Tavleen Singh is a distinguished Indian journalist, political reporter, and author, currently serving as a leading columnist for The Indian Express. With a career spanning over four decades, she is widely recognized for her incisive commentary on Indian politics, public policy, and governance.
Professional Experience & Journey: Singh began her journalistic career in the United Kingdom with the Evening Mail in Slough, where she trained under the Westminster Press training scheme. She returned to India in 1974, joining The Statesman as a reporter. Her extensive fieldwork includes tenure as a Special Correspondent for The Telegraph in 1982 and as the South Asia Correspondent for the Sunday Times, London. Over the years, she has contributed to major publications including India Today and has played a pioneering role in Indian television journalism, heading the Delhi bureau for Plus Channel.
Expertise & Focus Areas: Renowned for her deep understanding of India's political landscape, Singh has covered some of the most critical events in the nation's history, including the Punjab insurgency and the conflict in Kashmir. Her writing often bridges the gap between the "Durbar" of Delhi’s political elite and the ground realities of rural India. She currently writes the popular weekly column "Fifth Column" for The Indian Express, appearing every Sunday, where she offers critical analysis of government policies and political shifts.
Authoritativeness & Recognition Singh is a celebrated author of several best-selling books that serve as important records of contemporary Indian history. Her notable works include:
Kashmir: A Tragedy of Errors (1995)
Lollipop Street: Why India Will Survive Her Politicians (1999)
Durbar (2012)
India's Broken Tryst (2016)
Messiah Modi: A Tale of Great Expectations (2020)
Her fearless reporting has earned her significant accolades, including the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Mediaperson (1988) and the Sanskriti Award (1985) for her comprehensive coverage of the Punjab crisis.
Trust & Credibility As a veteran voice in Indian media, Singh is known for her unyielding candor and independent perspective. Her long-standing association with The Indian Express, a publication known for its "Journalism of Courage," reinforces her standing as a...

December 09, 2018 00:14 IST
The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was busy campaigning outside his state when the inspector was shot to death and his police car burned by a mob. When the news of this senseless, brutal murder reached him, his first concern was about cows.
Sun, Dec 09, 2018
December 02, 2018 01:58 IST
Religious divisions and caste always play a part in Indian elections but this time they seem to have been deliberately inflated in the hope that voters forget their real problems.
Sun, Dec 02, 2018
November 25, 2018 01:37 IST
The 26/11 attack needs to be remembered more often by our political leaders because it is the one single event that completely changed India’s relationship with the Islamic Republic next door.
Sun, Nov 25, 2018
November 18, 2018 01:02 IST
In the past four years, these fanatics have been more active than usual because they believe they have a Hindutva government in office.
Sun, Nov 18, 2018
November 11, 2018 00:45 IST
Plans have been announced to build a mighty statue of Ram on the edge of the Saryu river. And, pressure is building from the RSS and Hindu religious sects to begin construction on that temple in Ayodhya before next year’s general election.
Sun, Nov 11, 2018
November 04, 2018 00:37 IST
In a peculiar way, secularism is safer in the hands of the ‘communal’ BJP.
Sun, Nov 04, 2018
October 28, 2018 00:30 IST
If the Prime Minister believes that by remaining silent and letting sundry ministers speak on his behalf he remains untouched by the dirt and ruthless grind of politics, he is wrong.
Sun, Oct 28, 2018
October 21, 2018 01:43 IST
There is much that can be done by MeToo pioneers to improve conditions in the workplace for these most voiceless and vulnerable of India’s working women.
Sun, Oct 21, 2018
October 14, 2018 01:22 IST
As someone who has been reviled as ‘anti-women’, may I say that in my reporting days I made it a point to seek out women who had been abused.
Mon, Oct 15, 2018
October 07, 2018 00:14 IST
If I had any doubts that Rahul Gandhi’s advisors spend their time lounging about in the salons of Lutyens Delhi, they disappeared when I heard him speak at last week’s Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
Sun, Oct 07, 2018
September 30, 2018 00:59 IST
Bad policies for decades give urban Indians hefty subsidies on water supplied to their homes while rural Indians buy it at exorbitant rates from tankers, or drink water the colour of mud from village ponds.
Sun, Sep 30, 2018
September 23, 2018 00:19 IST
The ugly truth is that the colonisation of India has continued with greater success after the British left, mostly because they left behind a colonised Indian elite. So there is much that the RSS can do if it wants to bring about real change.
Sun, Sep 23, 2018
September 16, 2018 01:00 IST
Instead of competing to distance themselves from big business our political leaders should explain to the people of India why a company that produced 40 per cent of our copper was forcibly closed by the Tamil Nadu government.
Sun, Sep 16, 2018
September 13, 2018 00:04 IST
Three years after the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq, there is no remorse in his village. There is a sense of menace.
Thu, Sep 13, 2018
September 09, 2018 01:36 IST
The essence of the new narrative is that Modi has ‘destroyed’ the institutions of democracy and that if he gets a second term he will make sure elections are never held again.
Sun, Sep 09, 2018
September 02, 2018 00:06 IST
The embodiment of Leftist economic policies is MGNREGA. It supposedly guarantees jobs but is in fact just dole. It may ‘alleviate’ poverty but can never help poor people rise out of poverty. Modi seemed to know this when he first became Prime Minister.
Sun, Sep 02, 2018
August 26, 2018 04:00 IST
If it can be argued that Modi’s chances remain very strong because Rahul is a goof, we must also acknowledge that Rahul has become a serious challenger today entirely because the BJP has taken this goof very, very seriously.
Sun, Aug 26, 2018
August 19, 2018 00:37 IST
"After the Babri Masjid was demolished I asked him why he did not leave the BJP if he was so unhappy with what had happened. He replied in the words of that famous song, ‘Jaayein, to jaayein kahaan (Where should I go)’."
Sun, Aug 19, 2018
August 12, 2018 00:08 IST
The least abusive epithet used for me is that I am a ‘Lootyens’ journalist.
Sun, Aug 12, 2018
August 05, 2018 01:20 IST
In recent weeks I have heard of tax raids in which there has been open extortion and in which upright citizens have been publicly humiliated.
Sun, Aug 05, 2018
July 29, 2018 00:15 IST
Narendra Modi’s hand of friendship has been as firmly slapped away by the military men next door as Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s was when he famously travelled across the Wagah border in that gilded bus in the winter of 1999.
Sun, Jul 29, 2018
July 22, 2018 01:00 IST
The most powerful vote bank has always been the Muslims and this does not belong to the BJP, so in the past four years they have been punished.
Sun, Jul 22, 2018
July 15, 2018 00:05 IST
If the BJP does manage to win a second term, the Prime Minister would do well to ask himself why we have violent Hindutva instead of a Hindu renaissance that could make Indians truly proud, writes Tavleen Singh.
Sun, Jul 15, 2018
July 08, 2018 01:30 IST
For those Indians who gave Modi a full majority it was because the words ‘parivartan’ and ‘vikas’ came as music to their ears.
Sun, Jul 08, 2018
July 01, 2018 00:02 IST
So can Modi do anything in the next few months that would restore the lustre that once made him seem undefeatable? There are those who wander about these days predicting that he will do something melodramatic and irreparable like prohibition.
Sun, Jul 01, 2018





