The Interview With Karan Thapar

Claim passport only travel document serious mistake and government should apologize: Justice Madan Lokur, former Supreme Court Judge, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. ......................................... One of India’s most highly regarded former Judges of the Supreme Court, who is presently Chairperson of the United Nations Internal Justice Council, says that the statement made by the governmen...

Andy Burnham’s emphatic victory in a bye-election in Makerfield has probably sealed Keir Starmer’s fate as prime minister of Great Britain. Initially Starmer refused to go. In fact he repeatedly said he would fight to keep the job. But now there’s speculation he could resign as early as later today. So this morning we ask what do the next few weeks hold for him? What sort of prime minister has he...

In a strong and passionate defence of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, the well-known and highly regarded Trinamool Lok Sabha MP, Mahua Moitra, has forcefully said: “The real Trinamool is Mamata Banerjee and she will return to power.” Mahua Moitra said: “The Trinamool Congress is a Party that was started by Mamata Banerjee and gets its legitimacy, gets its vote, gets its mandate from Mamata...

On the day the Trinamool Congress Party split at the Lok Sabha level in Delhi, following its earlier split at the legislature level in Bengal, one of its most highly regarded Lok Sabha MPs, Saugata Roy, has said that the Party is in serious crisis adding that he is no defender of Abhishek Banerjee and accepting that in the ultimate analysis Mamata Banerjee is responsible for what’s happened. Howev...

In a hard-hitting and unremitting interview, the former Law Minister and former Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal, who is also one of the leading lawyers presenting the Gymkhana Club’s case in Court, has said that the government is seeking to acquire the Gymkhana Club not on the grounds it has argued in its letter of May 22, 2026 but for three other reasons i.e. “Bureaucratic greed,...

Is the state of the Indian economy “near-crisis”? Is weak private investment the key problem? Despite the government’s well-intentioned reforms are its deeper instincts and habits putting off investors? And is the solution changing personnel at ministerial, technocratic and bureaucratic levels? And does that in fact mean it’s time to replace Nirmala Sitharaman as Finance Minister? Those are the vi...

In an interview to discuss how he views Rahul Gandhi as a leader of Congress and Leader of the Opposition, the well-known and highly regarded historian, author and political commentator, Ramachandra Guha, says Rahul Gandhi is a dilettante, who lacks commitment and certainly lacks charisma and is unlikely to ever make it to Prime Minister of India. Ramachandra Guha says: : “Rahul Gandhi may be a go...

In an interview to discuss the cumulative impact of the Gulf War on Indian agriculture, Ashok Gulati, Professor of Agriculture at ICRIER and arguably India's foremost authority on the subject, says: “The economy seems to be on the brink of a major crisis". Professor Gulati is particularly concerned about how the fertiliser subsidy is likely to surge this year. He believes that it could balloon fro...

In a recent op-ed in the Financial Times, headlined ‘The Gulf crisis may just be starting’, the paper’s well-known and highly regarded Chief Economics Commentator, Martin Wolf, analyses the impact of an aspect of the Gulf crisis that so far hasn’t got the attention it deserves i.e. the shortages and how their impact could get worse the longer they remain and the greater the physical damage done in...

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The Chief Economist of Axis Bank and a Member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council says in his opinion the current account deficit and the falling rupee are the “most binding constraints” emerging out of the current Gulf crisis. Neelkanth Mishra also believes that the impact of the Gulf war and the oil crisis could be around 0.7%-08% of GDP growth. He says: “The sensitivity is that ab...

President Trump is on a three-day visit to China. What is he looking for from Beijing? What is he prepared to offer in return? Might China be willing to help Trump secure peace in the Middle East? And what are the implications of this visit for India’s relationship with both China and America?

In an interview to discuss the election results that were announced yesterday (the 4th of May) as well as what they mean for India as a whole and what they suggest about the BJP’s hold over the country, Yogendra Yadav, the National Convenor of the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, has said he is deeply concerned, adding he doesn’t believe the Indian Republic has reasons to celebrate the outcome. “As a democrat...

In an interview to discuss the impact of rising oil prices – which yesterday touched $126 per barrel – on both the world economy and India’s economy, economist and former Chief Statistician of India Pronab Sen said that rising oil prices could reduce India’s expected GDP growth by up to 2.5%. He agreed that this was a fairly substantial fall. Sen said he was particularly worried about India’s expo...

Sir Keir Starmer the British Prime Minister’s real problem is that he has failed to transition from being a lawyer into a prime minister and senior politician and, as a result, lacks strategy and keeps going back on what he has said and done or acting inadvisably, such as with the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States. This is the verdict of former British Secretary of...

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, one of the foremost legal minds in the country, a Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson, has said that Vice President Radhakrishnan has “clearly, patently erred” in accepting the merger of seven Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MPs with the BJP. Singhvi says that this decision by the Vice President can be challenged in Court and it’s quite possible that it will be overturned....

The Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes, says the Iran war is a “strategic disaster” for President Donald Trump and the USA. She said: “I think this is along the line of Suez for the Brits. A very big geo-strategic misstep where the US has, I think, unambiguously lost from this. And it’s in a weaker position in the Gulf and it’s in a weaker position internationally.” Minton Bedd...

After the extension of the ceasefire we ask critical questions about the new situation in the Middle East. Is this an open ended and indefinite extension of the ceasefire? Who does it benefit more? Does Iran’s refusal to come to Islamabad indicate its feeling stronger? Or is the regime internally divided, as Trump has claimed? Now, whenever talks happen, how can the key differences be bridged? And...

As uncertainty about the talks that were supposed to happen between America and Iran continues, we ask can the Pakistan-brokered talks still happen? If they do how significant will that be? In these circumstances what can they deliver? What does the confusion of the last two days suggest about America and Iran? And where does the advantage lie? Those are the key issues Karan Thapar raises with the...

In an interview to discuss the Prime Minister’s address to the nation on Saturday and his own video response later the same night, former Law and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has said “Prime Minister knowing the facts of history deliberately made statements that are inconsistent with those facts … people know what I mean … I have stated what I have stated (which is) based on the...

There is confusion, concern and lack of clarity about the basis on which the government proposes to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies. Will it be on the basis of the 2011 census, which is what the bills themselves suggest, or will it be a 50% proportionate increase in the Lok Sabha and all the state assemblies, which is what unnamed spokespersons have assured y...

In sharp criticism of the government’s proposed delimitation on the basis of the 2011 census, which was circulated yesterday (Tuesday), former Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewari has called it “motivated gerrymandering” and says the “preponderance of possibility” is that it would threaten India’s political integrity. He says the proposed seat changes in the Lok Sabha are designed...

In an interview to analyse and help the audience understand the two week ceasefire announced by the US and Iran in the Middle East war and the prospects for talks, which are said to start in Islamabad on Friday, India’s former Ambassador to the USA, Navtej Sarna, says Trump has backed off and the truth is this is a military defeat for the USA. Sarna said: “I don’t think Trump has pulled of anythin...

Former Chief Election Commissioners S.Y. Quraishi has said that if eligible adults in Bengal are denied the right to vote in the forthcoming elections later this month it would be unconstitutional and deplorable, it would vitiate the elections and be a black mark on our democracy. Dr. Quraishi was referring to newspaper reports that the fate of 23.4 lakh Bengali voters, who have reportedly been de...

The President of the All India Christian Council and Primate of the Good Shepherd Church of India, Archbishop Joseph Dsouza, has called the government’s proposed amendments to the FCRA Act, which was yesterday, at the last moment, deferred to the next session of parliament, “loot and theft of Christian institutions and their property”. He says this is “a Sangh Parivar agenda”. If passed in the nex...