In keeping with his well known strategy of using the media to keep the prime minister off balance and to force a decision on him, Mr Arjun Singh has said that elections in UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh will not be held within six months of the dismissal … Read More
When I wrote last week that in banning the RSS in the absence of evidence of its leadership’s involvement in the demolition of the Babri structure in Ayodhya, the government had fired the last shot in its arsenal, I assumed that the memory of the Emergency and its consequences would … Read More
It is indeed surprising that Prime Minister Narasimha Rao has walked into the trap laid by some of his partymen by dismissing the BJP governments after having given the impression that he was recovering his composure and capacity for cool calculation. Mr Arjun Singh, determined to capture the ideological leadership … Read More
Muslims Have To Reckon With Realities An historic opportunity for genuine and long-term Hindu-Muslim understanding offered by repeated and passionate pleas by Hindu organisations for the Ramjanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya has been thrown away. But all is not yet lost. Something can still be salvaged, and a new beginning made. … Read More
With its decision to ban the RSS, the government has fired the last shot. Its armoury is now empty. The result cannot but be victory for what has come to be known as the RSS parivar. They cannot be blamed if they have begun to scent victory, though, of course, … Read More
In Indian villages, authority and order still command priority over the law of judges and lawyers, though respect for, and fear of, authority have declined a great deal in recent years. Most of those born and brought up in the countryside carry this approach with them even after they have … Read More
It may be premature to speak of a turn of tide in favour of the BJP in the bitter, though confused, political struggle in the country. But it could soon, if the authorities, anti-BJP parties and the dominant elite continue to behave the way they have been, especially in recent … Read More
1992 will doubtless go down in Indian history as the year of Ayodhya. This is so not so much because recent events there have pushed into the background all other issues such as economic reforms and reservations for the ‘other backward castes’ as because they have released forces which will … Read More
What follows is, without doubt, a minority view among the English-speaking intelligentsia in the country. Possibly the minority to which I belong is so small that it is not worthy of consideration. But that may not be quite the case. In any event, I feel as appalled today as I … Read More
Broadly speaking, two themes dominate the international public discourse – globalisation not only of the economy but also of communications, entertainment and indeed ‘culture’, and the need for a ‘new’ world order. The two themes are interrelated. A global village, which is what the world is becoming, cannot afford disorder … Read More
