Articles

What does Atal Behari Vajpayee have in common with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair? He, like them, is trying to gain power by stealing the electoral planks of his opponents. I welcome the burglary. Such theft is excellent for society. […]

All opinion polls put the BJP well in front, within reach of power. So, many opportunists are stampeding to climb onto the BJP bandwagon, not just politicians but generals, business and intellectuals (like the highly mobile Prof MGK Menon). I

Many lessons can be drawn from the events of 1997. One of the saddest is that crooks who function in the dark get away scot free, while people attempting to be transparent are jumped on the harassed. I had originally

India will soon submit its suggestion to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for a competition policy encompassing trade-related matters. Yet India has no competition policy for internal purposes. Why ensure competition where foreigners are concerned, but not for ourselves? Hypocrisy

The Inder Gujral regime lasted seven months, the Deve Gowda regime ten months. Some people bemoan unstable coalition governments as a curse. I disagree. The 17 months of the United Front produced lots of quarrels and no great feats, yet

Of the many hoary myths floating around, few are so widely believed as the notion that India has been fabulously lucky to get a string of good monsoons in the 1990s. Critics claim this is a lucky fluke that has

At a time when casteism is equated with Mandalism or Mayawati\’s version of dalit liberation, readers may wonder at the title of this article, and its timing. The answer is that I am writing this on the birth anniversary of

The Bombay Club is not flatly protectionist. Most of its businessmen-members agree that India must open up, globalise, and get competitive. But they plead, \”We need temporary protection for 10 years more. For 50 years, the license-permit Raj prevented us

Rich countries are hypocrites that demand free movement of goods and capital but do not want free movement of labour, and this inequity must end. So said developing countries at the G-15 meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week, after having

Rich countries are hypocrites that demand free movement of goods and capital but do not want free movement of labour, and this inequity must end. So said developing countries at the G-15 meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week, after having