The Times of India

Let me stick my neck out and say 2021 is going to be a tough year for the BJP. Its landslide win in the 2019 general election has diverted attention from the fact that it has fared badly in 11 […]

Covid apart, what was 2020’s main trend? Some say Hindutva rose and civil liberties fell. The Economist claimed India was moving towards a one-party state. I would argue exactly the opposite. India has proved that multi-party democracy and dissent are

The agitating Punjab farmers can be painted as saints or sinners. On the one hand, they spearheaded the Green Revolution in the 1960s when India was starving, helping India become not just self-sufficient but a grain exporter. For this they

Individual rights are freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Group rights are politics. In a democracy, politicians pander to vote banks and hence often back rights demanded by religious or caste groups. Individual rights do not have the same political clout.

Netflix’s documentary ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’ related the lives and scandals of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Subrata Roy. All three businessmen had political contacts or illegal means of accessing thousands of crores of bank finance. Just imagine what would have

By winning five seats in the Bihar state election, Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen) has proved it is no longer a fringe player or spoiler. It is now a party that none can ignore. It could become kingmaker in

The government has announced a production-linked incentive (PLI) of 4-6% of sales, costing around Rs 200,000 crore (0.7% of GDP) over five years in 11 sectors for companies that commit to invest and increase production massively. This implies India is

Shashi Tharoor, Rhea Chakraborty and now Arnab Goswami. The social and electronic media are baying for their blood, accusing them of driving somebody — wife, lover, and creditor respectively — to suicide. As argued in earlier columns, this is moral

I stand with French President Emmanuel Macron in declaring that free speech includes the right to offend. Those offended are welcome to protest peacefully, but not to gag or kill the offenders. In France, a Christian teacher was assassinated by

I am among those favouring regulation of the internet giants — Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft — because of their humungous control of viewers’ data (raising issues of privacy and national security) and unintended role in spreading falsehoods and