What is Shiv Sena’s ideology? We might say it’s been a convenient mix of extreme ethnic chauvinism & unforgiving Hindutva. Within the second, the party retained space to manoeuvre.
Modi govt's biggest flaw has been its disinclination to accept limitations of electoral majorities. This ruined land acquisition and farm reform, stalled labour codes.
Dictator Musharraf badly damaged Pakistan: Assassination of Benazir, 26/11 attacks in India and the US Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama in Abbottabad. But he believed he was a democrat.
Modi govt's Kashmir policy has been a success in changing status of state & redefining what remains negotiable. To expect it was going to end terror & alienation was wishful thinking.
Global order is in flux, and India is being wooed by all. It opens up economic, strategic & military possibilities unimaginable till recently. It is for India to take this opportunity.
That temples were destroyed and mosques built is undisputed history. The past can’t be changed, but we can’t deny the wrongs of the past either before we consider reconciliation.
Like the car, nothing the party has done to reinvent itself has worked. Only way forward is to offer something looking towards the future, not in image of glorious past.
Non-BJP chief ministers are retaliating. If Centre can use its agencies to threaten, intimidate and jail its rivals, so can they. The fightback has become an established pattern and will get more intense.
BJP’s dominance has crushed political skills and imagination of its rivals into rubble. It’s made them Islamophobic in that they’d rather not identify with Muslims in any visible way.
The last time this matter flared up was when Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, in a very similar directive in April, called for the relocation of stray dogs in the capital.
Finance ministry says the proposed revamp will focus on structural reforms, rate rationalisation & ease of living, & will be deliberated upon in the coming weeks.
The project is meant to be a ‘protective shield that will keep expanding’, the PM said. It is on the lines of the ‘Golden Dome’ announced by Trump, it is learnt.
Now that both IAF and PAF have made formal claims of having shot down the other’s aircraft in the 87-hour war in May, we can ask a larger question: do such numbers really matter?
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