Sonia and Rahul Gandhi at the Congress Working Committee Meeting in New Delhi, March 13, 2022 (Photo: AP) The bad news is not likely to end soon for Congress. But facing its biggest existential threat, the party leadership continues to be in a state of denial THE CENTRAL THEME of Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie is … Continue reading The Grand Delusion of the Nehru-Gandhi Family
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Is Charanjit Singh Channi’s anointment in good faith or an act of deception?
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu in Amritsar, September 22 (Photo: AFP) THE ELEVATION OF Charanjit Singh Channi, replacing Amarinder Singh as chief minister, has inspired claims of a Dalit finally getting his due in Punjab’s upper caste-dominated politics. In a state that accounts for the largest number … Continue reading Is Charanjit Singh Channi’s anointment in good faith or an act of deception?
A Setback for the Gandhis
Rahul Gandhi at a roadshow at Sulthan Bathery, Kerala, April 1, 2021 Rebel Congress leaders of the G-23 are expected to revive their calls for an organisational rejig That Congress saw Kerala as an island of hope for its first family, the Gandhis, was evident in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Sensing a huge setback … Continue reading A Setback for the Gandhis
Inside the Mind of the Indian Muslim Voter
KHALEED RASHEED FARANGI MAHLI, one of Lucknow’s prominent clerics, has a message for the people of his community this election: go out and vote in large numbers. Self-confessedly averse to interfering in politics, Farangi Mahli, a religious scholar of Farangi Mahal, an area near Chowk in Uttar Pradesh’s capital city that had in the past … Continue reading Inside the Mind of the Indian Muslim Voter
Rahul Gandhi: The Angry Debunker
ON APRIL 2ND, JUST BEFORE noon at 24 Akbar Road, headquarters of the Congress party in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi looked like a well-rested runner ready for an ultra-marathon. Except, he was not in sports gear, but a set of white, spotless kurta-pyjamas. But then, two years ago on a poll trail in Chotila, a temple-town … Continue reading Rahul Gandhi: The Angry Debunker
Why Congress Wants to Fight the Lok Sabha Polls Alone from Delhi Sans AAP
ON JANUARY 1ST, 2014, when Arvind Kejriwal took oath of office as Chief Minister of Delhi from a bursting-at-the-seams Ramlila Maidan instead of Raj Bhavan with all his typical dramatic flourish, it was a historic moment for Indian democracy. We had a chief minister who used public transport to work and even to his swearing-in, … Continue reading Why Congress Wants to Fight the Lok Sabha Polls Alone from Delhi Sans AAP
Eastern Uttar Pradesh: Will It Make or Break BJP in the 2019 Election?
IN BALLIA, KNOWN for its links to India’s freedom struggle and various melas, a strange morning ritual along narrow village roads stuns you. Men are seen taking their pigs out for a walk, waving canes, as if herding sheep that need to graze or walking dogs that must attend their call of nature. Here in the … Continue reading Eastern Uttar Pradesh: Will It Make or Break BJP in the 2019 Election?
Enter Priyanka: Can She Save the Day for Rahul?
THE MOST STRIKING thing about Priyanka Vadra Gandhi is a cliché, but one that is true: that she resembles her much- revered, much-feared grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a politician who the late writer Gabriel García Márquez is said to have famously exclaimed about: “Madam Gandhi—what a combination of delicate femininity and sheer … Continue reading Enter Priyanka: Can She Save the Day for Rahul?
Navjot Singh Sidhu: The Performer Unmasked
IT MAY NOT BE inappropriate to say that Navjot Singh Sidhu has a face behind the mask that he constantly tries to hide. Great comedians have talked about this professional dilemma. So have clowns and slapstick performers known for their frenetic pace. Sidhu perhaps fits into the last category, a sort of a Punjabi Jim … Continue reading Navjot Singh Sidhu: The Performer Unmasked
WhatsApp Will Replace Facebook as the Online Battlefield in Elections 2019
DIVYA SPANDANA HAS fans requesting selfies with her wherever she goes. This actor-turned politician from Karnataka who now heads the social-media division of the Congress party obliges such entreaties as if by force of habit. When she sits back to chat, she says she is saddled with work, and it shows: in between sentences, she … Continue reading WhatsApp Will Replace Facebook as the Online Battlefield in Elections 2019
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