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Sunday, December 21, 2025
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National Interest

India’s backsliding on hard-won economic freedoms of 1991, with no reformers to protect them today

There are 3 perfectly timed triggers for this week's column: old, povertarian instincts are back; steel industry lobbying for more import duties; absence of reformers like AD Shroff.

This argument isn’t about cricket but the Subcontinent’s geopolitics. That’s why it begins with cricket

Broken cricket relationships in the Subcontinent aren’t about any disputes over the game, nor Hindu-Muslim issues. It’s about the state of nations, and what goes on between them.

Indicted by US, sentenced by the market. Damage to Adani this time will be deeper, longer lasting

Charges against Adanis this time are much graver, especially as these come not from any ‘interested’ market operator but a sovereign govt. Any quick damage control is unlikely.

India must spend right for two-front deterrence. ‘Jugaad’ against China & Pakistan won’t cut it

India just needs clear deterrence against both likely adversaries. With China, it lies in raising costs of aggression to levels it should find unaffordable. For Pakistan, it has to be punitive.

3-point formula for sweeping elections. Trump has it, Modi had it, Rahul still searching

The Modi of 2024 was not riding the troika of propositions that won him two majorities and most recently brought Trump back to power. He was merely fighting to keep what was his.

Xi wanted to teach India about imbalance of power. We should take a budgetary lesson from it

While we talk much about our military, we don’t put our national wallet where our mouth is. Nobody is saying we should double our defence spending, but current declining trend must be reversed.

From 2004 to 2024, bad news has come wrapped as good news for Congress

Congress is silently acknowledging it over-read verdict of last general election. You can see it in easy concession to SP. It will likely be more reasonable in Maharashtra & Jharkhand.

Sikh separatists & their gang wars in Canada are not India’s problem. Call the troops back

If Sikh separatists are a nuisance, it should worry their host countries. Should it bother India if they keep killing their own in gang rivalries and making their neighbourhoods unsafe?

Why are Indians indifferent to Palestinians’ plight? No, it’s not about Jews vs Muslims

National interest always trumps pan-Islamism. Their shared strategic threat is Iran, its Shia base. The so-called Muslim world has stopped seeing Palestine as an Islamic issue.

Islam doesn’t kill democracy. The army-Islam combo does

How come Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and Sri Lanka remain constitutional, democratic and stable despite Islam and Buddhism respectively, but Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar don’t?

On Camera

Violence over Osman Hadi is about Islamist Bangladesh. India-baiting is a distraction

The attack on Chhayanaut, newspaper offices, and the public lynching of a Hindu man show that Bangladesh is heading toward Islamist rule, far removed from electoral democracy.

China is taking India to WTO over subsidies, again. Here’s what it’s arguing before trade body

Dispute will now move to consultative process, which allows the two sides to come to an amicable agreement within 60 days.

Israel has ‘realised who its real friend is’, eyes defence expansion in India amid arms curbs by others

It is argued that India-Israel ties are moving from buyer–seller dynamic to one focused on joint development & manufacturing partnership, a shift 'more durable' than traditional arms sales.

Dhurandhar shows hard cinema is soft power and Pakistan is unapologetically the target

If Pathaan gave both conservatives and liberals room to hide, Dhurandhar extends no such courtesy. Aditya Dhar ripped open that tent of hypocrisy and turned the knife.