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Saturday, March 14, 2026
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The Factivist

Aap chronology samajhiye: Did Modi buckle under Trump’s pressure on HCQ for COVID-19?

Hydroxychloroquine & paracetamol are cheap, generic drugs long off-patent. India has unique strength to make these for the world. It should use it, not squat on it.

How Kejriwal gamed Modi, Shah’s Hindutva-nationalism-welfarism combination to defeat them

While nationalism plus religion and socialism is a killer electoral combination, a tiny party like AAP has shown these aren't beyond the reach of BJP's rivals.

Bumbling Nehru, paranoid Menon, divided Army — stunning tales from India’s military history

Jairam Ramesh’s brilliant new biography tells the story of V.K. Krishna Menon, who is reviled and demonised in the BJP-RSS worldview as the ‘villain of 1962’.

Not all gloom and doom, there were 10 things to cheer about the economy in 2019

From stabilisation of the bankruptcy process to the roll-back of the worst of the Budget, there were a few things to be optimistic about the Indian economy.

How Modi, Shah have shred Vajpayee & Jana Sangh’s principled opposition to ILP in Northeast

Vajpayee & Jana Sangh fought Nehru for quarantining fellow Indians in Northeast under Inner Line Permit. Their successors have strengthened & expanded it.

His decency set him apart — why we can’t forget IK Gujral, India’s truly accidental PM

Remembering Inder Kumar Gujral, the soft-spoken but tough PM who had among the shortest & rockiest of all tenures, on his 100th birth anniversary.

Streetfighter ban gaya gentleman: How Arvind Kejriwal has become a changed politician

Arvind Kejriwal’s retreat from the fight with Narendra Modi is total. His focus is local issues & Delhi elections and this isn’t defeatism but excellent politics.

Modi has finished Pakistan’s ‘unfinished business’ of Partition

Article 370 is gone, now it’s time to fight the good fight — for rights of Kashmiris as fellow Indians and restoration of commerce & political activity in J&K.

Dear PM Modi, you’re spending too much time on Twitter and have got the media wrong

A vast majority of the media dotingly supports PM Modi. And while in power, he should be prepared to face some heat at least.

The mess in India’s higher judiciary is, sadly, of its own making

The judiciary has become cocooned while being the supreme force for transparency elsewhere. The complainant against CJI Gogoi has laid bare this hypocrisy.

On Camera

Menstrual leave doesn’t work in ‘real world’. And that real world is designed by, for men

When a woman menstruates, when/if she decides to marry, when/if she decides to have kids, should not be factors when looking at a woman’s potential from a hiring standpoint.

US strike on Iran’s key oil export island Kharg raises fears of wider supply disruption

President Trump said the US had bombed military targets on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, but spared oil infrastructure.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba, the man Iran must keep alive & the secret force ‘tasked with it’—all about NOPO

The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.

Peaceful power transfers followed uprisings in India’s neighbourhood. It’s a sign of mature democracies

Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.