Judiciary’s debacle
ON the International Day of Democracy in September, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extolled the virtues of democracy, calling it the “cornerstone of a just and progressive society” and stressing continued efforts to…
Democracy under attack
Despite its shortcomings democracy is widely hailed as the best-known system of governance known to mankind. It ensures participation and will of the people to prevail. Historians believe that democracy…
Poll verdict slams cancel culture
PAKISTAN’S voters have reprimanded anti-democratic power centres for seeking to ‘cancel’ political opponents. Voters ensured that Imran Khan’s popularity increased in inverse proportion to the reported repression he and his…
Why Modi claims he has won
FIFTY-SEVEN races are still to be decided on Saturday, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he has already won a thumping majority. Let’s see the mind more than the logic…
Suppose Modi took a DNA test
LEAVE alone Prime Minister Modi’s mindless rant for a moment — and the needlessly craven apology by the Congress party spokesman — over Sam Pitroda’s scientific-spirited but lazily presented comment…
Is there now a winning team?
FOR India’s opposition, the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s now known that a key witness against Kejriwal donated a tidy…
More ‘Moditva’
THE impressive logistics of India’s national elections inspire considerable international coverage. This year, the process initiated last Friday will culminate at the start of June, and the potential electorate includes…
Fable of the bicycle and a plane
THE inability to accept defeat with grace comes from an authoritarian streak found in enfeebled democracies. Donald Trump and Narendra Modi, for example, are peas in a pod in this…
Did she slip up with emergency?
JUNE 25 marked the anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s 21-month 1975-77 emergency. The 50-year-old event came up for censure in the Lok Sabha Speaker’s and president Draupadi Murmu’s address to the…
Deniable truths
THEY are all dead: the feisty Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci and her 14 interviewees — prominent amongst them Henry Kissinger, King Hussein of Jordan, Yasser Arafat, Mrs Golda Meir, Indira…
