The New Game in Town

Sometime ago, the online news portal – FirstPost – introduced a policy of pre-moderation of comments, the ostentatious reason given out was to prevent filth, personal attacks and uncivilised language. All very welcome and noble per se. Wait a minute though. This policy is being very “cleverly” used by it to stop any anti-Modi and … Continue reading →

FP: Narendra Modi’s economic vision is impractical trickery at best

by Hartosh Singh Bal, January 24, 2014 THE LINK Excerpts Narendra Modi has much to thank Somnath Bharti for, or perhaps I am overstating the case and the vast majority of India’s business journalists, in their hurry to see Modi coronated, would have forfeited a critical examination of his grand vision unveiled in Delhi even … Continue reading →

FP: Redefining a riot: Panagariya, Bhagwati write to The Economist

by Hartosh Singh Bal, January 12, 2014 LINK Excerpts How many lies does it take to defend Modi? Economists bring the pretence of expertise to politics. As Manmohan Singh, the latest in a long line, has once again demonstrated, this pretence needs political patronage to survive. Thus it should come as no surprise that even … Continue reading →

FP: Modi’s 2002 riots ‘apology’ and the absence of raj dharma

Hartosh Singh Bal, December 30, 2013 THE LINK Excerpts Narendra Modi’s innumerable supporters have had time to exult over a lower court decision not to tamper with the clean chit given to him by the Special Investigation Team set up to probe the 2002 killings. He has even had time to claim that he ‘was … Continue reading →

IE: One problem is The Dynasty

Ashutosh Varshney, December 12, 2013 The writer is Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences at Brown University, where he also directs the India Initiative at the Watson Institute. He is a contributing editor for ‘The Indian Express’. THE LINK Excerpts Congress’s secular nationalist narrative has lost its vigour. Internal elections must … Continue reading →

IE: National Interest: Disarming Kashmir

Shekhar Gupta, December 07 2013 THE LINK Excerpts First, a disclosure. Narendra Modi’s call for a fresh debate on Article 370 is not the provocation for this week’s ‘National Interest’, though it could very well have been so. My inspiration, on the other hand, was more personal. At breakfast in a hotel coffee shop in … Continue reading →

TH: Indian secularism is about mediating between different communities’

Vaiju Naravane, November 30, 2013 THE LINK An interview with Sanjay Subrahmanyam, historian Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam, eminent Indian historian, has been elected to the Collège de France in Paris, a prestigious centre of learning, where he will hold a Chair in Early Modern World History. Educated at the Delhi School of Economics, Professor Subrahmanyam taught … Continue reading →

TH: The quiet achiever

Nahla Nainar, November 22, 2013 THE LINK Excerpts With the drums of electoral war being sounded, every political party in the fray is on the hunt for a leader who, even if posthumously, can endorse them to the voters. The tussle over the ‘legacy’ of Sardar Vallabhai Patel is one such example. On the other … Continue reading →

TOI: Bombay: A great city and a terrible place

John Cheeran, November 22, 2013 THE LINK Excerpts Biographies are easy to write. There is a beginning and an end, and even if it is not an end in itself, you can keep all irksome questions out. But how about writing a biography of a city, a city that is many things to many people? … Continue reading →

TOI: Saheb, beti aur ghulam

Bachi Karkaria, November 20, 2013 THE LINK What an obligingly watchful CM. We should all be namo-ing to him. Excerpts Yes, i am the ‘dirty tricks department’ – not of any one party, but whoever is willing to buy my expertise. Does BJP want to sling mud at anyone sullying its pristine lotus pool? Would … Continue reading →