April 2020
The Folly and Vanity of The Project to Redesign New Delhi, The Wire
Six years ago, the then editor of the Hindustan Times invited me to write a fortnightly column. I agreed, on condition that there would be no censorship. While occasionally some changes to my text were [...]
Get The Best Minds on Board, Hindustan Times
Years ago, working in the archives in New Delhi, I came across a brief, handwritten, letter from Jawaharlal Nehru to C. Rajagopalachari. It was dated 30th July 1947, and it read: ‘My dear Rajaji, This [...]
March 2020
Two Exemplary Twentieth Century Lives, The Telegraph
The 19th century Italian writer Emilio Salgari once remarked that ‘reading is travelling without the bother of baggage’. That is great advice, particularly in the time of COVID-19. Now that one is forcibly home-bound, works [...]
February 2020
Standing With Gandhi in Ahmedabad, Hindustan Times
On 30th January I was in Ahmedabad, a city that was central to Mahatma Gandhi’s life and work. It was here that he established the most celebrated of his ashrams, on the banks of the [...]
January 2020
The Fourth Crisis of The Republic, Hindustan Times
As I have written before, if India had been a start-up in August 1947 not even the most venturesome of venture capitalists would have invested in it. No new nation was born in more inhospitable [...]
Why There is No Team Modi – Because There Can Only Be a Brand Modi, The Telegraph
In December 2018, I was having lunch with an entrepreneur-friend who works closely with the Central Government. The BJP had just lost state elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, putting three Chief Ministers out [...]