'What do you think the Congress is today?' 'Is it a political party heading for a life-and-death battle?' 'Or an NGO, just doing its thing and hoping it will improve the state of the world?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
The jobless armies of youthful India are getting angrier and desperate, warns Shekhar Gupta.
'In India a strong leader with a majority has never yet been defeated by a challenger.' 'He (or she, as with Indira Gandhi in 1977) must defeat himself,' says Shekhar Gupta.
He is talking, making sense, and India is listening. Rahul Gandhi needs to listen to him, too, says Shekhar Gupta.
'While they were respectful of the PM, it was clear that as ministers, they owed their positions as much, if not more, to Mrs Gandhi.' 'When attacks were mounted on the PM, there was very little coordinated effort by the Congress, UPA ministers or other politicians to speak up in his favour and strongly defend him.' B K Chaturvedi, Cabinet Secretary during the early years of UPA1, reveals how the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi equation worked. A riveting excerpt from Chaturvedi's memoir, Challenges Of Governance: An Insider's View
In an address that was telecast live on national broadcaster Doordarshan, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Friday patted the Narendra Modi government for initiatives on national security, economy and international relations in a short period of four months.
'Freebies are yet be proven a 'pucca' vote-catcher. But don't say that to KCR because he takes pride in two things: His record of delivery and imagination,' says Shekhar Gupta.
With tempers expecting to reach the ugliest limits during the India-Pakistan World Cup match, the Adelaide administration has issued a 85-point "code of conduct" for spectators - one that specifically bars religious messages and anti-national chants.
'No one institution can cleanse it: Not the courts, government or activists.' 'And least of all the Indian Police Service,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, 34 years and 19 days later after the horrific crimes, two men were sentenced to death and life in prison for their involvement in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 in which over 3,000 Sikhs were killed. It was the first verdict after the riots-related cases were reopened by a Special Investigation Team in 2015. In his novel Man With The White Beard, Shah Alam Khan recalls a calamitous time in India's history.
'UP, Maharashtra, AP (including Telangana), Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar, Karnataka and Kerala.' 'We chose these nine not only as being among the biggest, but also because in these states radical change is possible,' explains Shekhar Gupta.
The lack of proper coordination and disaster management plan on the part of railways resulted in the stampede at Allahabad station during last year's Maha Kumbh Mela in which 37 persons were killed, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said.
'How do we explain that on the economic, internal security and strategic fronts, India's unstable coalitions have acted more decisively and boldly than all our full-majority governments yet?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Awful religious practices need to be abolished. But through social and political reformers, not by courts, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Ajit Doval is now India's all-powerful security boss. This concentration of power disrupts our layered security system. Will it not weaken whatever remains of the power and authority of the home, defence and finance ministers? asks Shekhar Gupta.
There is a vital difference between Bofors and Rafale, explains Shekhar Gupta.
'Poor home work, and a subsequent loss of nerve.' 'This sums up the Modi government's current travails, the stall in key sectors, fading momentum, irritability,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
In a virtual no-man's land ever since India became independent in 1947, more than 9,500 persons living in 51 enclaves in Coochbehar district are exercising their franchise for the first time on May 5.
Ecstatic and exhausted in equal measure after becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics, Dipa Karmakar, on Thursday, said she would look to continue scripting history wherever she competes.
The Rafale will surely be flying in Indian skies next year. But the way the BJP government has botched this will cast a shadow on defence acquisitions in the years to come.
'This was the worst phase yet in the state's human rights history.' 'Notorious interrogation centres were set up, large numbers died in firing on civilian mobs.' 'This is what today's generations might identify better as the Haider phase in Kashmir's history,' says Shekhar Gupta.
A series of bypoll losses has pushed the Modi government into panic mode. Uncharacteristically, it's letting events dictate its actions, says Shekhar Gupta.
'There is need to invent another enemy.' 'If you can add Maoists to Muslims, the tukde-tukde thread will tie in nicely.' 'You might even have a 'nation in grave danger' story by the summer of 2019,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'As demonetisation showed us, the Shah-Modi duo can take big risks.' 'Risking economic damage for political benefit, however, is one thing, stoking old fires in complicated Assam is another', warns Shekhar Gupta.
'Mulk questions the very principle, of good-Muslim exceptionalism.' 'That, of course, we adore Abdul Hamid, A P J Abdul Kalam and Bismillah Khan and if only more Muslims were like them.' 'Anubhav Sinha sticks his neck out to say that these are no exceptions.' 'Most Muslims are like them. It is the terrorists who are exceptions,' says Shekhar Gupta.
If the judiciary loses this fight, it will suffer irreparable damage and all of us citizens will be the losers.
Holding that it was All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa, who had paid for the arrangements for the lavish marriage of her now estranged foster son VN Sudhakaran, the special court in the disproportionate assets case against her pegged the expenses incurred by her at Rs 3 crore.
India has been advised by British prosecutors not to appeal further for the extradition of Ravi Shankaran, the key accused in the Naval War Room leaks case.
'The Modi government's greatest blunder is to exploit sensitive external relations in its domestic politics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Why do the biggest, most talented and successful film-makers of India suck up to the establishment so breathlessly, asks Shekhar Gupta.
'All governments try owning the message, but the Modi-Shah BJP has developed it into a fine art.'
'Nawaz Sharif asked: "What if I invited him and he declined?"' 'I said I will check.' 'Vajpayee liked the idea. He said I should see him on my return.' Shekhar Gupta reveals how Sharif wanted to make peace, but was tripped by the army and notes the lessons it has for Imran Khan.
'We know the situation has worsened in the valley, but we are taking the first step.' 'We have lost 30 years of our life. We do not want to wait any longer.' 'The political class always said, you come down to Kashmir.' 'So, we are going to be there and we are going to demand a place to stay.' 'After all, it is our own land.'
'Why has the rhetoric gone down on the Indian side, Durrani wondered aloud.' 'I said because almost total normalcy and peace had returned on the ground in Kashmir,' recalls Shekhar Gupta. 'The general gave me that career spook's laser look. And he said: "That situation on the ground can change in no time".' 'This was precisely when the Pakistanis began their first incursions into Kargil.' 'Durrani had been retired for five years.' 'But once the ISI boss, you are always in the know.'
'Almost deified by enough Indians now, never mind his politics and, worse, economics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Nationalism, Hindutva, and war on corruption, not growth, will define Modi's politics until 2019.
The Chinese have just one commander for all the forces confronting India. Commanders of all these forces answer to one man, and one headquarter. India, on the other hand, offers a diversity of options that is a military embarrassment in the 21st century. In Arunachal and Sikkim-Bhutan, the Eastern Army Commander is in charge. In the Uttarakhand (central) sector, it will be the Central Army Commander. The Himachal-Tibet border is the domain of the Western Army Commander. And all of Kashmir and Ladakh further on, the Northern Army's. Effectively, an array of at least eight 'three-star' commanders will be arrayed against one Chinese, says Shekhar Gupta.
Can we ask the judges a simple question: You write judgments all the time to protect the judiciary from others. Will you write one on how to save the judiciary from the judges, too, asks Shekhar Gupta.
'Somebody will need to blow the whistle, call the play to a halt, and convince all players that they belong on the same side of the goal,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Modi and Shah can't afford to lose any of the 24 per cent Dalit vote of 2014, says Shekhar Gupta.
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