Opinion & Edits

Inside Track: Learnt from a Master

Coomi Kapoor writes: Shah traces the story of Modi’s success as a poll strategist not to the Gujarat chief ministerial or 2014 campaigns, but way back to 1987, when Modi was given charge of the BJP campaign in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation polls.

Time for a re-set 

P Chidambaram wirtes: We cannot depart from the path of an open, liberal and market-based economy. That would be suicidal. Yet, we must take stock and, considering the global and domestic developments, re-set our economic policies. That requires the courage, clarity and speed of 1991

What Arivu’s fight and faith taught me

Everybody desecrates the past. Everybody endangers the future

Who is to blame? And is being divided over everything the only way?

What Zakir Hussain’s Farewell to Shiv Kumar Sharma says about Hindustani classical music

The tabla maestro’s farewell speaks of a tradition in which faith was all about assimilation

The bulldozer is becoming, in Delhi and beyond, the symbol of a divisive, vindictive politics

Delhi’s municipal administration must rethink its approach to allegedly illegal constructions. Else, as in Jahangirpuri, the judiciary must step in.

How to make a Uniform Civil Code

Tahir Mahmood writes: Uniform Civil Code must be nationwide, and involve the abolition of all regressive laws

Attack on MSU exhibition is part of long, troubling history

Ram Rahman writes: Ongoing cultural onslaught has led to muted protest and self-censorship

Don’t play politics with Covid death numbers, let’s learn from them

Shamika Ravi writes: Covid death data has led to intense speculation and politicisation. The core issue is not that the numbers are right or wrong, but the absence of high quality data.

Split verdict in high court on marital rape mirrors deep differences. It also opens up a larger conversation

The split court verdict may not move the needle too far, but it has ignited a much-needed conversation on marital rape, both within and outside courts.

The turtle’s way: Lessons on how to take it easy from a wandering, meandering seafarer

How animals like sea turtles know where to go has occupied the attention of naturalists and researchers for centuries. Broadly speaking, there is no definitive answer.

May 13, 1982, Forty Years Ago: Falkland Battle

Two Argentine military planes were shot while attacking a British ship off the disputed Falkland Islands, the Defence Ministry announced. The ministry spokesperson reporting the action said three planes attacked the ship.

With inflation at 8-year high, RBI has no option but to raise interest rates further

This is now the fourth straight month that inflation has come in above the upper threshold of the central bank’s inflation targeting framework. The latest data only affirms the notion that inflationary pressures are far more broad-based and entrenched than what was previously believed.

Let’s not compare economies of Nepal and Sri Lanka

Shankar P Sharma writes: Though a few indicators look similar for both countries, Nepal’s growth rate this fiscal year has significantly improved from earlier projections.

Monetary policy alone won’t bring down inflation

Jahangir Aziz writes: Bringing down today’s inflation requires a resolution of geopolitical tensions in Europe, changes to China’s zero-Covid policy, much stronger fiscal support from the government, and reforms that help repair the disrupted domestic supply chain

Listen to another Narendra

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury writes: BJP must remember Vivekananda’s words on fanaticism. No country has become an economic powerhouse with its society divided, and a section of its population made to feel small

Why the sedition law must go

D. Raja writes on sedition law: It is used for witch hunts by government against those who question it.

Imran Khan’s dangerous narrative

Samina Yasmeen writes: It could further weaken a Pakistan increasingly divided along ethnic, religious, and sectarian lines, between supporters and opponents of jihad, and between the exceptionally rich and poor masses

Shankar P Sharma

The writer is the Ambassador of Nepal to India and former Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Nepal.

Marital rape is rape: Why modern India still won’t accept this

Mary E John writes: To accept the idea that rape can happen within marriage, understanding of the institution itself must change.

Hindutva and Fascism: They may not be identical, but why suspend a teacher who asked students to compare the two?

The thinking citizens of this country ought to wonder about the answers of the students if they had been allowed to attempt the exam question on Hindutva and Fascism

Hindutva and Fascism: Attempt to put them in the same bracket is intended to insult the civilisational wisdom of our nation

The University Grants Commission has rightly initiated action against the setting of a question paper in a private university that targets the faith of the majority community.

Among other things, Sukh Ram’s long career reveals electorate’s complex relationship with corruption

The CBI raids made for a riveting spectacle and turned Ram, then the Union Minister of Communications and IT (with independent charge), into the face of the abstract idea called political corruption. Ram resigned as minister and the Congress expelled him from the party.

Heading for GSTExit

Praveen Chakravarty writes: GST isn’t just about economic efficiency conceived by technocrats. Sustaining it requires restoring trust in the Centre-state relationship

The good cop

Bibek Debroy writes: It’s time to nudge states towards implementing measures for police reform directed by the Supreme Court in its landmark Prakash Singh verdict

RBI should allow the rupee to find its own level, intervene only to smoothen excess volatility

The outlook for the Indian rupee continues to be weighed down by tighter global monetary policy, a strengthening of the US dollar and risk aversion, and higher current account deficits.

May 12, 1982, Forty Years Ago: British Shelling

A British warship fired on an Argentine surface vessel in Falkland sound, separating the two main islands in the disputed South Atlantic colony and a loud explosion occurred, according to the British Defence Office.

On sedition, government attempted to mount high ground, invoked PM’s intent. The apex court has now put it to the test

On sedition, the government attempted to mount the high ground, invoking the occasion of the 75th year of the independence and the Prime Minister’s intent. The court has now put it to the test.