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| December 17, 2010 | |
Is Sonia Gandhi up to the challenge?
'The challenge can only be met if Sonia Gandhi asserts herself and sets a clear Left-of-Centre direction for the Congress and the UPA. The Congress's best bet lies in building a new social coalition based on the most disadvantaged strata of subaltern groups, including Dalits, OBCs and Muslims, driven by a pro-poor programme.'
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| November 28, 2010 | |
Why the Radia tapes are a threat to our democracy
'The crossing of lines has dangerous implications for the credibility of the media -- its greatest asset. Already, many journalists have strayed from the profession's proper boundaries. It would be even worse, and ethically more repugnant, if journalists become political fixers or take instructions from corporate lobbyists.'
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| October 12, 2010 | |
Why Indians should fear the UID
'The Aadhaar project has grave civil liberty implications. It will enable the government to profile citizens and track their movements and transactions.'
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| June 25, 2010 | |
GoM has failed to hold Dow's feet to the fire
The entire effort to artificially bury the Bhopal legacy is misguided. Unfortunately, the legacy lives on. Justice demands that it is brought to an honourable, dignified closure in a fair and transparent manner. The Group of Ministers has failed to do that, writes Praful Bidwai.
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| June 11, 2010 | |
India has learnt nothing from the Bhopal tragedy
With the June 7 Bhopal judgment, India has been reduced to a Fourth World country. This story of shame can only end if the government appeals against the judgment, gets proper criminal liability restored and seriously pursues the case against all the accused.
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| May 21, 2010 | |
UPA-2: Time to change course
'The government must give up its neo-liberal polices and obsession with GDP growth and shift its ideological centre of gravity leftwards.'
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| April 09, 2010 | |
Big Brother is watching you!
A citizen's privacy will be compromised through the unique identity project leading to misuse by the State and other agencies, writes Praful Bidwai.
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| March 19, 2010 | |
The UPA's second great nuclear folly
The nuclear liability bill is fatally flawed. It's designed to shield the nuclear industry from discharging its public responsibility. It must be scrapped, writes Praful Bidwai
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| January 05, 2010 | |
What resumption of talks with Pak means for India
'The less engagement there is between India and Pakistan, the less can New Delhi defend its interests. The wider the two countries diverge, the more mutually hostile do they become.'
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| December 04, 2009 | |
Kaiga: Question mark over nuclear safety
To investigate the Kaiga episode, we need a truly independent committee, composed of external experts, radiation biologists, safety specialists and representatives of workers and citizens liable to be affected by nuclear mishaps.
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| November 13, 2009 | |
The BJP's hour may have passed
'The Karnataka crisis clearly showed the BJP in the grip of regional satraps, for whom the national leadership is of little consequence.'
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| October 26, 2009 | |
Bt brinjal, a step towards disaster
'Ultimately, do we want sustainable agriculture that's relevant to our climate, resources and food security? Or do we want corporate farming based on high-risk GM seeds and high chemical inputs?'
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| September 18, 2009 | |
How many bombs does India need?
'India already has more than 100 fission weapons, each enough to kill up to two million people. This is deterrence enough.'
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| August 03, 2009 | |
Sinking billions into nuclear weapons
'India has so far spent Rs 30,000 crores on the ATV, with virtually no side benefits. This equals the entire budget of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act last year, which generated 45 million person days of employment,' says Praful Bidwai.
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| May 23, 2009 | |
Aam Aadmi please, not India Inc
'If the NREGA can yield such handsome dividends, imagine the impact of an initiative to provide universal healthcare, free primary education, safe drinking water, affordable housing and social security.'
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| May 02, 2009 | |
BJP succumbs to Moditva
'Some minimal justice will be done if the public delivers a stinging rebuff to Modi by voting against the BJP and sending it packing from the political arena, thus rendering it insignificant.'
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| April 17, 2009 | |
Does the Third Front have a future?
'The Third Front can provide a useful counter to the deplorably communal NDA and a Left-of-Centre alternative to the UPA. But it may be wrong to see the present combination as a cohesive force which can make a convincing bid for power.'
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| April 06, 2009 | |
Sanjay Gandhi is reborn in the BJP
The BJP has stooped to a new low in endorsing Varun Gandhi's toxic campaign. Many people had some sympathy for the BJP because it opposed the Emergency. But with its celebration of the Sanjay Gandhi cult, it has forfeited that sympathy and further lost credibility.
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| March 06, 2009 | |
The final wake-up call for Pakistan
The only sensible alternative is a regional approach to isolate the jihadis who menace all of South Asia. For this to materialise, the Pakistani State must summon up the will to crack down on and prosecute groups like LeT and their domestic and Afghan collaborators, says Praful Bidwai.
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| February 20, 2009 | |
Why we will have a free-for-all election
The way things are going, India may have a no-limits free-for-all political contest rather than a three-horse race. Parties are approaching one another across the dividing lines of alliances, breaching conventional rules of the political game.
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| January 16, 2009 | |
Indian capitalism has always had a criminal side
'Our corporate nabobs often milk their companies by appointing procurement and distribution agents, by under- and over-invoicing imports/exports, evading taxes, indulging in insider trading, and dressing up balance-sheets. Satyam fits this pattern, which is widely prevalent in most brick-and-mortar companies.'
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| December 27, 2008 | |
Counterterrorism must not kill democracy
'Regrettably, the UPA seems to be caving in to pressures from the BJP to adopt a macho, national-chauvinist, to-hell-with-civil-liberties stance to show that it has the will to fight terrorism.'
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| September 05, 2008 | |
View: The ONLY way out in Kashmir
The Indian state must radically rethink its Kashmir policy. It must reach out to the Kashmiri people with the offer of a dialogue in earnest and put the issue of autonomy up-front on the table. Such a dialogue must include even extremist pro-azadi leaders.
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| August 29, 2008 | |
Nuclear deal in dire trouble
If the UPA government signs the nuclear deal with onerous conditions, its credibility will be undermined. If the deal collapses, the UPA stands to become the nation's laughing stock.
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| August 08, 2008 | |
Why it's crunch time for Pakistan
The people of Pakistan are in a dark, foreboding mood. According to an International Republican Institute opinion poll, as many as 86 percent of Pakistanis believe their country is headed in the wrong direction.
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| July 18, 2008 | |
The true costs of the nuclear deal
'The Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance will shift the centre of gravity of Indian politics to the right, with harmful consequences for the mass of the population which has a stake in Left-of-Centre policies. This shift can only facilitate the rise of the already buoyed-up BJP, and could prove a big setback for secularism.'
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| April 15, 2008 | |
Advani's book exposes his pettiness
'The most nauseating part of the book pertains to the Gujarat riots. Advani rejects the settled truth that the post-Godhra violence was State-sponsored.'
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| March 13, 2008 | |
It's not a farmer's Budget!
The United Progressive Alliance's last full Budget was to be "people-friendly" and correct these distortions. It has comprehensively failed to do so. Indeed, it continues with the neo-liberal policy orientation and will create more problems than it solves.
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| October 17, 2007 | |
India's policy flounders on Burma
'Nothing has exposed the grave failure of India's recent policy towards its neighbours as its support for Burma's military dictatorship.'
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| August 27, 2007 | |
The new form of McCarthyism
We are witnessing the most vicious attack on the Left's patriotic credentials. This is a new form of McCarthyism
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| April 29, 2007 | |
When the State turn lawless
'This insanity must stop. Or else, the State will lose its legitimacy in the eyes of the people. Then, the Maoists will have achieved their purpose of discrediting not just the State, but democracy itself.'
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| January 15, 2007 | |
Saddam's execution was illegal, vengeful
'The grotesque irony is that while Hussein was hanged for killing 148 people, the leaders of the US and its allies won't be tried for killing half-a-million Iraqi children through the post-1991 sanctions, nor for the death of 655,000 Iraqi civilians.'
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| August 17, 2006 | |
From farce to tragedy
The number of working days during which Parliament meets has shrunk by a fifth. Parliament now devotes only 14 per cent of its time to legislative business.
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| August 01, 2006 | |
Perils of the Israel model
If India emulates the Israeli model, it will discredit itself as a irresponsible nation and a brigand, and promote lawlessness and unspeakable violence in its neighbourhood.
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| July 03, 2006 | |
Why V P Singh Remains Relevant
The real reason lies in his special, probably unique, role as The Transition Man, who spanned many divides in India.
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| May 30, 2006 | |
The anti-quota stir is misguided
'The agitation was driven by a highly individualistic urge to defend and extend privilege against the common good.'
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| March 06, 2006 | |
A global bully as a friend
'All that India will have gained if the nuclear deal is ratified by the US Congress is legitimisation for its weapons of mass destruction and second/third rate status as a US ally.'
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| February 27, 2006 | |
Armed forces are not a Holy Cow
'The armed forces cannot be an exception to the concept of citizenship in a multi-ethnic society. Nor can they demand to be shielded from scrutiny just because they perform a role in India's defence.'
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