Pakistan faces a period of grave uncertainty, possibly the gravest since its birth, in both international and domestic terms. The current upheaval resulting from the clash between President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Mr Nawaz Sharif, and the latter’s dismissal from the office of prime minister, only spotlights this reality. The … Read More
While the CPM’s decision to vote against the Union budget is not likely to bring down the Narasimha Rao government, it unsettles the much trumpeted plan to forge a common anti-BJP front. For it shows that the CPM, which has to be a key player in such a front, has … Read More
In its ‘white paper’ on events leading to the demolition of the disputed Babri structure in Ayodhya on December 6 last, the Bharatiya Janata Party has marshaled evidence which the government, other political parties and critics of the BJP will find difficult to controvert. The document is equally devastating on … Read More
Though I am not sure, it does appear to me that no major English-language newspaper in the capital has taken proper notice of the second wave of refugees from Afghanistan into Pakistan. This is a much smaller wave; the figure runs into thousands and not millions, as in the first … Read More
One must be dishonest or naive to deny that illegal immigration from Bangladesh constitutes a serious problem for the country. It will overwhelm us in the years and decades to come if it is not checked. Bangladesh’s is among the fastest growing populations and slowest growing economies. As it is, … Read More
Since intellectuals of different hues began warning us over a year ago against ‘enemies’ of ‘true’ Hinduism out to ‘semitise’ it, I have waited for a statement by anyone of them on what precisely alarms them in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I have waited in vain. Instead, we have been … Read More
The Madhya Pradesh high court’s judgement invalidating the dismissal of the state government is obviously a shot in the arm for the Bharatiya Janata Party and an embarrassment for the Union government and the Congress. But, above all, it is a landmark in the country’s judicial history and should be … Read More
The New Statesman ceased to be the mentor of Indian social democrats of the well-heeled variety long before it went into decline and added “& society” to its name. Most of them may not have read the article entitled “Coming next: Christian socialism” in its March 19 issue. But in … Read More
