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Tavleen SinghIndian Express |
There are two words the Prime Minister mentions in almost every speech he makes in this election campaign. ‘Bhrashtachar’ and ‘parivarvaad’....
The truth is that the quickest way to make a dishonest fortune is to become an Indian politician.
As a diligent political columnist, I considered it my duty last week to watch the release of the Congress Party’s election manifesto from start to...
Is there an increasingly surreal quality to Indian reality? I ask the question seriously because in recent days I have been on long drives in rural...
Images of those drives through rural India floated before my eyes.
Cries of ‘democracy is dead’ have been repeated often since Narendra Modi became prime minister. The man who is his main challenger has personally...
One of the things I do not like being called is a ‘veteran journalist’. It makes me feel ancient. But I have no hesitation in admitting that I...
This scheme that turned ‘black’ money snowy white as soon as it became a political donation was ‘not perfect’ as the finance minister admitted...
There has been some snarky commentary on the splendiferous pre-wedding festivities of Mukesh Ambani’s youngest son. So let me begin by saying that...
It was from a two-paragraph story, on an obscure inside page of a newspaper last week, that I learned that only forty-six out of four hundred and...
Clean water is a need so fundamental that in countries that are truly ‘developed’ you can drink the water that comes out of the taps in your home.
My mother died last week. Without being able to say goodbye to a grandson she helped me bring up. He was a small boy when I was off covering conflicts...
When we see farmers protesting once more on the edge of Delhi, how many of us remember that there is an India away from the razzmatazz of city life...
In case there are those of you who may not have seen it, I shall begin by describing Rahul Gandhi’s latest video from his yatra. It begins with him...
On Budget Day in Delhi last week, it was bitterly cold and an icy rain fell. Not far from Parliament, I was driving in my warm car when, at a traffic...
I found myself wondering why we in the media were more interested in the Budget than the stories of desperate people living in desperate poverty in...
When you have been writing a column as long as I have, you learn to take criticism in your stride. You learn very quickly that there will always be as...
The consecration ceremony in Ayodhya tomorrow has the support of most Indians. Those denying this are deluded or trying to make a political point as...
On the eve of the consecration of Ram’s new temple, I would like to warn against Hindu triumphalism once again. This is becoming stridently evident...
What was the Congress ‘high command’ thinking when it decided to boycott the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya? How did this high command, which is...
Written by Shweta Ahire Studies have shown that whenever an outfit raised by the marginalised gains prominence, violence is utilised to splinter...
IN THIS first week of 2024 if there is one thing on which there seems general agreement in India it is that the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is the most...
This is my last column of the year, and the truth is that it is hard to write. Hard because I find columns that give you a compendium of the year gone...
It is rarely that you would have spotted praise for Rahul Gandhi in this column. He has an annoying way of speaking on serious issues in the tone and...
Perhaps, because it was a harmless spoof. What was not harmless is what happened inside Parliament on December 13.
When I wrote in this column last week that instead of a caste census, we need to consider an end to caste reservations, I expected controversy and a...
If I dare to raise the subject this week, it is because the shining stars of the INDIA coalition have been raucous in calling for a caste census...
No matter how gently I say this it will cause controversy, so it’s best that I say it plainly. It is time for all reservations to go. In government...
Almost the worst day for a political columnist is the day election results are expected. Anyone interested in Indian politics will spend all day...
Today once more comes that anniversary of the worst jihadi terrorist attack on Indian soil . It comes when Hamas has forced sensible people to...
After seeing the flattening of Gaza and the death of more than 15,000 people – many of them children – the world is condemning Israel in one...
Last week Osama bin Laden became the latest hero of the pro-Palestine lobby. A letter he wrote to the ‘American people’ justifying the 9/11...
There is pressure on Israel from its allies and because these are democratic countries, there have been huge protests in London, New York, Paris, and...
The only way to begin a column that appears on Diwali morning is to start by wishing all of you the very best for this most auspicious and beautiful...
It was not my intention to go to Kashmir within days after Hamas perpetrated its barbaric attack in Israel. It just happened that way. I planned...
Yet another election season begins and yet another round of political leaders offering voters the moon and the stars in exchange for their votes....
Preserving democracy has become vitally important today not just in India but in the world because long shadows loom over democratic countries like...
In this column last week, I made clear that I stand with Israel . I still do. Despite the hate messages I have had from Muslims in distant countries...
Human rights activists who said nothing as Muslim groups in western cities and university campuses celebrated what Hamas did suddenly popped up to...
By the time I sat down to write this week’s column the process of moral equivocation had begun. Instead of Israel being seen as the victim of a...
The October 7 attack in Israel by Hamas spells a major defeat for Israel as well as for the efforts at normalisation and peace in the region. For...
Are we facing a general election next year or a civil war? I ask the question seriously, silly though it may sound. It is because I find myself...
It occurred to me that in the ten days I spent in the United States, I did not see a single poster of a politician. In real democracies, politicians...
This column is being written hours after landing in the ‘mother of democracy’ from the most powerful democratic country in the world. I am obliged...
Nothing puzzles me more about Narendra Modi’s policies than why he has revived the myth of Khalistan. Why has his government been so determined to...
Has the Prime Minister noticed that it could be time for him to make these words and ideas more meaningful inside India?
There is no question that Narendra Modi is now seen as a world statesman. Not just because of the spectacular success of the G-20 summit just held in...
This is not a column that deals with foreign policy, but it is hard for me to avoid writing about the G20 on the day of its summit in Delhi. Another...