Parliamentary democracy rests on a simple bargain that governments govern and oppositions oppose, but both respect the stage on which the argument is conducted. But that bargain frayed when the Lok Sabha descended into orchestrated disorder, culminating in the extraordinary sight of a Motion of Thanks passed without the Prime Minister’s reply. At the centre of the disturbance stood Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and a Congress party that seems increasingly convinced th

The accident and the gargantuan traffic snarl along the Mumbai–Pune Expressway after a gas tanker overturned was a brutal exposure of Maharashtra’s hollowness in emergency preparedness, crisis coordination and basic administrative empathy. After a tanker carrying highly flammable propylene gas overturned in the Khandala ghat section and a gas leak was detected, traffic was completely shut for over 24 hours as the State administration merely watched commuters in hundreds of ca

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has perfected the art of governance without governing. When confronted by scrutiny, she reaches instinctively for confrontation while alleging conspiracy and claiming victimhood. Her clash with the Election Commission in Delhi over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in her state is less a defence of democracy than a display of her chronic inability to coexist with authority she does not control. Dragging along her poli

Rahul Gandhi’s latest intervention in the Lok Sabha offered yet another study in intellectual recklessness that the Congress leader apparently enjoys revelling in. By attempting to indict the Modi government on the basis of an unpublished memoir filtered through a magazine article, the Leader of Opposition reduced debate on national security to political ventriloquism. Critiquing decisions using material that cannot be read, verified or contextualised is not parliamentary vig

Economic surveys are not usually known for fretting about what people eat, how long they scroll or whether their children are glued to glowing screens. They are supposed to concern themselves with sterner fare like GDP growth, fiscal arithmetic, productivity trends and export projections. That is precisely why the Economic Survey 2025–26 deserves attention. In a striking departure, it treats junk food, obesity and excessive screen time not as lifestyle peccadilloes but as mat

The signing of India and the European Union’s long-delayed free-trade agreement (FTA) and the formalisation of a security and defence partnership binds nearly two billion people and about a quarter of global GDP into a meaningful economic and strategic bloc. In an age of tariff wars, sanctions regimes and maritime disruption, this itself is no small feat. While bilateral trade already exceeds $136 bn a year, the FTA promises to push it much further. But the defence partnershi

Ajit Pawar’s life in politics was a study in restless energy and permanent incompleteness. His tragic death in a private plane crash has stupefied Maharashtra, bringing an abrupt end to a career defined by constant movement and unfinished ambition. A record six-time Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit Pawar died as he lived: in motion, rushing to Baramati to address a local rally and tethered to the routines of grassroots politics even after four decades in public life. That the 66-y

After nearly a decade of drift, India and the European Union have decided to sprint ahead. The conclusion of the long-awaited free-trade agreement ever since talks were relaunched in June 2022 after a nine-year hiatus, marks one of the most consequential economic alignments of the decade. Branded with some hyperbole as the “mother of all deals,” the Indo-EU pact aims to knit together a market of nearly two billion people and roughly a quarter of global GDP. The timing is deli

India’s Republic Day is often read through its splendid military pageantry which has become the symbolic visual shorthand for every January 26. But it is, in fact, an anniversary of restraint for in 1950, India chose to govern itself not by the passions of victory or grievance, but by a Constitution. As the country marks its 77th Republic Day, the past year offers evidence not just of spectacle, but of state capacity put to work. The setting this year is heavy with symbolism.

Donald Trump’s new ‘Board of Peace’ has arrived with all the thump and glitter of a Las Vegas unveiling. Big, brash and self-regarding, it is riddled with contradictions so glaring that they scarcely need pointing out. India, the world’s most populous democracy and a country with a long record in peacekeeping, has wisely abstained itself from Trump’s jamboree. Pakistan, a state whose relationship with militancy has been documented for decades, has predictably joined in, cling

There is something faintly theatrical about Indian Chief Ministers flying to Davos to sign memoranda of understanding, as if Switzerland’s thin air confers a special aura of credibility. On the opening day of the World Economic Forum, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said his government had signed 19 MoUs worth a heady Rs. 14.5 lakh crore, promising 15 lakh jobs across sectors ranging from green energy to quantum computing. The numbers are grand. Yet back home, th

India’s federal compact was never meant to resemble street theatre. Yet that is precisely what unfolded in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where opening sessions of the Assemblies degenerated into petty skirmishes between Raj Bhavans and elected governments. Governors deserve scrutiny for overreach. But what played out on January 20 says as much about the studied belligerence of two state governments that have turned constitutional convention into a contact sport. Start with Tamil Nad

Road accidents in India have become almost quotidian. They are so frequent that they barely register beyond a statistic or a fleeting headline. Yet, even by these numbing standards the death of 27-year-old software engineer Yuvraj Mehta, who died last week after his car skidded in dense fog in Greater Noida stands apart. Mehta was driving home from work in Gurugram when his vehicle smashed through a low boundary and plunged into a deep, water-filled excavation pit on an adjoi

There are defeats, and then there are indictments. India’s 2–1 ODI series loss to New Zealand at home, sealed by a 41-run defeat in Indore, belongs firmly in the latter category.  The even stranger question is how are the Kiwis, of all teams, shattering India’s once-vaunted home turf invincibility for the second time in less than two years? New Zealand first inflicted a historic defeat when they whitewashed India 3–0 at home in 2024, a feat that was described as the first suc

A.R. Rahman has spent three decades persuading India and the world that music can transcend identity. Which is why his recent remarks to the BBC Asian Network land not merely as a sour note, but as a dangerous one. In saying that there was a communal bias against him while describing the film ‘Chhaava’ as “divisive” despite himself working on it, Rahman has said something highly corrosive. For an artist of his stature, such a lapse is not trivial. The interview, conducted by

For nearly six decades, Mumbai’s municipal politics revolved around a single surname. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), India’s richest civic body and the city’s real seat of power, was less an institution than a Thackeray fiefdom. That era now looks decisively over. With the BJP, in alliance with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena emerging dominant in the most keenly-contested civic body, the verdict is unmistakable: the Thackeray cousins’ reunion has failed, and with it

The death of Zubeen Garg, Assam’s most beloved musical son, was always destined to become more than a personal tragedy. In a region where celebrity, politics and grievance frequently blur, his drowning off Singapore’s Lazarus Island last September was swiftly recast as something more sinister in form of a murder plot and a betrayal. The Assam government’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) obliged the mood, filing a mammoth 12,000-page charge sheet accusing organisers, managers

After nearly three years of delay, Maharashtra’s eagerly-awaited civic polls including the key Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections are finally here. In Mumbai, the polls will see over 1.03 crore voters deciding the fate of 227 wards. Across Maharashtra, elections for 29 municipal corporations including the Pune (PMC) and Pimpri-Chinchwad (PCMC) civic bodies will be held in a single phase, with results declared the next day. The State Election Commission has ev

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has long been treated as a model of quiet reliability. However, that reputation is now under strain after the PSLV-C62, carrying 16 satellites, experienced a deviation during its third stage of flight shortly after lifting off from Sriharikota. ISRO confirmed that the rocket did not proceed along its expected trajectory, though it has stopped short of declaring the mission a failure. In most launch vehicles, the third stage is where a mi

Few buildings in India carry as much historical sediment as the Somnath temple on Gujarat’s wind-scoured coast. It has been smashed, rebuilt, looted and restored so many times that it has become less a shrine than a ledger of the subcontinent’s civilisational fortunes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the recent ‘Somnath Swabhiman Parv,’ captured that essence with unusual clarity. The ‘Shaurya Yatra’ - a ceremonial procession organised to honour those who laid down th