So, here’s my question: why did Modi’s career never take off in the eight years that followed the riots? Why is he still no more than what he was in 2002 — to quote India Today — a ‘hero of hatred’? Part of it, of course, has to do with the riots.
Vir Sanghvi examines...
India’s record on covert operations has been lacklustre. We have preferred to fight terrorism either by relying on intelligence or by heightening security. When it comes to retribution, we prefer to go through legal channels rather than take direct action, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
It is instructive that at the end of over four decades in existence, all of them with Thackeray as its supreme leader (no other Indian party has been led for so long by a single individual), the Shiv Sena still has no positive agenda or dreams of glory to inspire Maharashtrians. Vir Sanghvi examines...
The real problem is not that politicians are venal but that members of the educated middle class — IAS and IPS officers — either help them in return for protection and advancement (as Rathore clearly did) or refuse to speak out when injustice is committed.
Vir Sanghvi examines...
David Headley was formally charged, allowed to appoint a lawyer and is now entitled to all the protections of the US Constitution: he would be within his rights to tell Indian investigators to take a flying jump. Why would the US treat a 26/11 suspect with such consideration?
Vir Sanghvi examines...
His colleagues on the Bombay Police Force, according to the searing indictment by the widow of the brave officer killed on 26/11, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
Ayodhya was a symbol of two things: a growing anger among Hindus who felt that Muslims were being pampered by the state and Advani’s vaulting ambition. When the BJP came to power, both factors vanished. Hindus could no longer claim that Muslims were being favoured. And Advani got the power he so desperately craved. Vir Sanghvi examines...
When it comes to its children, the political class is united. It’s them first. And it is the rest of us afterwards. But I don’t think that any of us will let it be. We recognise what the politicians are up to. They think that if they hold firm, the issue will die down and all of us will find other things to worry about. After all, they managed to get Manu Sharma out of Tihar jail without anyone noticing, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
The next time somebody tells us that we need to keep the US in good humour because American goodwill will get us a seat at the Security Council, be very sceptical, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
Now that the Bombay/ Mumbai controversy has returned to the headlines, thanks to the Maharashtra elections, this may be a good time to examine the whole issue of the naming and renaming of places, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
Conduct a poll and ask people whether policemen should try and build cases against terrorists, should persuade witnesses to testify and then wait six years for the judgement or whether they should just bump them off and a majority of Indians will prefer execution to prosecution, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
The argument against torture is one of human rights. Can we bend our conception of human dignity to accommodate the demands of wartime and the fight against terror? Vir Sanghvi examines...
When a corporate war begins to emerge as the biggest news story in a country that faces so many problems, then you know that something has gone badly wrong, writes
Vir Sanghvi.
Do you hear a single Pakistani diplomat complaining about how England and America have no right to be in Afghanistan because it is part of Pakistan’s sphere of influence? Why is it that Pakistan has one set of standards for the West and another for India?
Vir Sanghvi examines...
Privatisation has actually worked to the disadvantage of airlines. Because the new owners of metro airports have not been able to make the kind of money they had expected, the government has allowed them to increase the amount they charge airlines, writes
Vir Sanghvi.