Unity moves among the Akalis appear to be gathering momentum. Among those in office, Mr. Balwant Singh, finance minister, has taken the initiative. While it is difficult to say with certainty whether he has done so with or without the chief minister, Mr. Surjit Singh Barnala’s agreement, it looks as … Read More
While there is no dearth of Indians who question the validity of the concept of secularism for their country, no Indian has ever disputed that it is an antidote to communalism. This is truly extraordinary and speaks of the grip a slogan can acquire on our collective mind. Currently a … Read More
The Punjab government has at long last arrested a prominent Akali leader, who has been encouraging violence in the state. Sukhjinder Singh is a well-known extremist. He was arrested during President’s rule in Punjab. Even so the Akali leadership not only chose him as one of its candidates for election … Read More
A grave situation could have arisen if the Badal faction in the Akali Dal had not postponed the convention it was scheduled to hold in the curfew-bound Malout in Faridkot district on Saturday. This has mercifully been avoided. The decision follows an extremely tough statement by the governor, Mr. Sidhartha … Read More
The future of the individual Congressman named Mr. P.C. Sethi is not a matter of concern for us. But the future of the party is. And this future is not assured by the manner in which the leadership has acted in the Sethi affair. It has ignored its own rules … Read More
The big news is not that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi has appointed Mr. N.D. Tiwari minister for external affairs but that Mr. Arun Nehru has gone out of the council of ministers. Of course, as a minister of state, Mr. Nehru would not have deserved such a notice. But he was … Read More
Mr. P.C. Sethi had, in a manner of speaking, gone over the brink, leaving Mr. Rajiv Gandhi little choice but to take disciplinary action against him. It is not possible to convey the flavour of what the former Union home minister (during Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister) has … Read More
Some leftists and secularists have reacted adversely to my article “The Hindu Backlash: Ghost That Fails To Rise”. To begin with, I was taken by surprise by this reaction for I had not advocated a backlash; on the contrary I had argued that the Hindus lacked the necessary coherence to … Read More
No one can be surprised by the attempt on the life of the Punjab police chief, Mr. Ribeiro. The surprise, if any, is that the attempt has taken so long to materialize. Since he took over his present job, Mr. Ribeiro has without doubt been the single biggest obstacle in … Read More
The episode at Rajghat on Gandhiji’s birth anniversary underlines the utter incompetence of the security arrangements for the President and the Prime Minister. That an armed man could have managed to get into the Rajghat complex on the eve of the anniversary celebrations and spend the night there speaks for … Read More
