August 2011
HISTORY’S LESSONS, Hindustan Times
Some commentators have compared the struggle led by Anna Hazare with the movement against corruption led by Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s. A man of integrity and courage, a social worker who has eschewed the [...]
TRIBAL TRAGEDIES, Hindustan Times
In August 2010—that is, exactly a year ago¬—Rahul Gandhi told a group of tribals in Orissa that he would be their soldier in New Delhi. There is no record of his having acted on that [...]
July 2011
BAN THE BAN, The Telegraph
Earlier this year, the Gujarat Government banned a book on Mahatma Gandhi by an American writer. The book was not then available in India, and no one in Gujarat had read it. The ban, ordered [...]
June 2011
DELHI DELUSIONS, The Telegraph
A Tamil economist, the late S. Guhan, used to say that Delhi was a capital in search of a country. I was reminded of that remark during the fortnight of 29 May to 11 June [...]
THIRTEEN WAYS TO CLEANSE THE SYSTEM, The Telegraph
In an article published fifty years ago, the great Indian democrat Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari deplored ‘the unconscionable and grievous expenditure on elections, which gives overwhelming advantage to money-power..’ Rajaji argued that ‘elections now are largely, so [...]
May 2011
THREE COMPARISONS, The Telegraph
As the election results started coming in on Friday the 13th, and the spectacular rout of the Left Front in West Bengal became clear, my mind went back to the spring of 1977. I was [...]