Bloody Mary

Red Letter Day

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:27:12 +0530

A letter to the Left Lal Salaam Comrades! Your tenure in government seems to have ended. How different things were four years ago! Four years ago you were

1..2..3..statue!

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:15:59 +0530

A courageous newspaper editor, whose commitment to his home state of Maharashtra has never been in doubt was attacked last week at his home by fellow Maharashtrians. His windows were

The rise of the tropical modern

editor@ibnlive.com — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 04:17:12 +0530

When Kareena Kapoor attained "size sero", there were fears of an apocalypse of suicidal dieting among young Indian women. Instead our level-headed behenji brigade (with the exception of a few

City of dreadful knights

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:29:46 +0530

Ah, the great Indian city! The lack of urban infrastructure destroying the infrastructure of the human soul. By 2020 Mumbai will have a population of 20 million. Bangalore, already with

Back to anger and hatred

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:45:25 +0530

"It's all one skin and bone, one piss and shit, one blood, one meat. From one drop, a universe. Who's a Brahmin? Who's a shudra?

Rahulbaba and Mahi

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:51:50 +0530

The Congress could learn a few things from the Indian cricket team. Two young Indian men are on a unique journey. Rahul Gandhi, 37 year old MP from Amethi

Farming the colonial dream

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:39:12 +0530

Those who speak for "the farmer" are destroying him.
As this Budget approaches, there are many worries about the future of "the India economic story". The National

Disinvest the Bharat Ratna

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:43:41 +0530

The current clamour over India's national jewel or the Bharat Ratna is priceless to say the least. The furore began, in fact, with a story by a canny young television

The politics of seeing

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:41:15 +0530

The "chappan ki chaati" or 56 inch chest as Narendra Modi likes to describe himself as campaigned like a whirlwind in the Gujarat assembly elections, addressing thousands of meetings and

Narendrabhai & Buddhababu: separated at birth

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:42:13 +0530

Historian Sumit Sarkar is not known to mince his words. His 'Modern India' is a magisterial left wing sweep of the Indian independence movement in which the struggles of "non

Casualties of an accident

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:56:59 +0530

Manmohan Singh failed to usher in a new era of educated politicians
"I am a politician by accident," the prime minister said at the Hindustan Times Leadership summit, "I

A Mythical Bridge To Voters

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:31:52 +0530

In the Valmiki Ramayan, the character Ahalya, was transformed from a stone into a beautiful woman because Lord Rama merely stepped on her. In a similar way Lord Ram has

No power to the people

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:07:37 +0530

The nuke deal controversy shows a chilling distance
between politicians and people The fracas over the Indo-US Nuclear deal, 123 Agreement and Hyde Act has revealed one chilling fact.

The Cult of the Sex Goddess

editor@ibnlive.com — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 01:12:42 +0530

In its 60th year as an independent nation, India has just elected its first woman president. Yet the ascent of the demure Pratibha Patil - with her covered head and

Shshsh... Muslim!

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 07:51:23 +0530

A conspiracy of silence has followed the conspiracy of terror. There is a certain chilling predictability about the list of convicts, a dreadful Orwellian litany of sameness. After a

Rather a dull Party

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:54:01 +0530

The Presidential elections of 2007 have illustrated writer Martin Jacques' famous phrase, "The End Of Politics." Politics, wrote Jacques in the Nineties, is fast becoming a "backward sector". The central

Goan the right way

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:47:19 +0530

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, the hapless (and astonished) Congress party has secured (along with its ally the NCP) 19 seats in the Goa Assembly elections and is

Uttar Pradesh Private Limited

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 11 May 2007 09:28:45 +0530

A dalit ki beti has become Uttar Pradesh ki rani: Mayawati has created a historic win in Uttar Pradesh. "Caste" and "religion" are the dominant words used to describe UP's

Bharat's first citizen

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:29:32 +0530

NR Narayana Murthy is one of Mother India's most admirable sons. He is a homegrown capitalist, the boy next door who made good at home and abroad, the son of

Hurley in the morning

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 07:29:44 +0530

A range of outraged critics have expressed their fury at the media's coverage of the Elizabeth Hurley Arun Nayyar wedding. Similar fears of a "trivial" "sensational" media were voiced during

Memories of the Samjhauta Express

editor@ibnlive.com — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:24:47 +0530

On a freezing January night three years ago two journalists queued up to board the train to Pakistan. The Attari-Samjhauta Express stood at the Old Delhi railway station decorated with

A reformer for the poor

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:28:20 +0530

Franz Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' has haunted West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee since his university days. There are many interpretations of the play, the most popular one, being how a salesman

Kumbh 2007

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:00:04 +0530

The Ardh Kumbh is in progress in Allahabad. It is not perhaps as grand as the Mahakumbh of 2001. The crowds are less formidable. The sadhu samaj not on full

Citizen 2006

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 05:35:44 +0530

Behold, a new baby! Pushing its way through tubes blocked by national apathy. Bumping against a diseased uterus overgrown with tumours from the colonial past. And breaking free of the

A murderous society

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 10:28:44 +0530

After an acquittal now a conviction. Manu Sharma, son of the well connected Haryana politician Vinod Sharma, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Jessica Lal. After Sharma's acquittal

8 pc growth of social change

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 10:46:33 +0530

Two and a half years after the inauguration of the government of the aam admi, there are different analyses of the record of the Manmohan Singh government. If the golden

Qaum or country?

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:11:27 +0530

In 2005, Imrana Bibi of Charthawal village in UP was raped by her father-in-law. A year later, a Muzaffarnagar sessions court has now sentenced her rapist, Ali Mohamad to ten

Patron saint of the shopping mall

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 10:27:49 +0530

A wonderful new film has given us a new word. "Gandhigiri" has entered the popular lexicon. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was never more trendy. The young are buying books on him.

We don't need no education

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 07:42:47 +0530

Those who believe that India's hopes reside in its youth might glance at the events of the recent week and take off their rose- tinted glasses. In Madhav College in

House of Spirits

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 08:18:29 +0530

Monsoon sessions of Parliament are generally turbulent. Under hovering rainclouds, the mid-year gathering of peoples representatives generally sees the rage of the long summer reach boiling point. But if you

The Cosmic Glass Ceiling

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 01:05:48 +0530

Not one but two women have created a storm of protest by claiming that they have entered the shrine of Sabrimala. The Sabrimala shrine, where women between the ages of

From India Shining to India Snorting

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 01:19:58 +0530

On the face of it, as Atal Bihari Vajpayee said, Rahul Mahajan is just a youth who made a mistake. The night before he was to take his father's ashes

Secession of the successful

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 12 May 2006 06:55:52 +0530

The term "secession of the successful" is a particularly evocative term. This phrase occurs in the late JK Galbraith's works as well as in the writings of other economists and

On shaky ground

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 10:35:04 +0530

Twenty-seven per cent reservation of seats for OBCs, in all IITs, IIMs and central universities proposes Arjun Singh, Minister for Human Resource Development, who has inevitably been reminded of social

Varanasi's religion

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:29:52 +0530

Never was there a greater contrast between Hinduism and Hindutva. Three bomb blasts shattered the calm of 2,500-year-old Varanasi on Tuesday, March 7. Immediately, the political party that claims to

Rang de Bizarre

editor@ibnlive.com — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 09:47:53 +0530

Five badly behaved but photogenic young louts, and their hanger-on girl, regularly gather at night at a geographical feature resembling the Grand Canyon. There they take deep slugs of beer.

Re-write the Purusa-Sukta

editor@ibnlive.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 01:46:41 +0530

There is a wonderful work on the Indian caste system called Homo Hierarchicus by Louis Dumont. Some critics have called Dumont's book an oversimplification, others have called it Orientalist, but

An old party needs new gatecrashers

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:54:18 +0530

The Husain Sagar lake in Hyderabad is almost as well known for its suicides as its beauty. Across Rayalseema, Telengana and coastal Andhra, farmers drink endosulfan pesticide to end their

The argumentative Hindu

editor@ibnlive.com — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 04:06:58 +0530

Lal Krishna Advani is not your average Mr Nice Guy. He described the Ayodhya movement that led to the demolition of the Babri masjid in 1992, as a mass awakening

Corrupt MP or BIMARU MP?

editor@ibnlive.com — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 04:28:19 +0530

Gosh, what a turbulent winter session of parliament! First the drama over the Volcker Committee report and the exit of Natwar Singh. Then the daily walkouts over the NDA's ridiculous