Shekhar Gupta

The evolution of brand BJP

While the party's founders never had a majority and needed to keep a diverse coalition intact, today's BJP doesn't need any allies. Apart from Modi and Shah, they also need to thank the founders

Reformative to retributive justice

Two contradictory court judgments this week raise an uncomfortable question: Has the judiciary, from the trial court to the Supreme Court, moved from a reformative institution to a retributive one?

Conglomerates, cronyism, brandless growth

It's good that cronyism is being debated robustly. But the much bigger failure of incredibly powerful, rich and successful conglomerates - Adani, Ambani, Tata- lies in India's fully brand-free growth

India's jalebi of friend & foe

Modi govt finds itself in a contradiction of its own making. It has encouraged pro-Russian, Westophobic public sentiment while setting strategic policy that's exactly the opposite

BJP & the Northeast bell curve

Celebrating BJP's Northeast wins, Modi hailed the region's dramatic transformation. People will argue over who gets credit and how much, but it's a true Indian success story

In Punjab, a political vacuum and remote control bring back the K-word

An armed mob overran a big police station near the border, a suspect was freed, and then the State said 'sorry'. You have to be nuts to think there will be no consequences

Finding Nellie's smoking gun

How a policeman's wireless message that could have saved 3,000 lives, but was ignored and covered up, was uncovered

Bloodstained road to Nellie

In that awful fortnight, when Indira Gandhi decided to force an election nobody wanted in Assam, you didn't have to go looking for trouble to write about

Indian capitalism's stress test

The Adani crisis is the greatest stress test for Indian capitalism yet. So far, India has passed it, with almost 10/10

'Reward the rich' politics

With a 10% tax cut for the super-rich, has the Modi government lost it? If this is what we believe, we are still caught in oldthink in our political economy

Return of the Muslim

Old secularism hasn't broken out. But from Modi and Bhagwat to Rahul and Shah Rukh, straws in the wind signal change

Leave Pak to Pak

Pakistan desperately needs breathing space and financial generosity, but India should not indulge it

RSS, power & pitfalls

The Sangh is the most powerful it's ever been in its history. At the same time, one could also argue that it has never been so weak. How do we resolve that contradiction?