Columnists

Mani Shankar Aiyar

The writer is a former Union minister.

How can this be right time not just to leave Congress but, worse, defecting to other side?

Mon, Mar 23, 2020

Congress is at long last rediscovering its voice. Congressmen should seize the moment — not defect to the other side.

‘United we stand, divided we fall’: Congress needs to make this tired old cliché its clarion call

Fri, Mar 06, 2020

Kerala's UDF and its rival LDF provide a template for surviving and taking of saffron forces. Both Fronts have stabilised their alliances by determining well in advance which constituencies the partners in the alliance will fight and which portfolios will go to which partner in the event of a coalition government being formed.

In Valley, a reality check: My trip to Srinagar laid bare a false narrative of normalcy

Sat, Feb 22, 2020

If, when I was in the foreign service, I had reported to my ambassador after such a trip that I had found “normalcy” in Srinagar, he would have recommended that my further promotions be frozen.

The Non-Alignment Man

Sun, Jan 05, 2020

An ‘archive rat’s’ account of the extraordinary life of V K Krishna Menon.

PM Modi cut his teeth in violent student movement, now he decries damage to public property

Fri, Jan 03, 2020

We are not told what these “tasks” were but we do know that “the agitation helped local leaders of the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh and its student organisation, ABVP, to establish themselves in politics.” Wikipedia helpfully adds, “Narendra Modi was one of them”.

Who are we to teach Kashmiris the virtues of democracy?

Mon, Aug 12, 2019

What is sought to be drowned out is the legacy of unflinching patriotism to India that the Kashmiri Muslim has displayed, first in being the only Muslim-majority concentration in undivided India to close their ears to the siren call of Pakistan.

Absent any direct dealings with Pakistan, the US insidiously becomes our intermediary

Thu, Jul 25, 2019

Modi has been lauding to the skies the US involvement at every crucial turn in Indo-Pak relations resulting in Trump thinking Modi is leading him up to finding a solution to a problem that “has been going on for many, many years”.

Sound the secular bugle

Tue, Jun 04, 2019

As the new government takes its oath of office, it is necessary to restore to public discourse the passionate advocacy and practice of secularism.

No Emergency Exit

Sat, Nov 17, 2018

Locating 1975 in the larger context of draconian colonial imports and how they strain Indian democracy even today

Treasured Epistles Book review: Between Friends

Sat, Sep 15, 2018

An enduring collection of correspondence between K Natwar Singh and his eclectic circle of friends that included Nirad C Chaudhuri, Indira Gandhi, RK Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand