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Columnists
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Bloggers
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Opinion: Jaitley's Handling Of Fuel Exposes Government's Jitters
The truth is now out. Arun Jaitley's pretend achievements as Finance Minister have amounted to no more than squeezing the lemon till the pips squeak. They are squeaking so loudly that his government has been compelled to reverse policy and lower by a tithe the zooming prices of petroleum products.
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Opinion: Bhagwat's Speech Reflects Concerns About Modi - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
Consistency has never been a virtue in the RSS. From VD Savarkar to Dr Hedgewar to 'Guru-ji' Golwalkar to Balasaheb Deoras to Mohan Bhagwat, opportunism has marked the politics of the RSS even though they have ever cleaved to a 'Hindu Rashtra' as their ideological goal.
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Opinion: What Alagiri Vs Stalin Means For Amit Shah - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
Amit Shah's desperate attempt to find a foothold in the state by hook or by crook is simply not taking off because even the various factions of the AIADMK find the BJP an embarrassment; Dinkaran is behind none in denouncing the Modi government; Kamal Haasan has firmly ruled out having any truck with Modi-Shah; and, for the DMK-Congress, of course, the saffron duo are ...
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Opinion: Rafale Lies Are Flying About - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
The government may have its explanations. The Raksha Mantri seemed about a year ago more than ready to spill the information. Then she clamped down - or was made to clamp down. Just as the lies they told about Bofors were eventually exposed, the truth about Rafale will also be exposed.
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Opinion: BJP Reaction To Sidhu's Pak Hug Is Typical
Sidhu did no more than "do in Rome what the Romans do". Giving a hug to Bajwa would have received only passing notice if the BJP had not, as they always do, sought to communalize the issue and create salience between "Pakistani" and "Muslim" to push forward their divisive agenda.
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Opinion: My Rapport With And Respect For Atal-ji - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
He was, above all, a truly outstanding parliamentarian, so outstanding that soon after he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1957, Pandit-ji was telling his confidantes within months that young Atal Bihari seemed to have in him the makings of a future Prime Minister. Two incidents when Atal-ji was still in his 30s illustrate this assessment.
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Opinion: It Was Not Nehru Who Cut Jinnah's Chances Of Being PM
It was not Nehru's aching desire to be PM but principally Jinnah himself, Mountbatten and his staff, the Congress Working Committee and eventually a despairing Gandhi-ji who gave up on this will o' the wisp of keeping India united by making Jinnah PM.
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Opinion: Amit Shah's "Mistake" About Rajiv Gandhi - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
While Amit Shah alluded in his intervention in parliament to Rajiv Gandhi having announced the accord during his Independence Day address to the nation next day from the ramparts of the Red Fort, he does not seem to have read the speech because Rajiv Gandhi says the accord was signed "yesterday" (14 August), then quickly corrects himself to say it was signed in the ea...
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Opinion: Karunanidhi Remembered By Mani Shankar Aiyar
A great voice has been stilled. For over 50 years, Kalaignar Karunanidhi carried the Dravidian Movement on his strong shoulders.
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Opinion: Mani Shankar Aiyar On Imran Khan's Victory
For us in India, the near-universal rejection of Pakistan's religion-based parties is perhaps the most significant outcome of this election - for it demonstrates (once again) that far from being partisans of fanatical Islamic terrorists, Pakistanis, by and large, reject religious extremism and terror politics.
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Opinion: Mani Shankar Aiyar On PM's Reaction To Rahul Gandhi's Hug
Hence his denigration of a gesture aimed at indicating that in a democracy we have opponents not enemies, that we do not have to harbour hatred in our hearts against those with whom we do not agree. Modi-Shah do not understand that.
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Opinion: Yes, Tharoor Is Right About "Hindu Pak" - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
As a self-confessed "secular fundamentalist", I believe this is the time and juncture for me to stand up and say that Shashi Tharoor is spot on: the Bharat which the Hindutva forces are pledged to realize would be a mirror image of Muslim Pakistan, thus making of secular India a 'Hindu Pakistan'.
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Opinion: Importance Of "Jeep" Symbol In Pak Election - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
For the third time in succession, Pakistan goes to the polls on July 25 to elect both the new parliament (called in Pakistan the National Assembly) and the four provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sind, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP, known to Indian readers more by its previous name, North-West Frontier Province - NWFP).
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Opinion: Mani Shankar Aiyar On Trump Putting India In Its Place
We will not get an alternative date until we show that we have something to give the US in return for the favour of their sustaining the illusion that we really do matter to them.
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Opinion: Mehbooba Was Burdened By Her Father With An Impossible Legacy
Mesmerized by Modi's strong man image, Mehbooba allowed herself to be diddled by his false promises and her vain hopes. Now, she has been cast aside by the same Modi on whom she pinned her excessive expectations.
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Opinion: At 34, Kim Jong Un Defeats Trump, Twice His Age
When on the lawns of the White House, Narendra Modi suddenly moved to gather to his 56-inch chest a startled and somewhat embarrassed Donald Trump, Modi seems by some process of osmosis to have passed on his DNA to Trump as what we have witnessed in Singapore is the ultimate Event Management test - the focus being entirely on the optics, to the neglect of the substanc...
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Opinion: Mani Shankar Aiyar On Pranab Mukherjee's Speech To RSS
I must confess to having felt queasy when I heard that our former Rashtrapati, Pranab Mukherjee, a man I much admire, was likely to accept an invitation from the RSS Sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, to attend the convocation of Sangh Parivaar volunteers trained for three years in becoming pracharaks.
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Opinion: Dulat And Durrani Don't Break Their Omerta
Does intelligence gathering lead to intelligent decision-making?
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Opinion: Modi's Blatant Attempt To Communalize A State - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
While the nation's attention has been riveted on the Modi-Shah shenanigans in Karnataka, inadequate attention has been paid to the excesses they are committing at the other end of the country in the North-East where a massive public agitation has been spurred by the proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955 aimed, in effect, at providing non-Muslims immigrants...
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Opinion: Karnataka Today, Kairana Next Week - By Mani Shankar Aiyar
A humble (but not humbled) Congress, in the congenial company of a broad alliance holding aloft the Idea of India, will, a year from now, stop the perverse rise of an alternative Idea of India that we have witnessed since 2014, notwithstanding the obvious truth that well over two-thirds of all Indians have never wished to have anything to do with that alternative.
