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Opinions & Blogs / The New Indian Express

Baba faces a legacy crisis from the judiciary

The legacy of public figures owes its perpetuity to freeze frames. Some names will be unforgotten, while others will remain faceless and nameless. The GIs raising the Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima. Gandhi and Nehru sharing a laugh. Yousuf Karshs Roaring Lion photo of Churchill. The sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square after Japan surrendered to America. Baba Ramdev in drag fleeing the cops. Tragic, poignant, romantic, intimate and cartoonish, all these images define the essence of the (wo)man

24 Mar 2024 5:00 am
Global spectre of higher-for-longer interest rates

The markets are calling it the everything rally. US benchmark index S&P500 is hovering near its all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached new all-time highs mid-week. In India, the Nifty50 is yo-yoing around its high watermark of 22,526. Theory has it that there is a correlation between the prices of gold (and bitcoin) and stocks, and that seem to be unravelling. Gold prices touched a new high of $2,222.49 an ounce this month. Bitcoin, that enigmatic articl

24 Mar 2024 1:03 am
1 killed, several feared trapped as under-construction bridge collapses in Bihar's Supaul

SUPAUL: One person was killed and several others were feared trapped as a portion of an under-construction bridge collapsed in Bihar's Supaul district in the early hours of Friday, officials said. The bridge was being constructed over the Koshi River, they said. District Magistrate Kaushal Kumar said senior officers of the administration were at the spot, near Maricha between Bakur and Bheja, where the incident took place. One labourer has died and another sustained injuries. Rescue work is unde

22 Mar 2024 10:15 am
CAA is a historical rebound, not a political ploy

The classical Greeks were obsessed with identity. They called themselves civilised and others barbarians. Identity is the monochrome membership that shapes society. India has Aryans and Dravidians. America has natives and settlers. The othering that secular intelligentsia frets about after Narendra Modi came to power, and the Sanghs attempts to decolonise and de-culturise all non-Hindu influences irrespective of merit, is a social identity movement powered by politics. The Citizenship (Amendment

17 Mar 2024 5:00 am
Elections 2024: Issues parties should but do not debate

The bugles have been sounded and the drumbeats of campaign rhetoric are set to echo across Indias festival of democracy. Election campaigns are essentially partisan interpretations of maladies and manifestos proffer pious promises. The issues which deserve debate and a contest of competitive ideas are often waylaid by emotive issues. On the face of it, India is at the cusp of emerging from a developing economy to a developed economy. It is the fifth largest and the fastest growing economy headed

17 Mar 2024 12:20 am
E-2024: Do or die for state satraps

If there is war in peace time, it is during elections. Once, rulers relied on planetary configurations to choose the time of attack as advised by court astrologers. Ironically, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Electoral pundits like tycoons, market mavens, ideologically-infected intellectuals and polluted posters play number games to whet the appetite of their target audiences at cocktail parties or on TV. As the countdown to the 2024 Lok Sabha election begins, predicting the

10 Mar 2024 12:27 am
Congress faced with make or break elections

History tells us that outcomes of epic battles are defined and determined by scale and momentum. The 2024 election is a contest between the BJP led by the omnipresent Narendra Modi, and a fragmented, oftentimes politically dysfunctional opposition. There is no ruling out surprises or the possibility of miracles in democracies. There is the David vs Goliath situation where the underdog, armed with slings and stones, overcome a stronger opponent. The Congress party will need more than a miracle to

10 Mar 2024 12:16 am
The flood metaphor is sinking the Opposition

Chaps who run big enterprises like empires, mega corporations and religions truly believe in their own greatness. The misquoted declaration of the French king, Louis IV, Aprs moi, le dlugetranslated as After me, the floodto his friend and mistress Madame de Pompadour, was interpreted by British lexicographer Ebenezer Cobham Brewer as Go to be ruined, if you like, when we are dead and gone. Myths of divine floods destroying civilisation exist in many cultures, such as the Hindu manvantara-sandhya

3 Mar 2024 5:00 am
Indias Economy: Known Knowns and Known Unknowns

An old maxim states that people, in general, are quick to believe that which they wish to be true. The truismattributed to Julius Caesarplays out in Indias public discourse rather predictably every few months. The episodes of ricocheting rhetoric with surround sound effects follow the release of data on the state of the economy. Typically, in the intensely polarised political amphitheatre, every episode finds the believers singing the rah-rahraagand the sceptical atheists argue in disbelief. The

3 Mar 2024 1:11 am
When Mufasa roars, newly born Simbas amplify

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi is Mufasa, the Lion King, the state chief ministers are his loyal Simbas. As he embarks on his eight-week-long Vote Yatra of his kingdom, the BJP is expecting the state chief ministers to extend his aura. As the chief ministers are the second engine for the BJP in each state, the hauling capacity of each one of them will decide the final numbers. Of the 12 BJP chief ministers, the six from Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Assam wil

3 Mar 2024 12:54 am
Political Biographies for Curious Souls

After hundreds of years, fiction seems to be inching close to its sell-by date, pun intended, except for Chick Lit and Amitava Ghosh. Autobiographies work as long as theyre written or ghostwritten by Steve Jobs or Michelle Obama. Self-help books do as much good as a protein shake for a dead man. The new oeuvre getting cash registers singing is biography. All it takes are Google and the cheugy chutzpah of an amateur historian to churn out a successful saga. Writing a biography of Narendra Modi is

25 Feb 2024 5:00 am
The hype and reality of 400 seats for NDA

If elections were to be decided by mind games, the BJP would have been declared winner already and Narendra Modi would be ensconced in Lok Kalyan Marg again. That is the hype and the hyperbole. But the honest truth is that more than 900 million voters are yet to cast their vote for what will be the 18th Lok Sabha. For Modi though, it seems a foregone conclusion. By declaring that his party and its allies would return to power with more than 400 seats in May, as against 350-odd in the outgoing Lo

25 Feb 2024 12:23 am
Cultural travesty of abandoning the old

They say old is gold, but it is certainly in the cold. A UN report recorded 149 million senior citizens living in India in 2022, a number predicted to more than double to 347 million by 2050. As the number multiplies, India faces a serious senior citizen problem which will explode as an economic and health catastrophe for the government. If age is just a number, it is a wrong number. Last week, a WhatsApp chat about Jaya Bachchans parliament speech exposing the abominable plight of Indias ageing

18 Feb 2024 12:25 am
Shades of grey: North-south, black-white politics

It is that season when politicians, unerringly consistent with eleventh-hour mobilisation, hold forth on the economy, triggering ricocheting rhetoric on claims and contestations. When it comes to the economy, the reality is coloured in shades of grey. The week began with the chief ministers of three southern states coming together to protest against discrimination in the devolution of funds by the Centre to the statesaggravated by rising incidence of central cess and surcharge ,which is not shar

11 Feb 2024 12:26 am
Modikaal Mantra for 1,000 years

The governments third term will lay the foundations of India for the next 1000 years January 22nd, 2024 is not a mere date on the calendar, it is the origin of a new kaal chakra We have to lay the foundation of India for the next one thousand years We have to expand our consciousness from Dev to Desh, Ram to Rashtrafrom deity to nation This is Bharats time, and Bharat is now going to move forward. After centuries of anticipation, we have reached here Excerpts from Prime Minister Narendra Modis

11 Feb 2024 12:23 am
Modi Fragmenting opposition unity

Should there be a political IPL, Captain Narendra Modi would be hailed for his masterstroke on the Patna pitch. Bowled over and caught behind the sticky wicket is the Jumping Jack of Bihar, Nitish Kumar. Modi has managed to not only expose the brittle marriage called the INDIA alliance, but also thrown shade on the credibility of the ragtag bunch of regional rajas and ranis. The truth is that the Opposition has nothing to offer. Words without context are as real as bread pakodas in a Michelin re

4 Feb 2024 5:00 am
Focus on womens hockey must continue

The music is over. The fun has died down. Whichever way you want to frame it, the absence of the Indian womens hockey team in the 2024 Paris Olympics is a big blow for the sport. They created quite a din at the Tokyo Olympics even if there was no shiny metal around their necks. The fourth-place finish was weighed in gold. The players became celebrities, but what resonated were the stories they had. Young players saw Rani Rampal and Savita Punia, and thought, This could be us. On a foggy night in

23 Jan 2024 1:41 am
Between consecration and the Constitution : A chance for concord

For the truly devout, it was a day of deep wish fulfilment. They have got their temple at Ayodhya, bringing glimpses of a classical past long vanished from their midst and grown more ornate in the imagination as a kind of static fantasia that it never was. To that extent, it speaks to a void in their heart and mind and will hopefully have a healing effect. The temple is still architecturally incomplete, and shastric doubts were raised in the run-up to a seamlessly choreographed consecration even

23 Jan 2024 1:35 am
Thus Begins the Age of Ram

That morning was cold and bright like invaders steel. December cold. December 6, 1992, cold. Terraced buildings surrounded the crowded, barricaded square below the elevation upon which squatted Baburs bloody legacy; its yellowed walls invaded by insolent vegetation, its three domes blackened and age-spotted. The terrace of the building facing it brimmed with a restless crowd; men, old and young, wearing saffron headbands, jostling for a glimpse of the domes of atavistic hatred. It was D-Day. Dem

21 Jan 2024 7:22 am
Atmanirbhar PSUs surge: Opportunity to trim debt and deficit

The Roman philosopher Seneca once said that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. The collective of daring and prescient investors who deployed their savings to invest in the shares of public sector enterprises are revelling at that intersection of fortune. The timeline of data spells out the phenomenon eloquently. Consider this: in September 2020, the government offered the shares of Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders at Rs 145 per share. The value of 100 shares bought at Rs 14,500 is now Rs 236,5

21 Jan 2024 12:52 am
Government tanks treacherous think tanks

Intellectual infiltration is inevitably ideologically influential. For decades, the luxurious Left was right in India, where junkets and jams went together in the marketing sandwich of power and pelf. Last week, the Modi government pulled the rug from under the Centre for Policy Researchs funding. Leftist liberal think tanks (TTs), with shallow thinking and deep pockets, comprise the Opinion Market Gang which was lording it over academia and sections of the media with socialist thinking and a bu

21 Jan 2024 12:31 am
Theres more to Modis photo ops than narcissism

To read Modis photo ops as narcissistic nonsense is politically suicidal. The CEO of viral tweets is the master of social media, which makes him the most followed leader on X and YouTube. Another sheesh column praising Modi? Cant help it. The guy manages to pull it off, Assembly elections or Maldives. There is no doubt that our beloved Prime Minister loves photo ops. Exquisitely groomed, walking upon the silver sands of Lakshadweep while the Arabian Sea chants its timeless mantra around him, pro

14 Jan 2024 5:00 am
Three decades of the information superhighway

The evolution of the internet has a long history. The Superhighway Summit was in a sense the beginning of the internet superhighway, the kick-start of the internet economy. Thirty years ago, on January 11, over two dozen leaders from government, academia and communications met at the University of California at a futuristic conference titled The Superhighway Summit. Curiously, it was organised by Richard Frank of the Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences. On cue, Al Gore , then the US vice pr

14 Jan 2024 12:27 am
Tech job seekers better focus on growing segments

India, which produces an increasing number of software engineers year after year, hopes it is a temporary phenomenon. The year 2024 has not started on an inspiring note for the tech world. Most global giants such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are restructuring their manpower needs and sacking employees. Thousands of tech employees have been rendered jobless in the last few weeks. Most companies squarely blame the progress in AI for the rejig, while some others admit that a dwindling clientele

13 Jan 2024 12:42 am
MTs speech a call for introspection

The CPM once derided cult worship and punished the leaders it thought were trying to grow bigger than the organisation, saying the practice was not in sync with party ideals. MT Vasudevan Nair rarely speaks out. But when he does, he does not mince words. A literary event in Kozhikode on Thursday was one of those occasions. Carefully reading out a written speech, in a departure from his usual practice of extempore, the Jnanpith-winning writer hit out at the culture of leadership worship and the t

13 Jan 2024 12:40 am
Apply law to protect inter-caste couples

In the recent case, after the womans parents learnt of her marriage, they registered a complaint that she was missing. Caste pride continues to thrive in Tamil Nadu, robbing youngsters, especially women, of the freedom to choose their own partners and keeping them in line with the threat of death. The parents of a 19-year-old caste Hindu woman were recently arrested for her murder because she married a Dalit. Anti-caste activists have pointed out that 80 percent of the victims of these crimes ar

12 Jan 2024 12:14 am
India, Maldives need to work together for peace in Indian ocean

Muizzus victory was seen in Maldives as a step that would balance Indian and Chinese influences for the benefit of the island nation. The unsavoury episode of three Maldivian ministers undignified comments about the Indian prime minister highlights the love-hate relations between the neighbours. The two countries have shared close political, cultural and commercial ties from before the time India became one of the first countries to recognise Maldives after its independence in 1965. Ties between

12 Jan 2024 12:10 am
The disabled & their kin need extra care

The pension received for disabled persons is a pittance and not sufficient even to meet the cost of treatment. That Kerala witnessed 16 murders of disabled persons in the last two years has shaken the collective psyche. It was known that all was not well with the care of disabled people in the state, with reports of abuse and deprivation coming from here and there. But when Save Lives, an Alappuzha-based association of parents of intellectually disabled people, came up with the figure of 16 deat

11 Jan 2024 12:31 am
Lessons from a death: invest in fortifying minds

It is also true that reports of people killing their own family members, including children, before committing or attempting suicide are not uncommon in India. A person taking the life of ones own child has to have a disturbed mind. A 39-year-old woman, CEO of a Bengaluru-based AI start-up, is alleged to have smothered her own four-year-old son to death in a hotel in Goa; she has denied the charge. The police claim she stuffed his body in a suitcase and took a cab to Bengaluruonly to be found ou

11 Jan 2024 12:26 am
Gaza war spillover hits trade, prices

The total hit for India may be of around $30 billion in exports this financial year, as the increasing freight rates are holding back exporters. Fears that Israels Gaza war will spill over to a wider regional conflict are, unfortunately, maturing with grave economic consequences. Israel has refused international calls for a ceasefire; Hamass allies have been retaliating by targeting ships going through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. It is no more ill-equipped Somali pirates with A-47s and small ski

10 Jan 2024 12:16 am
Bilkis bano ruling moves needle towards justice and dignity

The exercise of discretion by the state of Gujarat is nothing but an instance of usurpation of jurisdiction and an instance of abuse of discretion, the ruling stated. I felt I had exhausted my reservoir of courage... until a million solidarities came my way. I can breathe again, said Bilkis Yakub Rasool, better known as Bilkis Bano, after the Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission granted by Gujarat in August 2022 to the 11 men convicted of gang-raping her in 2002. Terming the crime again

10 Jan 2024 12:12 am
Mind underlying worries in GDPgrowth estimate

The drop in agricultural growth accentuates the rural slowdown. Add to this the higher rural inflation that has contributed to poor consumption in these areas over the past year. The revised 7.3 per cent GDP growth estimate for 2023-24 comes as a positive surprise for the country. However, not everything about the advanced estimates released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) recently can be cheered. There are areas that continue to cause concern and the government does not seem to have a

9 Jan 2024 12:16 am
Rohit, Kohli comeback not an ideal solution

The last four T20 world cups have seen both Rohit and Kohli featuring in line-ups that have frequently punched below their weight. Fool me once, a wise person once said, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. As the Indian cricket board announced the T20 team for the three-match series against Afghanistan, it was not hard to reflect on the quote. India has carried superstars over the last four T20 World Cups. Those superstars have had their own ways of batting, sticking to their methods and g

9 Jan 2024 12:13 am
Rein in loose-tongued Kerala minister

While his contention that the priests could have raised the Manipur issue with the PM is somewhat valid, his language was certainly insulting in nature. Keralas culture minister Saji Cherian landed himself in the eye of a storm recently when he made derogatory remarks against church leaders from the state for attending the Prime Ministers Christmas luncheon in Delhi. He said certain bishops get goosebumps when they get an invitation from the BJP and those who attended the event conveniently forg

8 Jan 2024 12:19 am
Brutal attack on ED officers bad optics for the Trinamool

Instead, hundreds of musclemen converged at his house in no time, attacked the officers and snatched their personal belongings like mobile phones and wallets. Images of bleeding Enforcement Directorate officials, after they were attacked by Trinamool Congress goons in West Bengal, reinforced the impression that might alone is right in parts of the state. That the local police station booked a suo motu FIR against the raiding ED party showed how compromised the law and order machinery has become.

8 Jan 2024 12:15 am
No political free passto striking truckers

The new hit-and-run law passed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita imposes a fine of Rs 7 lakh on the driver who flees the scene after a hit-and-run accident, and 10 years in jail. She, like millions of girls her age, liked to shoot Instagram reels. One she will never make is that of her death. The night this year opened, she was riding her scooter when a car hit her; but kept running for kilometres, dragging her body along on the road for about half an hour. Fatherless, her mother ill, she was th

7 Jan 2024 5:00 am
Democracy on ballot in 2024: Billions ask Who Are You

Increasingly, the contests are less about the isms of ideology and more about ethno-identities and socio-cultural schisms. Who are you? A chance encounter at a bar in 1964 triggered legendary rocker Pete Townshend to convert the existential question into a hit single Who Are You . Over time, the song has evolved into an anthem challenging listeners to question their identities and values. The question is verily the theme song defining the context of contemporary politics. Identity has overtaken

7 Jan 2024 12:45 am
YS Sharmilas shift to Congressa game-changer

Though Sharmila will definitely campaign hard, it will take a lot of work to raise the Congress from the pits. The Congress is on a roll in the Telugu States. After coming to power in Telangana, the party has now pulled a trump card to revive its fortunes in Andhra Pradesh, from where it was uprooted after the division of the state in 2014. It has roped in no less a leader than Y S Sharmila, daughter of the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and sister of current Chief Minister and YSRC supremo Y S Jaga

6 Jan 2024 12:24 am
Debate and discuss laws more thoroughly in 2024 and beyond

A government using its majority to speed up the legislative process would be laudable if the laws stood the test of time. The year opened with a massive strike by truckers in the north and west of the country. They were protesting the provision in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the redrafted penal code, which would treat hit-and-run cases as an aggravated form of offence. Section 106 (2) of the new law calls for a prison term of up to 10 years in such cases. People and the government panicked when

6 Jan 2024 12:20 am
Need to tread cautiously on plan to close n-e border

The ethnic violence in Manipur that resulted in loss of hundreds of lives has proved to be the proverbial last straw after the mounting border troubles. The raging turmoil in Manipur has drawn the Union governments attention towards Indias Free Movement Regime with Myanmar. Some sections of the central and state governments have blamed cross-border insurgents for the ethnic violence in Manipur, which is one of the four states that share the 1,643-km India-Myanmar border. The other three states a

5 Jan 2024 12:30 am
BJP Christian connect affects Kerala balance

The function ticked all the boxes except the achievement list rolled out by the PM aimed at women. Kerala witnessed a grand Narendra Modi show the other day when the prime minister addressed over 2 lakh women in Thrissur, the states cultural capital. The meetorganised by the state BJP unit as a grand reception for the PM after the passage of the womens reservation billwas attended by women from all walksfrom anganwadi workers and teachers to nurses and celebrities. The atmosphere was charged wit

5 Jan 2024 12:21 am
Address students mental health crises for Indias future

A Karnataka government committee to probe the July 2023 suicide recommended open-book exams in higher education to reduce stress among students. A 21-year-old BBA student of a reputed Bengaluru college committed suicide after her parents denied her permission to participate in a photo shoot on New Years Eve. At first, it may sound like a ridiculous reason to take the extreme step. Ditto with the case of the BTech student who in July 2023 jumped to his death from the terrace of a reputed universi

4 Jan 2024 12:28 am
Check pollution in sensitive Ennore creek

The recommendations that followed the hearing were entirely reasonable given the ecological importance of the creek. At the end of 2023, as most people were taking stock and looking forward to new beginnings, the people of Ennore found themselves knee-deep in the sludge of very old problems. The flooding caused by Cyclone Michaung also caused an oil spill in the Ennore-Manali region of Chennai , which is, paradoxically, ecologically sensitive and home to the highest number of red-category indust

4 Jan 2024 12:26 am
Weigh Kannada activism and business concerns

Instead of allowing the issue to fester and incite more violence, the authorities should strike a fine balance between the language activists and business owners. A sudden flare-up over the lack of Kannada on name boards of commercial establishments took a violent turn in Bengaluru last week. Protesting Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) activists went on the rampage, vandalising signage in English and demanding that owners of businesses change their name boards immediately. The police swiftly arre

3 Jan 2024 12:15 am
Govt could look at taxation to address widening inequality

These trends show people not only have the money, they also want to spend it. The wealthy got wealthier over the last calendar. The number of dollar billionaire promoters of listed Indian companies grew to 152 over the year, up from 126 in calendar 2022; their combined net worth went past $858 billion, a jump of 16 per cent from the previous years $739 billion. The survey by a financial daily threw up a significant changea widening of the list with many new entrants coming in on the back of succ

3 Jan 2024 12:15 am
Big sporting decisions await in the new year

The bigger challenge, however, will be for the Indian Cricket Board. Indias most prolific opener in the white ball formats, Rohit Sharma, will be 37 in April. The folly of prediction is its usual lack of accuracy. Yet, every year we wake up and take this perilous journey. The year just past had almost been great on the field, but off it the year was punctuated with embarrassment and controversies. In 2024, the focus will again be on how India performs at two of the biggest stages. In terms of pa

2 Jan 2024 12:35 am
Boost domestic radar capability to fight climate change

Given the geography and demography, India must invest in improving Doppler weather radars (DWR) footprints across the country. The northeast monsoon is Tamil Nadus lifeline, but it has left the state battered this year. In some of its southern districts, the precipitation just went off the charts as 2023 came to a close. Tirunelveli district logged a 504 per cent excess precipitation in December alone, followed by Thoothukudi with a 454 per cent variation. Such was the mayhem of weather that som

2 Jan 2024 12:30 am
Economy needs some fixes to thrive in 2024

The equity markets in 2023 surged 20% as most parameters pointed towards a strong economic performance. How 2024 pans out for India could set the tone for the countrys long-term economic prospects. Year 2023 was better than expected for the countrys economy with real GDP growth comfortably higher than 7% in the first three quarters. Even with a likely 6.5% growth in the December quarter, the 2023 GDP growth would be closer to 7%. With such strong performance in the past year and a much better fi

1 Jan 2024 8:48 am
JD(U) power point and the Nitish trust deficit in opposition

Hard bargaining for Lok Sabha seats within the mahagathbandhan in Bihar is due shortly, which can be expected to produce quite a few sparks. When Nitish Kumar recently took back the reins of the JD(U), one of the speculated reasons for the dramatic shake-up was the failure of his predecessor to lobby for a honourable position for the Bihar chief minister in the oppositions INDIA bloc. The other allegation against the partys outgoing national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh a.k.a Lalan Singh was his

1 Jan 2024 8:46 am
The year of polls will change the modern world order

It would be safe to say that 2024 is the Year of Elections. The largest democracy on earth94.50 crore voters as on January 1, 2023will crowd polling booths across India. Six hundred years before the birth of Christ, the worlds first democracy was born in Athens to challenge aristocracy. A new system, called demokratia gave political power to male Athenians, read male landowners, to select their Assembly. To get Athenian citizenship and pass judgments in criminal and civil matters, a jury compris

31 Dec 2023 5:00 am