Another violent turn in the long-standing objective of Hamas to capture Jerusalem Soumya Santosh, a 30-year-old nurse-cum-caregiver from Idukki in Kerala, has brought the Hamas-Israel conflict closer to our living rooms last week. Santosh was working as a caregiver to 80-year-old Nella Gurevitz and her husband in Ashkelon, a Jerusalem suburb. She was killed along […]
Democracies are cherished political systems only when they uphold liberal credentials. Freedom of person and speech are an essential acid test for any democracy. That includes free speech, free media and political freedom. Only in such societies where liberty and freedom are respected will the human creativity blooms and blushes. Such societies become home to artists, writers, thinkers and craftsmen, […]
The 2014 mandate that catapulted Narendra Modi into the prime ministership of the world’s largest democracy was essentially due to three factors – Modi’s personal charisma, united grassroot efforts of the party and Sangh Parivaar cadre and the failures of the previous UPA II government. When the elections took place five years later in 2019, […]
For the country to tide over this emergency, greater empowered involvement of different stakeholders is imperative “Wait for Godot or wait for God?” — is a philosophical question that seekers direct at the masters. Godot was an enigmatic character created by the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in his popular play, Waiting for Godot. In Beckett’s play, […]
Both Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar were looking at the concept of Ram Rajya from their respective prisms—Gandhi from a more pragmatic prism and Ambedkar from a literal one. But both highlight the fact that a just system should be one where the weak are protected and their voices heard. “Hinduism is a movement, not […]
Maoists, like all insurgents, brainwash leaders and cadres. Understanding this doctrinal challenge should be essential any strategy against them In the last decade, a Union Home Minister offered the olive branch of talks to the Maoists if they shun violence. He also unsuccessfully attempted to deploy the army in Maoist-insurgency areas. Another Home Minister believed […]
Liberalism of the Enlightenment Era thinkers like John Locke and Adam Smith was about political and economic liberty. Individual freedom, human rights, minimalist state, democracy and economic liberty were its desideratum. Frederic Roosevelt (FDR) had added welfarism to it after the Second World War and projected it as the Progressive Liberalism or simply the Progressivism. […]
Indo-Pacific is fast emerging as the battleground of the 21st century. At the dawn of this century, the global power axis has shifted away from the Pacific–Atlantic to the Indo–Pacific. Rise of the Asian Tigers – Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea – towards the end of the last century and the unprecedented economic […]
It’s a tribute to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose centenary celebrations conclude today, that India and Bangladesh have forged a very close friendship. ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary celebrations are going on in Bangladesh. Mujib was born on March 17th, 1920, in the Bengal province of undivided India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected […]
The Americans now want India to be a part of Afghanistan deliberations. US Secretary of State Tony Blinken wrote to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recommending an UN-led deliberation hosted by Turkey and participated in by the US, Pakistan, India, Iran, Russia and China. In other words, the “Doha process” will become the “Istanbul process”. But […]
