The writer taught political science at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, and is chief editor of 'Studies in Indian Politics'.

June 19,2025 07:08:13 AM
It will not be a bad idea to build on the spirit of cooperation that the ruling party has adopted in the current instance and the virtue of cooperation that many Opposition MPs have discovered.
Thu, Jun 19, 2025
May 31,2025 06:58:43 AM
A spirited defence of Indian nationalism must also confront how it was undermined from the start. Belonging without othering was always under siege — today's phoney nationalism has only finished the job
Sat, May 31, 2025
May 22,2025 06:50:32 AM
That is the question when someone is arrested for what he says, or when we demand that someone be arrested for what he said
Thu, May 22, 2025
May 17,2025 06:22:18 AM
Given the public outbursts by Aiyar that apparently caused him his position within the Congress party, this autobiography also details the decline of the party he belongs to
Sat, May 17, 2025
May 15,2025 06:50:24 AM
When one has a convenient neighbour like Pakistan, war becomes the easy remedy for all your problems with the neighbour and with yourself
Thu, May 15, 2025
May 10,2025 07:10:56 AM
Government's announcement effectively postpones all serious discussion on the need to take the caste factor into consideration in policy making
Sat, May 10, 2025
April 18,2025 06:58:21 AM
Even after 10 years of being out of power, Congress has neither attempted to build an organisation nor evolved a cogent ideological position
Fri, Apr 18, 2025
March 07,2025 07:20:44 AM
The proposal to expand the size of Lok Sabha and to ensure that no state loses its current strength should be seen not only as a politically prudent step, but as a step to enrich the idea of democracy in the Indian context
Fri, Mar 07, 2025
February 19,2025 06:59:09 AM
It needs to ask whether it wants to fight on the BJP’s turf and for the BJP’s own strongholds or wishes to gain from a different register of social support
Wed, Feb 19, 2025
February 09,2025 15:58:09 PM
A representative section of 3,137 voters was interviewed across 28 constituencies and 140 polling stations.
Mon, Feb 10, 2025
February 09,2025 14:56:17 PM
According to Lokniti-CSDS Delhi Assembly election survey, more than half of the voters had made up their mind before the election campaign began, BJP built a strong coalition of upper castes and OBCs
Mon, Feb 10, 2025
January 23,2025 06:59:52 AM
The new one is long born and roams aggressively, the old one is not declared dead -- yet
Thu, Jan 23, 2025
January 03,2025 07:05:19 AM
Limits of the party’s electoral successes, the narrowness of its voter umbrella, resorting to high-handed tactics and suspicion of dissent point to a deficit.
Fri, Jan 03, 2025
December 19,2024 06:58:27 AM
The small difference is that while Congress argued that the Constitution was being violated today, for the ruling party, the violations of yesterday matter the most. Isn’t this both funny and tragic?
Sun, Dec 22, 2024
November 29,2024 04:20:33 AM
Victory of BJP, rout of its opponents, ensures that the deeper shift that slowed down after 2014 will pick up speed
Fri, Nov 29, 2024
November 23,2024 16:58:01 PM
Assembly election results in Maharashtra, and even in Jharkhand – where it lost but has likely retained its 2019 vote share — show how the BJP keeps building its electoral and ideological dominance.
Mon, Nov 25, 2024
November 18,2024 04:20:31 AM
Democracy is a delicate balance among foundational norms, procedural restraints and popular wishes. Such an idea of democracy is a hindrance to megalomaniac projects of reshaping norms, undermining procedures and hijacking popular sentiments
Mon, Nov 18, 2024
October 29,2024 04:10:09 AM
Maharashtra is set to witness a no-holds-barred campaign, in which neither the Mahayuti nor the Maha Vikas Aghadi addresses issues of a state in decline
Tue, Oct 29, 2024
October 23,2024 03:12:16 AM
With Hindutva the only game in town, it can now declare its version of Hinduism as the official one
Wed, Oct 23, 2024
September 28,2024 01:00:11 AM
It seems that there is a larger design to distort not just the election system, but the Constitution itself
Sat, Sep 28, 2024
September 12,2024 07:09:37 AM
Its continuing crisis is a reminder — dominant idea of state and nation has become a hurdle in evolving trust among communities.
Thu, Sep 12, 2024
August 14,2024 07:58:03 AM
By opening up the possibility of regrouping of caste blocs and by asking uncomfortable questions about who benefits from reservation and by employing the clumsy concept of creamy layer, Supreme Court's sub-quota ruling has thrown up crucial questions
Wed, Aug 14, 2024
August 03,2024 07:19:34 AM
At a formal level, an organisation that believes in organising one community cannot be worthy of support from the civil servants who are supposed to serve the entire society. More substantively, the RSS does not approve of the way India was restructured after 1947
Sat, Aug 03, 2024
August 02,2024 18:53:00 PM
Whether or not bureaucrats are banned from joining the RSS, the idea of constitutional democracy is in need of being reinvigorated
Fri, Aug 02, 2024
June 24,2024 08:15:27 AM
Some formal bonhomie is likely. But, in realm of actual policies and use of state power, a substantive change is unlikely.
Mon, Jun 24, 2024





