
A salute to India
Islamabad diary Now when was the last time news from India gave such a high? Half a decanter of the right stuff – I am purposely not using the word…
The Bihar blowback
The landslide victory in the state elections in Bihar of the Maha Gathbandhan (Grand Alliance), combining Muslims and lower castes, against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led upper-caste-Dalit-non-Yadav Backward classes combination has…
Bihar win was the easy part
In hindsight, Bihar was a straight fight between India’s native secular instincts and NRI-fuelled Hindutva communalism. Full marks to the rustic winners although they were savvy enough to cite Barack…
