By Ashis Biswas KOLKATA: It is not often that a particular election result pleases both winners and losers —although broadly, that was the gist of the recently concluded Gujarat Assembly polls. The BJP was happy to win (however narrowly) for a record sixth time bucking anti-incumbency issues, while...
By Sushil Kutty “It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played—all over the world—if this is the world at all, you know.” – Lewis Carroll Where were they? What place was this? The flight from Dubai, and then here they were – the wife and...
By S. Sethuraman For a chastened Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who could just manage to keep Gujarat for BJP by striking a parochial chord and thereafter claiming an “emotional victory”, 2018 would be full of challenges on all fronts, political, social, and in reshaping our foreign policy in...
By Kalyani Shankar Tamil Nadu is back in focus again, this time in view of the surprising results of a by-election. They have raised a pertinent question whether corruption is an issue at all in this country. The results say no. Who would have thought that the people...
Sushil Kutty Ideas and opinions are dime a dozen. Everyone has one. But the odd one succeeds and the man becomes a millionaire! That one is a start-up. This one is political and just cannot win, an election for the Congress that is. It is that of an independent...
By Rahil Nora Chopra The Rajputs seem to have made a comeback as the ruling clan under the BJP. With the swearing in of Jairam Thakur, Himachal Pradesh is the fifth BJP-governed state with a Rajput chief minister after Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh. Rajasthan chief minister...
Special CBI judge O.P. Saini acquitted all the accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam cases. The accused included A Raja, then Telecom Minister, K. Kanimozhi, daughter of M. Karunanidhi of the DMK, Shahid Balwa, Sanjay Chandra, Reliance Telecom and Gautam Doshi, amongst others. An accompanying case had Ravi...
By Arun Srivastava The CBI special court verdict exonerating all the accused in the 2G spectrum scam exposes the moral decline in the Indian polity during the last five years. The credibility of Indian politicians has always been suspect, but the manner in which it was shredded by...
By Victor Grossman BERLIN: Berlin and Germany offer plenty to write about, sometimes much of it unpleasant. As we approach the New Year, none of it is burningly new or urgent. Bargaining on forming a new government will last well into 2018, with little prospect thus far of change...
By Dr. Arun Mitra Since the cost of drugs comes to about 70 percent of the out of pocket expenditure on health, this becomes a cause of major concern. Because 80 percent of medical care in our country is in private sector and advanced tertiary care is mainly coming...
By C.H. Venkatachalam The Cabinet approved the FRDI Bill (Financial Resolution & Deposit Insurance Bill) and thereafter the Bill was introduced in the Parliament on the last day of the last Session and now the Bill has been referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee. The Bill has created widespread...
Aditya Aamir The retort to the triple-T Bill from the likes of AIMIM MP Assauddin Owaisi is, “But what will happen to the wife and children if the husband is put behind bars?” Of course, that assumes the triple-T the husband threw at his wife was just for fun,...
Sushil Kutty The 1Above – God Almighty – was not with them that midnight hour when 1Above and Mojo Bistro in Kamala Mills Compound burned, killing 14 and injuring 26. ‘Illegal’ was the word doing the rounds the day after. “Something burnt,” sniffed reporters picking up the story from...
Adiya Aamir ‘Gai Hamaari Mata Hai’ does not mean the cow is everybody’s mom. It is a political slogan to muster votes and to cover up for the horrible manner in which Indians treat the cow. Cows roam roads and streets in India, looking for morsels to satiate hunger...
By Jay Bhagwan Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has not only livened up the Upper House with his one-liners, he has also refused to toe the imperialist mindset that wouldn’t let go even the venerable elders in India’s Parliament. On Friday he reiterated his opening...
By Aditya Aamir What’s all the brouhaha about? Prime Minister Narendra Modi backstabbed “best friends” US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on December 21 at the United Nations and Palestine envoy to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali joined with global terrorist Hafiz Saeed to backstab...
By Gyan Pathak The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 is potentially more harmful than it aims to protect. Obviously, the issues that might arise in the aftermath of its becoming an act are not well thought. The word talaq is defined in this...
By K. Raveendran Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Anantkumar Hegde created a storm with his obscurantist call to fellow countrymen to identify themselves by their religion and caste and not to fancy themselves as ‘secular’ because such people have no respectable parentage to claim. He even...