Two of last week’s events offer some indication of how badly India’s politicians cope with the legacies of dynasty, patronage, wheeling and dealing, and communalism. By some coincidence, both relate to the BJP. But my guess is that they could have happened in any party. Read more

So, how well did you sleep when you read that Behenji wanted to be our next Prime Minister? How did you feel when you saw the BSP spokesman declare that his party had a single-point agenda: to make Mayawati Prime Minister? And did your hair stand on end when the leaders of the BSP informed the Third Front that their party would only agree to sign up on the condition that Behenji was officially declared as the Front’s prime ministerial candidate? Read more

Few things annoy me as much as the claim often advanced by well-meaning but woolly- headed (and usually Punjabi) liberals to the effect that when it comes to India and Pakistan, “We’re all the same people, yaar.”

This may have been true once upon a time. Before 1947, Pakistan was part of undivided India and you could claim that Punjabis from West Punjab (what is now Pakistan) were as Indian as, say, Tamils from Madras. Read more

Tuesday’s attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team demonstrates several things. First of all, there is a striking similarity between the way that attack was carried out and the Bombay attacks. The image that unites both assaults is the TV footage of a young man with a backpack, carrying a Kalashnikov and running with commando-like discipline. It is no longer possible for anybody to deny that the Bombay attackers were hatched in the same nest as the murderers of Lahore. Read more

Those of us who have been involved with the running of the Hindustan Times over the last decade like to think that we made many revolutionary changes. Well, perhaps we did. But increasingly, I get the feeling that we give ourselves too much credit. Read more

It’s funny how the conventional wisdom in Delhi changes from month to month. Six months ago, the pundits said that Mayawati would be our next Prime Minister. Three months ago, they decided that with the Congress government done for, L.K. Advani would be the obvious choice to move into Race Course Road. Read more