Harihar Swarup

Former Chief Minister Bhupender Singh Hooda , who is sure to contest in coming Haryana Assembly elections on October 5 , is known for the sobriquet “Ganga Putra” after a narrow escape from death in 2003 when his car was swept away by the…

When newcomer Arvind Kejriwal defeated three—time chief minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency of New Delhi in 2013 assembly polls, jubilant supporters took to streets, hailing the moment when a common man got an opportunity to master…

When the protesting students approached Dr. Muhammad Yunus to head interim government in Bangladesh, the Nobel laureate of the 1968 students’ movement, Russian author Alexander Solzhenstein refused to pursue Presidency in the post-Soviet…

The budget last year, which carried proposals for numerous bold reforms, was justifiably nearly universally hailed as a pathbreaking one.

What lesson can we learn from the farm laws episode for navigating reforms in the future?

“There is no UPA now”. With these words, Mamata Banerjee seems to have set an interesting cat among pigeons. She made the statement standing besides Sharad Pawar after a high profile meeting with the opposition’s most experienced stalwarts.…

The repeal of contentious farm laws is a significant moment and a major political defeat for the Prime Minister and his government. The government’s turnaround is all the more remarkable as it is unusual for the PM to backtrack from major…

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, passed away in 1948. However, today in November 2021 he has come alive in the political battlefield of Uttar Pradesh. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav recently said, “Sardar Patel, Mahatma…

Aroosa Alam, the Pakistanijournalist and advocate of India- Pakistan peace, whose “pure, beautiful friendship” with Amarinder Singh is now at the centre of a public slugfest between the former Punjab CM and his estranged colleagues in the…

Myanmar has been again in turmoil with the country’s democratically leader AungSan Suu Kyi was ousted in an army coup in February this year. Myanmar’s junta has said that it would not engage in talks with coup dissidents, including members…

UNDER MODI, CONSTITUTIONAL CHECKS AND BALANCES HAVE ERODED MORE Most commemorate Emergency on June 26 as a reminder of the bleak 21 months when democracy was derailed. Actually, the Emergency came into effect on June 25 at 11:45 pm when…

TIME TO SINK DIFFERENCES AND LOOK FOR COMMON GROUND Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in an unenviable position. He has to attempt a ‘quantum leap’ on the economic front while walking the Covid-19 tightrope. There is considerable risk…

LOCKDOWN, RISK-BASED ZONING HAS SAVED LIVES Current data seems to indicate that India is entering a safe zone as far as the Covid-19 pandemic is concerned. As of April 19, ICMR reported a Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of 4.4 per cent…

SCIENTISTS THE WORLD OVER JOIN HANDS Scientists and researchers all over the world have been striving hard to find a treatment for dreaded coronavirus disease, which has so far taken a heavy toll on life. Scientists now assure us that soon…

GOVERNMENT’S HEALTH INSURANCE PACKAGE IGNORES EMERGENCY NEEDS The plight of almost 40 crore of workers, based on a very miserly estimate, out of 54 crores of workers with almost 90 per cent of them in the unorganised sector as of now in…

FORMER UNION MINISTER SHARES NUGGETS OF HISTORY The latest to hit the book stands is the former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna’s autobiography. Written in Kannada, the book is full of anecdotes. It will soon be translated into…

INCUMBENT CM’S GOVERNANCE RECORD HAS STRUCK A HUGE CORD Ask a man on the street or people living in posh localities, who they would vote for in the coming Delhi elections and their prompt reply would be—“Arvind Kejriwal”. It appears a wave…

FROM CONGRESS TO NCP TO SHIV SENA, IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY Among the political parties the Congress is most maligned for being a dynastic organization. But now almost all political parties have been affected by this menace except the Left…

LITTLE TO NO ANTI-INCUMBENCY MAKES BATTLE TOUGH FOR BJP It is too early to predict the outcome of the coming Assembly elections in Delhi. It will not be a surprise if Arvind Kejriwal succeeds in getting a second term. Delhi, as a matter of…

A JOURNEY OF ‘HARD WORK AND HARVARD’ TO ELIMINATE POVERTY Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, who has won the 2019 Nobel for Economics, along with his Esther Duflo (his economist wife) and Michael Kremer, has observed the Indian economy is…

While demitting the office of the Congress president, Rahul Gandhi made a statement of far-reaching importance for which he must be praised. He observed that the Congress must pick a president outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. This was wish…