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...

September 07, 2003 00:00 IST
Ali is a pavement vendor. He and his family wake at dawn every morning to cook massive amounts of idli-sambhar, dosas and poori-bhaji which...
Sun, Sep 07, 2003
August 31, 2003 00:00 IST
Last week, as the squalid political soap opera that was the collapse of the Mayawati government played itself out wearily on our television ...
Sun, Aug 31, 2003
August 24, 2003 00:00 IST
Sonia Gandhi achieved an astonishing political feat last week. She became the target of her own motion of no confidence. I base this assert...
Sun, Aug 24, 2003
August 17, 2003 00:00 IST
In keeping with the festive spirit of the 56th happy birthday of our Tryst with Destiny let me begin on happy note. The good news is that mu...
Sun, Aug 17, 2003
August 10, 2003 00:00 IST
Sixty-one per cent of Indians do without clean drinking water, 44 per cent have no electricity, 91 per cent do without telephones and 38 per...
Sun, Aug 10, 2003
August 03, 2003 00:00 IST
By way of prologue may I say that this week’s column might not have appeared at all because, had the gods not willed otherwise, it woul...
Sun, Aug 03, 2003
July 27, 2003 00:00 IST
Muneer's story made it onto the inside pages of a couple of national newspapers for one day last week. It is a terrible story that reflects ...
Sun, Jul 27, 2003
July 20, 2003 00:00 IST
It has been some time since this column had anything nice to say about our Deputy Prime Minister. For two reasons. I consider Hindutva a dis...
Sun, Jul 20, 2003
July 13, 2003 00:00 IST
As I watched Sonia Gandhi’s lady-in-waiting, Ambika Soni, articulate her leader’s ‘‘new vision’’ last week I r...
Sun, Jul 13, 2003
July 06, 2003 00:00 IST
Every time I mention Islam and fundamentalism in the same sentence this column’s mailbox gets jammed with letters accusing me of being ...
Sun, Jul 06, 2003
June 29, 2003 00:00 IST
At almost the very moment that General Pervez Musharraf became the first military dictator to be welcomed by President Bush into the homely ...
Sun, Jun 29, 2003
June 22, 2003 00:00 IST
We have, mercifully, shaken off much of the mindset Nehruvian socialism bequeathed us. No longer are we proud of our poverty, no longer do w...
Sun, Jun 22, 2003
June 15, 2003 00:00 IST
If you followed our Deputy Prime Minister’s perambulations across the United States last week you would have noticed that he appeared t...
Sun, Jun 15, 2003
June 08, 2003 00:00 IST
With Saddam Hussain having vanished as mysteriously as Osama did and with not a trace of weapons of mass destruction found in the debris of ...
Sun, Jun 08, 2003
June 01, 2003 00:00 IST
This column comes from Boston after a tour of Harvard and the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) which left me overawed and feeling...
Sun, Jun 01, 2003
May 25, 2003 00:00 IST
When the Prime Minister, rested and jovial after his Himalayan holiday, was asked last week about a Cabinet reshuffle he treated it as a jok...
Sun, May 25, 2003
May 18, 2003 00:00 IST
With peace and bonhomie so much in the sub-continental air I hesitate to inject a gloomy note but feel unable to write this piece without do...
Sun, May 18, 2003
May 11, 2003 00:00 IST
Bankruptcy is usually a bad thing but in India we should celebrate it as an engine of change. I am not being facetious. If we had not gone b...
Sun, May 11, 2003
May 08, 2003 00:00 IST
In a small village near Amroha, I met Ravi Kumar. He lay on a bed outside his home with his left leg bandaged and useless, a metal brace pok...
Thu, May 08, 2003
May 07, 2003 00:00 IST
To return to Delhi after the unspeakable horror of touring hospitals in Uttar Pradesh and to see Sushma Swaraj smugly telling TV cameras tha...
Wed, May 07, 2003
May 04, 2003 00:00 IST
That it will take more than 300 years to clear the backlog of cases in Indian courts is proof enough that our criminal justice system is sic...
Sun, May 04, 2003
April 27, 2003 00:00 IST
One of Nehruvian socialism’s most unfortunate legacies is that it created an India in which making money legitimately was considered &#...
Sun, Apr 27, 2003
April 20, 2003 00:00 IST
My mailbox was jammed all week with letters attacking me for suggesting international mediation to resolve the Kashmir problem. It is my hop...
Sun, Apr 20, 2003
April 13, 2003 00:00 IST
For most of the course of this second Gulf War our politicians behaved with unusual circumspection and restraint. But, this unusual behaviou...
Sun, Apr 13, 2003
April 06, 2003 00:00 IST
In one of the many celebratory advertisements that have appeared in the press to commemorate ‘‘five glorious years, under the visi...
Sun, Apr 06, 2003




