Triumphalism, premature declaration of victory meant no one checked if India had enough vaccines, oxygen, remdesivir, bringing us back to a crisis where we need foreign aid after four decades, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'One of R&AW's greatest achievements is in projecting itself as benign.' 'This work -- done in tandem with the Diaspora and the MEA -- sells a story of India as mostly the victim.'
Ruling out extension of July 31 deadline for filing income tax returns, IT authorities said on Monday special counters will be opened from July 28 in major cities to meet the eleventh hour rush.
Income tax office to remain open on Saturday and Sunday for those who have not yet filed their returns.
This is a national leadership gone so wrong that India's most powerful prime minister in four decades has personally taken charge of medical oxygen shortages, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'The picture only looks worse from where Bajwa sits.' 'He sees a domineering India to the east, an unravelling Afghanistan and a complex Iran to the west, an overbearing China on the north and a US which is no longer an ally,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Flurry of economic reform suggests Modi realises his muscular nationalism script is getting jaded. Chances are he'll try for economic recovery but stick to what's worked so far, observes Shekhar Gupta.
India must break out of this strategic triangulation between China and Pakistan. We need to settle our issues with one of the two, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Not all change is good, but this one is, applauds Shekhar Gupta.
For the first time, large display screens and consoles for participation from galleries, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, special cables between the two Houses and polycarbonate separators will be in place.
'As soon as the BJP feels they are going to lose power, they will publish the caste census data of 2011 and conduct the caste census of 2021.'
This crisis requires political sophistication and governance skills. This BJP has neither, observes Shekhar Gupta.
On all key issues, Congress is MIA, sighs Shekhar Gupta.
In politics, if your objective is only winning elections, just Chanakya neeti might do. For governance you need both, Chanakya neeti and Ram Rajya. You can neither beat up the farmers into submission, nor dismiss them as 'Khalistanis', asserts Shekhar Gupta.
At some stage this fall in the quality of life will begin to hurt anybody's popularity, observes Shekhar Gupta.
There is a vocal constituency of educated, well-to-do, articulate Indian elites who would rather go with the idea that too much democracy is a liability. That India needs a spell of benevolent dictatorship. Of course, they have never lived under one, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Special security arrangements have been put in place in Pakistan's Supreme Court for Thursday's appearance by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to respond to a contempt notice issued to him failing to reopen graft cases against the President.
Pranabda hasn't given us any indication of the tough period when he realised Sonia Gandhi had decided to give the presidency not to him, but to then vice-president Hamid Ansari. He wrested the presidency from her, and handed her the biggest defeat of her UPA years, observes Shekhar Gupta.
If Modi's truly a reformer and a believer in minimum government, he would bury the Vodafone ghosts now. He would also then go to Bihar, campaigning on his politically controversial reforms. Both will need him to dip deep into his accumulated political capital and risk it, suggests Shekhar Gupta.
The prime minister also contended that he was grateful to the authorities of the monastic order for granting him an opportunity to spend a night at the math. He insisted that the ambiance at Belur Math reminded him of his duty towards people.
The government's position on a meeting that a journalist had with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed got endorsement from an unexpected quarter on Wednesday with Congress leader Salman Khurshid saying it was a "private initiative" and the Indian High Commission in Islamabad had nothing to do with it.
The term of the 243-member Bihar legislative assembly comes to an end on November 29.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, on Thursday, is expected to have a long day ahead at the special court in Bangalore. She may have to spend around seven hours at the Court on Thursday.
Japanese sumo wrestler Yamamotoyama will enter the house in the weekend.
"The condition of rape survivor is improving. She is following command and opened eyes and understanding things. The process of removing the ventilator has started but she has to be given medicines to maintain her blood pressure," said Trauma Centre in-charge Dr Sandeep Tiwari.
China is now the most significant strategic concern in Washington, as in most of the world's capitals, especially the democracies. Today, strategic autonomy has acquired a sharper definition: To ward off the Chinese challenge to India's territorial integrity, sovereignty and regional stature, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Sikhs love a good fight, and that's what the Modi government has given them.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi is now gone. But the mass appeal of fundamentalism among Pakistan's burgeoning, young, illiterate, unemployed and angry population isn't, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Modi made a strategic blunder of Nehruvian proportions -- presuming no war can happen now, and the Chinese won't be a military threat and risk their economic interests, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'In India, a really popular and well-entrenched leader is not defeated by a rival.' 'Such a leader has to defeat himself,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
'You can presume that Modi and his party will now focus on the economy.' 'But then, there is the Jharkhand election next month, Delhi soon thereafter and so on.' 'And this isn't a political leadership that takes even a panchayat election lightly,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'Suspect all, fix all.' 'It is this mindset that begins at the very top of an establishment and then trickles down and across,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Many sections of the society including small traders, restaurant owners, transporters started feeling the heat as the dependence on cash is very high
Reddy alone will take oath on Thursday while his Council of Ministers is likely to be constituted on June 7, party sources said.
In its sway over national politics now, the Modi-Shah BJP is what the Congress was under Indira Gandhi. Why would they indulge coalition partners, their greed and egos now, asks Shekhar Gupta.
Last week, it was reported that Sharif is on the verge of a kidney failure and doctors have recommended to shift him to a hospital immediately.
'The more the news media weakens, especially at this juncture of economic ruin with lay-offs and wage cuts, the more the owners and journalists weigh their value in terms who they are close to, the more they depend on the State to bail them out of trouble, slow-fry their rival, the faster it pushes us towards institutional destruction,' warns Shekhar Gupta.
The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to make special arrangements for allowing the Friday prayers in curfew-bound areas of Hyderabad city on Friday.
In a time of crisis like this, a government needs its people and politics united. A nation of India's size and diversity can't fight a stronger rival with fraying social cohesion, observes Shekhar Gupta.
'If there is one thing our politicians, especially those with their ear to the ground, understand, it is the reality that their voters want three things from their children's schooling: English, English, English', notes Shekhar Gupta.
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