It has long been superfluous to make the point that the Congress does not function as a democratic organisation should. It has not held organizational elections for almost two decades; it does not allow anything like an internal debate on important policy issues; it does not even observe its own … Read More
Words fail. Not because Badshah Khan’s death has come as a sudden shock. On the contrary, the grand old man lay dying for months. And he had been incapacitated and out of action for years. Words fail because one must find it virtually impossible to fit Badshah Khan into a … Read More
Mr Harideo Joshi has gone the way of many otter Congress chief ministers in the past two decades. Two facts stand out in this case, as in similar ones earlier. First, Mr Joshi has been asked to stand down by the Congress president, and not by a majority in the … Read More
A Sino-Soviet summit within this year has been put on the agenda. This is plain meaning of Mr Gorbachev’s proposal to that effect in an interview to the Chinese weekly Liaowang (Outlook). On the face of it, the Chinese response has been cool. To begin with, the Chinese official news … Read More
The Congress leadership in New Delhi has been well advised not to intervene in the internal power struggle that has inevitably broken out in the AIADMK in the wake of Mr MG Ramachandran’s death. It is important in the larger and long-term national interest that the Centre gives and is … Read More
The Indian Muslim perception of having ruled over India for a thousand years (a figure Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto popularised) played a major role in the rise of Muslim “nationalism” in the sub-continent. But as any student of history would know, this self-perception of the Indian Muslims has little relation … Read More
During the recent informal get together at the Sariska sanctuary, a senior cabinet minister is reported to have narrated his experience in wooing the Muslim vote. He had, he said, promoted a lot of development in and around a predominantly Muslim area in his constituency. But when he visited it … Read More
