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War on Iran Epic Fury Turns Epic Folly

India, March 23 -- Three weeks ago, the United States military looked invincible as President Donald Trump assembled what seemed the greatest concentration of force ever deployed in waters around Iran... Read More


Madness Called War Cowardice Called Neutrality

India, March 16 -- Sometimes the first sign of a crisis arrives not in the headlines but in the kitchen. A few days ago, my wife received a polite message from the organisers of a conference she plans... Read More


War and Silence Expediency Over Principles

India, March 9 -- Among the many memories that remain vivid from my early years in journalism is a recollection that has little to do with politics or conflict. It concerns people. I have always consi... Read More


Modi's New India The Politics of Erasure

India, March 2 -- On February 23, 2026, a quiet but symbolically loaded ceremony unfolded within the sprawling precincts of Rashtrapati Bhavan. The last British-era statue was removed from its pedesta... Read More


Open Letter to Hardeep Puri Continuance is Untenable

India, Feb. 20 -- The first non-textbook my father gifted me was a profusely illustrated bumper issue of the Mathrubhumi Weekly, brought out immediately after Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's death i... Read More


Vande Mataram Requiem for Jana Gana Mana

India, Feb. 16 -- There is a popular expression in Malayalam: when the bull lifts its tail, one is certain what will follow. It is a rustic metaphor, blunt yet precise, used to describe events whose c... Read More


Miya as Method Abuse as a Tool of Governance

India, Feb. 9 -- It was the Hindustan Times' chief photographer, the late Arun Jetlie, who taught me how to drive in the mid-eighties. He would come home, take me in the car, and drive to the Raj Bhav... Read More


No Food is Holy Stop Policing the Plate

India, Feb. 2 -- I often receive suggestions from my readers about the subjects I should take up in my weekly column in this journal. Some are gently persuasive, some angry, some merely curious. Occas... Read More


Faith, Fear and Farce Closure of a Medical College

India, Jan. 19 -- India speaks endlessly of numbers. We are now the world's fourth-largest economy, soon to be the third, we are told with chest-thumping regularity. But numbers matter only when they ... Read More


Umar and Sharjeel Names Matter in India

India, Jan. 12 -- Kapil Mishra is today the Law Minister of the Delhi government. As a local politician, he knows northeast Delhi well. He also knows what happened there in 2000, when communal violenc... Read More