Mihir Swarup Sharma – Author, NDTV.com

Opinion: So Imran Sounds More Mature Than Modi On Nuke Options

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Monday April 22, 2019

It takes a certain chutzpah to joke about nuclear exchanges while standing in Barmer at the Pakistan border - just one of the districts that would be wiped out if we actually ever found ourselves at in a nuclear war.

Opinion: BJP Has Earned The Discomfort Caused By Imran Khan's New Remarks

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Wednesday April 10, 2019

Khan's claim has dropped like a stone into the fervid, hyper-nationalist swamp that Modi's BJP has turned this election into. The Prime Minister himself has just urged first-time voters to not dedicate their vote to those who committed the Pulwama attack.

Opinion: The Incredible BJP-Congress Role Reversal

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Wednesday April 03, 2019

Most absurdly, if it is being treated as a government-sponsored channel, and receiving government advertisements, then it is clearly a case of government money going into electioneering at the time when the model code of conduct is in operation. How blatant a violation of rules and of propriety can one expect to see?

Opinion: "<i>Chowkidar</i>" Shows Rahul May Just Have Outwitted Modi

Opinion: "Chowkidar" Shows Rahul May Just Have Outwitted Modi

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Monday March 18, 2019

Now we have the dubious pleasure of discovering that every union minister and also every noxious right-wing troll has added "Chowkidar" to their Twitter handle, making for a truly ridiculous timeline - if, that is, you are foolish enough to follow many of them.

Opinion: Fooling People One Last Time, Prime Minister Modi?

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Friday February 01, 2019

For a government that does not care about propriety or about India's institutions, this is a win-win game. If their irresponsible budget mathematics and giveaways win them re-election, well of course they win. And if for some reason it doesn't work and they're voted out, the next government will have an impossible task - either they, unimaginably, tell people the tax ...

Opinion: With Priyanka Move, Congress (Indira) Falls Into Trap Set By Haters

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Wednesday January 23, 2019

Are we supposed to be wildly excited about the news - buried in the third paragraph of an anodyne press release from what should correctly still be called the Congress (Indira) - that another member of the Gandhi family has been given a position within the party organisation? I'm certainly not.

Opinion: Modi's Ministers' Brazen Statements On No Shortage Of Jobs

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Thursday January 17, 2019

There was not even the slightest remorse expressed by the ministers for whatever combination of circumstances may have arisen in the economy to cause this sort of desperation on the part of job-seekers. Nor was there an iota of compassion for these young job-seekers or a comprehension of the lack of choices they face.

Opinion: How Arun Jaitley Gifted Rahul Gandhi The Edge In Rafale Debate

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Thursday January 03, 2019

There's only one takeaway from the duelling speeches delivered by Rahul Gandhi and Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha, and that is that the BJP is, for some reason, rattled. This is not 2014; attacks on the Congress for corruption aren't going to have the power they had back then.

Opinion: Rahul Gandhi's Press Conference Should Concern His Supporters

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Wednesday December 12, 2018

These, the contestants, have arrived at the starting line for 2019. I'd wish them a happy new year, but the merciless mathematics of electoral politics means the new year cannot bring prosperity and fulfilment for all of them.

Opinion: With Urjit Patel's Exit, Team Modi Delivers A New First

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Monday December 10, 2018

Narendra Modi promised us that his would be a government of firsts, and he has certainly delivered. Not once in the post-liberalisation years of India's rise has the governor of the Reserve Bank of India had to resign.

Opinion: What Supreme Court's Tirade Against Amrapali Means For Home-Owners

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Friday December 07, 2018

The Supreme Court's unusually furious broadside against the real estate company Amrapali - "you are perfect liars", the judges declared, and "the worst kind of cheaters in the world" - gives voice to this, one of the greatest fears of the Indian middle class.

Opinion: Modi Has Shown RBI Who's Boss

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Tuesday November 20, 2018

What was going on, precisely? Why has the RBI become the next front-line of the Modi government's war on institutions?

Opinion: Why RBI Is Suddenly Standing Up To Modi - And What's At Stake

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Wednesday October 31, 2018

Encapsulated here is the broader failure of this government: it started with such hopes and ambitions, as visible in the decision to give the RBI an independent inflation target; but now it is reduced to scrapping with the RBI over its reserves to fund its populist election spending. And so yet another institution feels its independence slipping away under Narendra Mo...

Opinion: Why The Sabarimala Judgment Should Worry Freedom-Loving Liberals

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Sunday October 21, 2018

There is, especially to those who care about individual rights, something disturbing about this entire process. The "tradition" that bars many women from entering the temple is not of any great age, but even so, it has settled into the complex of beliefs held by worshippers of the temple's deity, Ayyappa.

Opinion: How Army Chief And Government Are Misusing Surgical Strikes' Talk

Mihir Swarup Sharma | Saturday September 29, 2018

As our government demands we celebrate "Surgical Strikes Day", we should instead reflect. And feel disturbed - because not for decades has a government so blatantly politicised Indian defence and India's military. The Bharatiya Janata Party has shown that it is willing to compromise on India's security just to try to win a few elections.

OPINION