News and Views

Heralding another multi billion-dollar import of weaponry, the first of twenty-two AH-64E (I) Apache ‘Guardian’ attack helicopters, was formally handed over to the Indian Air Force (IAF) by Boeing at their production facility in Meza, Arizona on 10 May. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Genetics has proved that Aryans did migrate from the Steppe region and that the Harappan Civilisation was pre-Vedic. What does this mean for the RSS' definition of nationalism? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Here’s the key issue the CJI-led bench will need to consider, and why it could spell trouble for the government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The BJP once seriously considered changing the country’s system of government. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was very interested in the presidential form of government. In a speech in 1998 he declared that “we should discuss the merits of the presidential system.” He said, “I often wonder whether the British Westminster model has been defeated by the Indian reality.” His home minister, LK Ad...

A Dalit man beaten to death in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal; a 18-year-old Dalit girl gang-raped in Thanaghazi in Rajasthan’s Alwar district; stones hurled at a Dalit wedding procession in Gujarat’s Aravalli district - these are some of the crimes that have taken place in the past few weeks, even as the country was in middle of, as the cliche goes, the ‘festival of democracy’. These aren’t isolated...

Every year, there is an odd debate on the “correct” spelling of Ramadan/Ramazan. It is a curious thing, tinged with concerns about radicalisation, a xenophobic nativist unease about “Arabisation”, and generally divorced from any idea of history or an understanding of India’s place in the world. Much of it reflects concerns with the Sunni violence perpetrated against the Shia populace of Pakistan,...

One more phase down and the last one left. While in some places the voter turnout slipped down, it some places it shot up. What do these numbers indicate about the elections? With the only phase left, we are also witnessing the final efforts by the political parties to impress the voters. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the mood to give interviews to journalists. But why is he talking abou...

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Muslims are always unknown, an ever receding community from the eyes of popular perception. Islamophobia is much more normalised and rationalised than non-Muslim thinkers usually conceptualise. Communal riot erupts when the already present flame of Islamophobic sentiments is stoked. The two reinforces one another. One is overt, another covert. One is head, another tail. But two sides of the same c...

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Let's first address the elephant in the room: the Mad Queen plot-line, which many fans hoped would turn out to be a red-herring after the last episode, turned out to be true, and it played out like a nightmare in the penultimate episode (episode 5), titled The Bells, of the Game of Thrones season 8.  To see the biggest fall from grace of one of the most powerful characters you rooted for through 7...

When will Tiger Shroff stop getting “launched” ? His first film came out in 2014. 5 years on he remains the favourite star kid still being featured in show reels! Don’t get me wrong. Few can fight as convincingly as Shroff Jr does and he has a likeable presence but his treatment in every movie has been of a “product” being “launched” and now it’s getting a bit much! The only way to describe Studen...

Fandom is almost like being part of a cult, a commune of acolytes. Certain writers have said that it is like fanaticism, but to a cultural ideology – your commitment is as intense and involved as a right-winger or a left-winger, but because it is to pop culture, it seems trivial. In other words, fandom is about being a pop culture bhakt! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

Pakistan cannot hope for peace in Balochistan unless it realises that the solution is to address domestic problems. The country should take responsibility for making Balochistan a hotbed for terror groups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kerala, often lauded by others – and Malayalis themselves – for its highly-educated population, has gotten entangled in two public debates which have shaken the foundation of this status of the community. The first one was in the form of the huge protests taken out by a section of the community against the Supreme Court verdict allowing women to enter the Sabarimala shrine. The second one is the m...

14 year old Prerna took her own life after she failed two subjects in her Class VIII half-yearly exams. She is one of thousands of Indian students who commit suicide in India every year. A 2014 study from the government of India reported that over 32,000 Indians in the 15-29 age group took their own lives that year. And this number has only grown over the past 20 years. On this podcast, we’re look...

Saurabh Vishwakarma, 34, is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator from ward number 63 in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur. His ward, with nearly three thousand voters, abuts the Gorakhnath Math headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Vishwakarma was 15 when he joined the Hindu Yuva Vahini, Adityanath’s vigilante group or private army. He is a three-time BJP corporator and was re-elected in 2017, on...

In a letter on 4 August 1987, as I left the PMO to take up an assignment in Lakshadweep, classified by the MHA as a ‘punishment posting’, Rajiv Gandhi wrote: “Thank you also for your hard work and cheerful assistance over the last five years; first with my mother, and then with me. We shall miss you, especially in our forays into the countryside. You are going to an important assignment. I look fo...

In light of the horrific bombing in Sri Lanka in April, it is vital that Muslims across the world unite against violence being perpetuated in the name of Islam. In fact, a few hours before this article was published on 8 May 2019, at least eight people were killed in a blast, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, outside a major Sufi Muslim shrine in Lahore, Pakistan. There are episodes in recent hist...

Everyone loves a good fight. In Bengal, the high-octane verbal spat between Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee this election season, is a huge source of entertainment and amusement. It’s being watched with rapt attention, and is getting more eyeballs than TV soaps. Unlike most fights, however, there’s no suspense about the outcome of this one. “Didi will win. No-one can defeat her in Bengal,’’ says...

How do you respond when someone calls your father names? Do you punch him in the nose, launch a counter-attack on his family, or do you send him love and a hug to boot? Incredibly, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who is undoubtedly the main challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this long and gruelling general elections, has opted to do the latter. When Modi called his father Rajiv Gandhi,...

In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha Election, one issue that has been discussed and argued over a lot in the Supreme Court is that of electoral bonds scheme. But why so? Because of the alleged opacity of the scheme. In an RTI reply to Vihar Durv, the State Bank of India has revealed that Rs 2,256,37,12,000 crore (over Rs 2,256 crore) worth of electoral bonds were sold by the Bank in the month of A...

Many parts of India are yet to vote but parties have already started preparing their strategy for result day – 23 May. Strangely, the first initiative hasn’t been taken by the BJP or the Congress but by the two Deccan satraps: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. While Naidu’s strategy has been clear from the beginning – uniting all an...

Madhya Pradesh was tipped to be one of the states where the BJP was hoping to use Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “popularity” to bounce back from its loss in the Assembly elections last year. But data and inputs from the ground indicate that Madhya Pradesh isn’t heading for a BJP sweep like the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, in which the party won 27 out of 29 seats with only senior Congress leaders Ka...