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Tavleen Singh

Tavleen Singh

Indian Express

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Modi has been more successful in lessening corrupt practices that do not involve politicians

There are two words the Prime Minister mentions in almost every speech he makes in this election campaign. ‘Bhrashtachar’ and ‘parivarvaad’....

14.04.2024 50

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Corruption as an election issue

The truth is that the quickest way to make a dishonest fortune is to become an Indian politician.

14.04.2024 10

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

India’s tragedy is that there has rarely been a more urgent need for a strong opposition party than there is now

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...

07.04.2024 60

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

We will become a fully developed country one day, but to get there we must not hesitate to confront some harsh truths

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...

31.03.2024 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Surreal reality and reality

Images of those drives through rural India floated before my eyes.

31.03.2024 10

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

If Modi wins a third term, it is my fervent hope that he revives his Swachh Bharat campaign and adds a punitive element

Cries of ‘democracy is dead’ have been repeated often since Narendra Modi became prime minister. The man who is his main challenger has personally...

24.03.2024 40

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

This scheme that turned ‘black’ money white as soon as it became a political donation was 'not perfect'

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...

17.03.2024 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Of elections and bonds

This scheme that turned ‘black’ money snowy white as soon as it became a political donation was ‘not perfect’ as the finance minister admitted...

17.03.2024 20

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

Rahul Gandhi's economic ideas do not seem to resonate with the Indian voter

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...

10.03.2024 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Something has gone very wrong with our priorities. Not so much in the past ten years but in past decades

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...

03.03.2024 50

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Misplaced priorities or wrong priorities

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.

03.03.2024 10

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

We celebrate elections with fervour and festivity but too often forget that democracy is about more than elections

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...

25.02.2024 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Listen to the farmers

18.02.2024 8

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

Life for a farmer in prosperous Punjab is so hard that big dream of young men is to somehow get to Canada or the US

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...

18.02.2024 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

If the Congress Party is serious about taking on Modi, it needs a more convincing message than caste

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...

11.02.2024 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

For me this Budget week will remain forever imprinted with the shameful, heartbreaking image of small girl standing in icy rain with tiny, tired baby

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...

04.02.2024 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Things more important than the Budget

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...

04.02.2024 10

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

India’s idea of utopia is entwined with the story of Ram, which makes it most important to never forget that Ram Rajya was an embodiment of justice for all

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...

28.01.2024 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

On the eve of the consecration of Ram temple, I would like to warn against Hindu triumphalism

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...

21.01.2024 30

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Renaissance, not revenge

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...

21.01.2024 20

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

Rahul Gandhi should have had political sense to begin the yatra in Ayodhya so that he could have stolen some of Modi’s thunder

What was the Congress ‘high command’ thinking when it decided to boycott the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya? How did this high command, which is...

14.01.2024 40

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Various political and socio-cultural variables were at work that contributed to the 1974 Worli riots

Written  by Shweta Ahire Studies have shown that whenever an outfit raised by the marginalised gains prominence, violence is utilised to splinter...

07.01.2024 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

In this first week of 2024, the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is the most important political issue

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...

07.01.2024 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

PM Modi's guarantees vs Rahul Gandhi's promises

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...

31.12.2023 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Modi’s relations with the media have been fraught ever since he was Chief Minister of Gujarat

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...

24.12.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Please answer the questions

Perhaps, because it was a harmless spoof. What was not harmless is what happened inside Parliament on December 13.

24.12.2023 10

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

What I question is whether the affirmative action that reservations provide has worked

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...

17.12.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Time to end reservations

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...

11.12.2023 20

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

Before upper caste Hindu men start demanding reserved rights of their own, it is time to scrap all reservations

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...

10.12.2023 40

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Faced with dismal, dreary choice voters choose those who offer better freebies

Almost the worst day for a political columnist is the day election results are expected. Anyone interested in Indian politics will spend all day...

03.12.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

What saddens me is that the 26/11 attack has been erased not just from the minds of ordinary Indians but of our leaders

Today once more comes that anniversary of the worst jihadi terrorist attack on Indian soil . It comes when Hamas has forced sensible people to...

26.11.2023 40

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: We must never forget 26/11

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...

26.11.2023 20

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

It is this kind of toxic liberalism that allowed jihadist ideas to spread in India long before 9/11

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...

19.11.2023 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Dark shadows over Diwali

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...

12.11.2023 7

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

When I light the ‘diyas’ tonight I will find it hard not to think about the horrors unfolding in Gaza

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...

12.11.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

It is hard to believe Kashmiri Muslims will remain unaffected by Gaza for long

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...

05.11.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

It saddens me to admit that in recent times the Modi government has done many things that amount to trampling over our democratic rights

Yet another election season begins and yet another round of political leaders offering voters the moon and the stars in exchange for their votes....

29.10.2023 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Freedom vs unfreedom

Preserving democracy has become vitally important today not just in India but in the world because long shadows loom over democratic countries like...

29.10.2023 20

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

No sooner did the siege of Gaza begin than Israel transitioned instantly from being victim to villain

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...

22.10.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: We must stand with Israel

Human rights activists who said nothing as Muslim groups in western cities and university campuses celebrated what Hamas did suddenly popped up to...

15.10.2023 8

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

Savagery of the kind Hamas unleashed in Israel is something we have seen on a smaller scale in Mumbai

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...

15.10.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Why Hamas attacked now – and how it weakens both Israel and hopes for peace

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...

10.10.2023 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

It is because PM Modi has taken so aggressive a tone that the coming election has begun to sound more like civil war

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...

08.10.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Of cabbages and kings

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...

01.10.2023 8

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

If we are indeed the mother of democracy, we must urge our political leaders to stop behaving like potentates & kings

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...

01.10.2023 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

There is no support for Khalistan among the Sikhs of India and there never has been

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...

24.09.2023 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

Fifth column by Tavleen Singh: Look inwards, Prime Minister

Has the Prime Minister noticed that it could be time for him to make these words and ideas more meaningful inside India?

18.09.2023 20

The Financial Express

Tavleen Singh

While PM Modi addresses his countrymen as my “beloved family members”, they wander about spreading hatred

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...

17.09.2023 10

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

From Modi’s point of vantage, G20 summit has brought laurels that will add to his personal prestige

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...

10.09.2023 20

Indian Express

Tavleen Singh

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