Modi Vs All
In the mid-1990s, as VP Singh was scrambling to help form a non-BJP, non-Cong ‘Third Front’ government, we asked the former prime minister if such a ‘khichdi’ government was...
The Chowkidar against corruption?
The defining image of the 1989 Lok Sabha elections was VP Singh campaigning across the country and claiming that he had in his pocket the Swiss bank account number...
Will 220 be the new 272?
February is arguably the nicest month weather-wise in the national capital: the icy Himalayan wind gives way to a gentler cool breeze signaling a gradual change of seasons. This...
What Bollywood could learn from South Cinema
On the day when a group of alleged Karni Sena protestors attacked a school bus in Gurugram, the guest co-ordinator of my prime time tv news show came to...
Two cheers for Judicial ‘revolt’
‘There is one thing that journalists and lawyers have in common, we both love to gossip!’ a senior jurist reminded me helpfully a few days ago. In the week...
In the name of caste
Caste narratives expose inner fault-lines in our hierarchical society and can easily spark off controversy. Last week, when Jai Ram Thakur was selected as the BJP’s Himachal Pradesh chief...
Gujarat Gives Congress Oxygen but Revival is Still A Challenge
In a movie-crazy country, election victories too often are projected in ‘filmi’ terms. So in response to my clichéd remark in the television studio on the BJP’s narrow victory...
Gujarat: Urban-rural is split wide open
If there is any city that is seen to represent the public anger over demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, it is Surat. Textile traders had shut shop...
battle for Gujarat: BJP is winning election, losing narrative
It may be coincidental, but it is perhaps only appropriate that the Gujarat elections are being held in the week of the 25th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition....
Elections above parliament
In the winter of 1994 when I first moved to Delhi from Mumbai, the chance to cover Parliament was a major attraction. Entering Central Hall and gazing at the...