It was with sadness and cynicism that I watched the unprecedented outpouring of paeans to Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar on his 125th birth anniversary last week.

Last year, at a conference in Delhi, Akhilesh Yadav announced that Mulayam Singh Yadav was to be the prime ministerial candidate for 2019 and invited Rahul Gandhi, who was present, to be the deputy PM candidate.

A lady who found herself seated by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at one of the capital’s five-star hotels, for a play produced by Aamir Raza Husain, was so thrilled that she took a selfie with the CM and put it up on Facebook.

The project of building a Union of States will reach its culmination when the people of the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir feel they are truly a part of India.

The project of Islamisation is a kind of planned ‘retribalisation’ of the state.

Karnataka’s experience shows success depends on taking along all stakeholders.

Though formal democracy revived in 1995, it has been unable to transform a dystopic polity. Failing a serious effort to revive and build a new democratic culture, the prospect of a larger crisis is very real.

There are several measures, such as crop diversification, that can help India achieve this goal

TV rushes in with some disaster tourism, some sensitive coverage

Suggestions for public expenditure must also account for opportunity costs.

For Ambedkar, human dignity mattered more.

The cover story in the Organiser focuses on B.R. Ambedkar and notes that “his life was as good as walking on fire”.

Whichever way one slices the data, it is clear that claims of a Rs 15,000 crore saving in LPG subsidy solely through Aadhaar are erroneous.

As IITs raise their fee, it is time to consider innovative ways of financing education for elite institutions that require a higher level of funding to support research.

If the United States could flip a switch and make the Indian military more powerful than it is today, it would have every interest in doing so

Delhi needs a policy framework and engagement with Washington to take advantage of a tech revolution critical for its own security

Edited excerpts of the speech that was to be delivered at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, Mumbai, on April 4 by former Union Home Secretary Madhav Godbole.

Substantial number of interest subvention scheme loans are diverted to non-agricultural uses. Government must switch to an income-support subsidy regime

A varied electoral cycle for national and state legislatures and local bodies acts as a check against demagoguery and oligarchy

NIT Srinagar row must be settled urgently for the sake of J&K’s future

The heirs of Periyar will fight out their perennial Mahabharata.

This is money that would have been much better spent on improving our disgraceful government schools and appalling government hospitals,

The escalation of the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar, incident has shown us up as a truly petty people.

Priyanka’s newfound closeness to the Vadras comes after years of the Gandhis generally keeping a distance from Robert’s family.