What the Indian election can teach us
The people of India have spoken; Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won a third term, but this was a much tougher victory as compared to the previous two elections…
Modi and MPs from Pakistan
REVANTH Reddy, the waggish Congress chief minister of Telangana, was fielding questions from a BJP-hugging TV anchor about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prospects in the ongoing elections. “Do I see…
Why not directly elect a tycoon?
STAND-UP comedian Kunal Kamra has made a stimulating point about the growing venality of Indian politics, chiefly the way it has evolved over the last decade. Kunal’s point, which he…
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…
Ode to an opportunity missed
‘SATURDAY Night Massacre’ is a well-understood phrase in US political and judicial history. It refers to a Saturday when, at the height of the Watergate crisis, the then president Richard…
How far ahead of Pakistan is India?—I
The G20 Summit in New Delhi on September 9-10 should have been an eye-opener for Pakistan. However, it does not seem so. We are complacent as usual. There is a…
Afghan jihad and Kashmir
ampa, Florida, is a long way from South Asia, but in mid-2011 I was there to attend a conference on Pakistan at the headquarters of the US Central Command as…
Will Pakistan get a bailout?
In the aftermath of the Shehbaz Sharif government’s widely criticized budget, which was met with disdain by independent economists and also drew veiled criticism from the IMF, a last-minute attempt…
An indecent rendezvous–I
Americans since the Kennedy years have been in romance with India. The credit for this goes to Jawaharlal Nehru’s charm and charisma. He endeared himself to John F Kennedy during…
Charisma and its discontents
In this election year, when the crisis of Pakistan is deepening by the day, the PML-N is trying to reimagine itself. Or so it seems – with the torch, in…
