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...

August 22, 2004 00:00 IST
My problem is I am an optimist. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I continue to believe in our political leaders, continue to h...
Sun, Aug 22, 2004
August 15, 2004 00:00 IST
Having been born a few years after that famous midnight when India made her ‘‘tryst with destiny’’, I never got to see, ...
Sun, Aug 15, 2004
August 08, 2004 00:17 IST
Not for a long while has India’s political future seemed more bleak. On the one hand we have a government led by a remote-controlled Pr...
Sun, Aug 08, 2004
August 01, 2004 01:40 IST
In ALL the years I have known P Chidambaram, I never, for a moment, imagined that he was a closet Commie of the worst kind. There are, in my...
Sun, Aug 01, 2004
July 25, 2004 00:00 IST
Let me begin by saying that I think Arjun Singh’s campaign to ‘‘detoxify’’ Indian education is more dangerous than ...
Sun, Jul 25, 2004
July 18, 2004 00:00 IST
Remember the days of the foreign hand? For those of you who may have been too young in Indira Gandhi’s time or born after she passed on...
Sun, Jul 18, 2004
July 11, 2004 00:00 IST
I returned to India that is Bharat on the eve of our new government pronouncing through its Economic Survey that the last government was rig...
Sun, Jul 11, 2004
July 04, 2004 00:00 IST
Some years ago, during P Chidambaram’s first incarnation as Finance Minister, I travelled to his constituency, Sivaganga, to interview ...
Sun, Jul 04, 2004
June 27, 2004 00:00 IST
On the morning that the American engineer, Paul Johnson, was beheaded by his terrorist captors in Saudi Arabia I happened to be arriving in ...
Sun, Jun 27, 2004
June 20, 2004 00:45 IST
Having snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, the BJP now appears to be in the mood for suicide. There can be no other explanation for wh...
Sun, Jun 20, 2004
June 13, 2004 00:00 IST
My inner voice has been giving me a hard time again. In this new dawn of shining secularism, when ‘‘succular’’ (sic) thi...
Sun, Jun 13, 2004
June 06, 2004 00:00 IST
Are you as confused about who rules India as I am? Puzzled that although Santa Sonia, our Lady of Renunciation, so graciously handed the rei...
Sun, Jun 06, 2004
May 30, 2004 00:00 IST
My inner voice has been giving me a hard time. In the two weeks since the Vajpayee government found itself dumped abruptly in history’s...
Sun, May 30, 2004
May 23, 2004 00:00 IST
Let me begin by saying that never in the nearly 20 years of this column’s existence has it received more letters than I got in response...
Sun, May 23, 2004
May 17, 2004 00:00 IST
You can count on the fingers of one hand columnists who have openly objected to India having an Italian prime minister. As one of them, may ...
Mon, May 17, 2004
May 09, 2004 00:00 IST
In the khaki hills above Udaipur where dirt poor Adivasis eke out an existence, the only thing they ask of their new Chief Minister is water...
Sun, May 09, 2004
May 02, 2004 00:00 IST
Two comments caught my eye last week because they made such an interesting study in contrasts. One came from the Prime Minister and the othe...
Sun, May 02, 2004
April 25, 2004 00:00 IST
At about the exact moment the Congress party declared Sajjan Kumar its candidate in outer Delhi, Sonia Gandhi declared that India would not ...
Sun, Apr 25, 2004
April 18, 2004 00:00 IST
Let me begin by telling you the most heartening thing I have observed on my travels this election. Wherever I have gone I have met ordinary,...
Sun, Apr 18, 2004
April 11, 2004 00:00 IST
Even as someone implacably opposed to India having an Italian Prime Minister I found myself feeling sorry for Sonia Gandhi last week. What b...
Sun, Apr 11, 2004
April 04, 2004 00:00 IST
It was too good to be true. There was the Indian cricket team winning spectacularly, time after time, and there were all those tales of love...
Sun, Apr 04, 2004
March 28, 2004 00:00 IST
It is well known that it will take more than 300 years to clear the backlog of cases in Indian courts. What is not so well known, at least t...
Sun, Mar 28, 2004
March 21, 2004 00:00 IST
This was going to be a piece about the vanity of our Election Commissioners and the Seshanitis that afflicts them as soon as they take offic...
Sun, Mar 21, 2004
March 14, 2004 00:00 IST
Last time I wrote about Murli Manohar Joshi’s senseless, wasteful interference in the affairs of the Indian Institutes of Management ou...
Sun, Mar 14, 2004
March 07, 2004 00:00 IST
The trouble with political analysis is that it is usually clouded by the political proclivities of the analyst and since most Indian politic...
Sun, Mar 07, 2004




