The Emperor’s New Clothes
(This week we are simply reproducing an old European tale. The reason being that it seems very relevant today when an ordinary Kashmiri is flooded by the boastful assertions that claim a lot but mean precious little. They say less said the best: We leave it open for the readers to draw their inferences)
Many years ago there lived an emperor who loved beautiful new clothes so much that he spent all his money on being finely dressed. His only interest was in going to the theater or in riding about in his carriage where he could show off his new clothes. He had a different costume for every […]
Of Pens and Swords!
Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militant Manan Wani is no more. A promising scholar pursuing his PhD from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Manan shocked everyone when he decided to quit studies and become a militant in January this year. In an emotional letter his AMU colleagues implored him to reconsider his decision of giving up the pen […]
The India that does not shine is bigger than the India that does
The obsession with economic growth and the stock market hides other important facts about the economy
By: Anup Sinha Every time quarterly or monthly reports of the Indian economy are announced there is a reaction in the media. If the results are worse than the previous ones, then impending doom is forecast. If the results are better than the previous ones, there is unbridled optimism about future economic prospects. Both reactions […]
#MeToo India has squashed clichés once linked with victims of sexual harassment.
BY: Shefalee Vasudev Besides bombing fear from the minds of “victims” of sexual harassment by flagging the road not taken, #MeToo India has also bled out the clichés of appearance that shrouded women who spoke up. Some will argue this is too trivial a matter to table when a posse of women journalists with strength […]
Myanmar and the limits of pan-Islamism
BY: Faisal Devji Since Myanmar’s latest bout of violence against the Rohingya began in 2012, there has been a slow uptick of outrage in the Muslim world. But it was only recently, once international observers described what was happening there as an ethnic cleansing, that Muslim concern became more vocal than protests in Europe or […]
Sensible road map
THE panic created by the sharp decline in the stock market was, ultimately, the final blow. With the PTI government finally accepting that Pakistan must go to the IMF, it is now time to focus on what exactly is needed to restore macroeconomic stability and implement a programme that paves the way for sustainable growth. […]
A security architecture without the mortar
In April this year, the NarendraModi government set up a Defence Planning Committee (DPC) to assist in the creation of “national security strategy, international defence engagement strategy, roadmap to build (a) defence manufacturing ecosystem, strategy to boost defence exports, and priority capability development plans”. Earlier this month, it also decided to revive the Strategic Policy […]
Dear Gen Now
Setting up #MeToo as an all-or-nothing issue will make us ignore the considerable gains already made.
By: Rama Bijapurkar Here is the sad truth. If you randomly pick any Indian woman who has stepped out of her home into the wider world of work, be it four or 40 years ago, there is a good chance that she will have a story of experiencing gender-based harassment in the workplace. Of being […]
PML-N’s endgame
BY: Arifa Noor THE grand opposition alliance seemed true — momentarily — but only till the verbal condemnation of the government was on the menu. The moment the opposition parties had to walk the talk, the PML-N was left alone to protest in front of the National Assembly, supported only by the JUI-F and the […]
A new panchayat of ideas
The 2019 elections will have to be a political struggle where the civil society articulates itself
By: Shiv Visvanathan Elections are usually party games which a democracy conducts to keep a system dynamic. But the election of 2019 is different and the nature of the difference lies in the ethical and political challenges before us. The battle of 2019 is not merely a battle between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata […]
