Some things to Reconsider

https://www.business-standard.com/opinion/columns/bhagwat-sets-off-jitters-at-75-bjp-shift-towards-empowering-youth-125071101485_1.html     I write in response to your article published on July 12th titled “Bhagwat Sets Off Jitters at 75” , which — in the grand tradition of a now increasingly pliant Indian press — offers a garland of praise to the BJP for its so-called “robust and meritocratic HR system.” A bolder claim hasn't been made since North Korea declared its leader invented the hamburger. The author’s argument rests on three wobbly legs — “retention,” “ideological glue,” and “absence of dynastic politics.” It is, essentially, an attempt to evaluate the BJP using the yardstick of the Congress’ failings, rather than the BJP’s own performance. That may pass for analysis on television panels, but not in serious discourse. Let’s apply a real organisational development (OD) lens to the party — one that includes Recruitment, Retention, Promotion, Diversity, Evaluat...

  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/indias-diplomacy-is-measured-not-mute/article69780623.ece Lewis Carroll once quipped, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” It seems Priyam Gandhi-Mody, in her recent op-ed, has taken that advice a bit too literally. With the enthusiasm of a Bhakt moonlighting as a strategist, she argues that India’s silence on global affairs is proof of rising diplomatic maturity. “India speaks when it matters,” she declares. Allow me to disagree — robustly. Let’s begin with the absurd. Amit Shah, in full campaign mode, not so long ago claimed that “Modi ne war rukwa dee” — that the Prime Minister stopped the Russia-Ukraine war. Never mind that the war hasn’t paused for a second. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv remembers this magical intervention. And yet, we are told this is what “measured” diplomacy looks like — restraint wrapped in gravitas. I call it what it is: a strategic muzzle, saffron-tinted and politically convenient. ...

https://theprint.in/national-interest/zohran-mamdani-new-york-mayor-indian-socialism/2673153/  https://www.business-standard.com/opinion/columns/zohran-mamdani-socialist-agenda-could-actually-spur-faster-growth-in-nyc-125062701427_1.html Shekhar Gupta’s recent column on Zohran Mamdani reads like a man trying to play neutral referee in a rigged match—raising one eyebrow at the Sanghi mob baying for blood, while slyly tossing them a whistle and pretending not to notice. With the other, it slips the ideological brass knuckles to the crowd already frothing at the mouth. Mamdani, Gupta suggests, is a well-meaning radical caught in a swirl of impractical dreams. But scratch past the polish of editorial polite prose and one finds the familiar discomfort of India’s populists and the extended coterie It’s not that Mamdani’s ideas are too radical—it’s that they are delivered from a platform that can’t be easily dismissed. A brown man, Muslim by heritage, representing a diverse district in ...

  https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/dc-comment/dc-edit-work-closely-with-canada-to-tackle-khalistan-threat-1886553 The Deccan Chronicle editorial calling for closer cooperation between India and Canada to tackle the so-called “Khalistan threat” is a textbook example of "locking yourself in a burning house to escape a mosquito". It is an editorial soaked in security-state talking points, and utterly blind to the far more pressing threats confronting India’s foreign and domestic policy. And while we’re at it, it’s time someone called out the Modi government’s real failing: not in what it obsesses about, but in what it consciously chooses to ignore. Let’s begin with the most uncomfortable, but essential, truth: the ghost of Khalistan is more a product of political theatre than geopolitical reality. In this regard, Narendra Modi bears uncanny similarities to another strong-willed Indian leader Indira Gandhi,  men and women cut from different ideological cloths but sewn i...

https://www.business-standard.com/opinion/columns/operation-sindoor-india-needs-information-defence-not-just-rebuttals-125061201445_1.html Lets begin with a bitter truth, served neat : the great Modi revolution of 2014 was not built on reform, renaissance, or even righteous anger. It was built on a well-oiled machinery of misinformation and disinformation. Call it what you will—spin, distortion, propaganda—but it has served as the backbone of the new India that many chest-thump about and too few dare question. Remember the three scandals that brought down the UPA government like a house of damp cards? Commonwealth Games , 2G spectrum , and Coalgate . All were declared “historic scams” by our then-echoing newsrooms. Faces were red with rage, fists were raised in candlelight vigils, and an old man in a Gandhi cap threatened fasts unto death. The result? After all the commotion, not a single conviction . Courts dismissed the cases. No money trail, no fraud. Just the noise of a nation exp...

  https://theprint.in/national-interest/op-sindoor-is-the-first-battle-in-indias-two-front-war-a-vicious-pawn-in-a-kings-gambit/2650009/   Op Sindoor: More Chest-Thumping, Less Thinking Let me begin with categorical disagreement—not gentle dissent, but full-throated, Sumo wrestler style takedown—of the “received wisdom” that now saturates prime-time India: the punditry of “TV Generals” and the breathless prose of what I call “cookie-pusher editors,” more trained in literary flair than geopolitical nuance. Case in point: the recent article titled “Op Sindoor is the First Battle in India’s Two-Front War. A Vicious Pawn in a King’s Gambit.” Dramatic? Certainly. Factual? Barely. The idea that China’s aggressive calculus came into India’s view only after Op Sindoor is laughable. For decades, China has not merely operated in isolation—it has built a playbook around proxy warfare. This is not new. It is not even controversial. It’s doctrine. North Korea is the textbook ex...

    Indian Subcontinent has a remarkable feature, our memories are short and consequences are lasting. When one casts a weary, knowing eye back at India’s relentless tryst with terrorism over the past three decades, the narrative that emerges is as much about the thunderous clamor of firepower as it is about the quiet, often overlooked, virtue of foresight. A cursory internet search – a tool of convenience for those who prefer quick answers to deep dives – might point to a multitude of major terrorist incidents. But let's unpick the numbers, and read the postscript. Between 2014 and 2025, the years Narendra Modi presided as Prime Minister, India indeed faced a series of devastating attacks. We saw the audacious assault on Pathankot (2016) , the chilling Uri attack (2016) , and the gut-wrenching Pulwama suicide bombing (2019) , all largely attributed to Jaish-e-Mohammed. Then came the worrying resurgence in Jammu & Kashmir, with incidents like Poonch-Rajouri (multiple i...