Vir Sanghvi

The Commonwealth Games mess is a symptom of many deeper malaises. One of them is the sickness that afflicts Indian sport. Many of the people who have been responsible for this mess — across sports federations — are the same people who have been running Indian sport for decades, writes Vir Sanghvi.

Why bother with a polite step-by-step engagement with Pakistan when the situation is so grave? Pakistan is busy sending terrorists to kill Indians while cheerfully lying to the world about the activities of the ISI and its army, writes Vir Sanghvi.

The trouble with political controversies is that we sometimes forget the ordinary people at the root of each uproar. Something like that seems to be happening in the war of words between the BJP and the Cong in the Amit Shah case, writes Vir Sanghvi.

We know now that 26/11 could have been avoided. Indian intelligence knew that the terrorists were heading for Bombay a day before the attacks and knew what their targets were. The more we learn about the failures of 26/11, a shocking story of petty politics, widespread corruption and divisions within the force emerges, writes Vir Sanghvi.

There are many arguments against corporal punishment but the essence of the issue can be encapsulated in a single question: would you let a stranger assault your child? Vir Sanghvi ponders.

Judging by the way in which the government is now scrambling to assuage the public anger following the Bhopal judgement, it is clear that the scale of the indignation has taken the political class by surprise. Nobody in government expected the verdict to evoke so much outrage, writes Vir Sanghvi.

The more we learn about the IPL, the more it seems to resemble a gravy train. Till now, attention has focused on Lalit Modi and on allegations that he is a benami shareholder in several teams, writes Vir Sanghvi.

The recent Air India crash and the flash strike that followed shortly afterwards have reawakened the issue of the privatisation of Air India. As the airline’s losses mount and its performance slips to new lows, more and more people are asking: why does the Indian taxpayer need to subsidise this mess? Vir Sanghvi writes.

On Friday, Oliver Stone’s sequel to Wall Street premiered at the Cannes film festival. Readers of a certain age may remember the first Wall Street, which came out 23 years ago and starred Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, a ruthless financier who gave suspenders a bad name, writes Vir Sanghvi.

A British general election is always much more fun for Indians to watch than a US Presidential election because the British system so closely parallels our own, writes Vir Sanghvi.

Unfortunately for India, we have a structuralist PM with a reasonable solution to a seemingly intractable dispute at a time in history when no solution is possible and the very structure of Pakistan seems in danger of collapse, writes Vir Sanghvi.

Just before the 26/11 attacks on Bombay, a technician at the Research & Analysis Wing was monitoring satellite transmissions emanating from the Arabian Sea. Almost by chance, he picked up conversations that seemed to be coming from a dhow heading for Bombay, writes Vir Sanghvi.

The agenda is to subliminally link every Indian Muslim to Pakistan and to question the patriotism of an entire community. It is time to ask: do these nutcases really deserve the kind of television time they are being given? Vir Sanghvi examines.
Sania Mirza unites the bigots!

Sadly, I do not see an alternative. There may be ways of reaching out to the tribals, bypassing the Naxalites. But all that will have to wait. First, the State must reassert the rule of law. Then, it will finish off the Maoists. And only then, will we tackle the serious issue of social justice, writes Vir Sanghvi.

It is not difficult to see why the case of David Headley evokes such strong emotions among Indians. For us, 26/11 is as important as 9/11 is to Americans. The difference is that while the US knows pretty much everything it needs to about 9/11, India is still trying to piece together the details of the conspiracy, writes Vir Sanghvi.