IE Columnist: Tavleensingh

The Home Minister needs enlightenment

2009-11-08T00:01:59+05:30

First, let me say that in my humble opinion the Home Minister is right to reach out to Muslims....

A legacy best forgotten

2009-11-01T00:01:58+05:30

As a dutiful daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi always remembers the late Mrs Gandhi on her death anniversary.

Elegy for the BJP

2009-10-25T00:01:57+05:30

Last week’s election results confirm that the political map of India is radically changed. There is only one political party left on the national landscape because the BJP....

India under seige

2009-10-11T00:01:56+05:30

This week I would have liked to write about some peacetime subject like the Environment Ministry’s latest efforts to clean the Ganga or the World Bank’s new report....

‘Gandhian’ field trips

2009-10-04T00:01:55+05:30

Every Gandhi Jayanthi, I find myself wondering if I should add my two bits to the reams of commemorative comment that Gandhiji’s birthday inspires. Usually I resist the temptation....

Moonshine for water

2009-09-27T00:01:54+05:30

Last week as I watched Indian scientists crow with glee over having found ‘water on the moon’ and TV anchors burst with unconcealed pride....

We need real austerity

2009-09-20T00:01:53+05:30

Austerity is tough for those who have become accustomed to the high life, corporate style. Private planes, five-star hotels...

A foreign policy for wimps

2009-09-13T00:01:52+05:30

At last there are signs that the Government of India has had enough of Pakistan thumbing its nose at us.....

Open to criticism

2009-09-06T00:01:51+05:30

In these times of interactive journalism I make it a point to read the blogs this column evokes....

Is this the infrastructure we deserve?

2009-08-30T00:01:50+05:30

There are few things that leave me feeling more pessimistic about India’s future than taking a flight from Mumbai’s international airport....

The drought could bring revolutionary changes

2009-08-23T00:01:49+05:30

Sonia Gandhi is right to ask her party legislators to sacrifice a portion of their salaries to drought relief....

Requiem for BJP’s dream

2009-08-16T00:01:48+05:30

This is a requiem for the failed ideology of Hindutva and for the party that made it fashionable. The Bharatiya Janata Party is not fully dead...

Towards literacy, then scholarship

2009-08-09T00:01:47+05:30

In the week that we finally passed a law making primary education compulsory, it would be churlish of me to write only bad things about the abysmal state of Indian education. So good things first.

Too much trust. No verification

2009-08-02T00:01:46+05:30

Many puzzling things have been said about our relations with Pakistan since the Sharm el-Sheikh engagement. Our Finance Minister told the Lok Sabha...

Stop exchanging dossiers

2009-07-26T00:01:45+05:30

Sunday 26 July '09

What’s the point in talking to Pakistan?

2009-07-19T00:01:44+05:30

India will not talk to Pakistan as long as its government continues to nurture and shield those who attack India....

Backward March

2009-07-12T00:01:43+05:30

Last week’s Budget brought home to me a sad reality. It was not the Marxist parties who prevented economic...

Nutrition before ID Cards

2009-07-05T00:01:42+05:30

If I have learned one thing from long years of covering politics and government in India it is that one reason....

First, free education from licence raj

2009-06-28T00:01:41+05:30

The best thing that has happened to Indian education in recent times is for Kapil Sibal to be appointed Minister...

Why doesn’t the US hold a dialogue with Osama?

2009-06-14T00:01:40+05:30

Am I the only one shocked by an American official daring to suggest ‘dialogue’ with Pakistan in the wake of the release of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed....

Obama needs some more lessons in Islam

2009-06-07T00:01:39+05:30

The day before President Obama set off to win Muslim hearts and minds last week, I had an interesting conversation about Islam....

Why primary education should be the Government’s primary concern

2009-05-31T00:01:38+05:30

Last week, while the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi were choosing ministers for the new government...

A deja vu government

2009-05-24T00:01:37+05:30

It was not so much Dr Manmohan Singh’s new ministers but the Tamil tableau that enthralled me last week.

Great! Now get to work

2009-05-17T00:01:36+05:30

Before writing one word of this piece I spent many moments staring at my computer’s smugly blank screen wondering why the results....

Dynastic democracy is fashionable

2009-05-10T00:01:35+05:30

When Priyanka Gandhi’s clothes became a major political story last week, I realised sadly that it was time for me to stop being a conscientious objector to dynastic democracy.