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Friday, November 21, 2025
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PastForward

PastForward is a deep research offering from ThePrint on issues from India’s modern history that continue to guide the present and determine the future. As William Faulkner famously said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Indians are now hungrier and curiouser to know what brought us to key issues of the day. 
For now, this is available immediately to all ThePrint readers. Very soon PastForward will be among the premium offerings that go behind a paywall, only available to subscribers.

Adani controversy brings back the story of how Manmohan Singh govt rescued Satyam

+TFP Vandana Menon -
The man behind the Satyam scam, Ramalinga Raju, was a god in his village, was even called Andhra Pradesh’s Bill Gates.
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100 yrs of Soviet Union: Nehru-Indira era over, but idea of USSR still rules Indian mind

+TFP Vandana Menon -
Soviet babies were named Indira, Sita and Gita, Indian children were called Stalin, Stalinjeet, Natasha. The USSR was a blueprint for Indian nation-building.
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With Rajnath Singh in Cairo, India-Egypt pick up Nehru-Nasser thread left off in the ’60s

+TFP Snehesh Alex Philip -
In the 1960s, an IAF team was in Cairo to make fighter jets. Both India and Egypt knew the importance of a domestic defence industrial base — that bond is restarting.
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Take care, Rajiv Gandhi told Prabhakaran. Even gave bulletproof vest before Sri Lanka Accord

+TFP Vandana Menon -
Prabhakaran entered the accord thinking it would get him Eelam. Jayawardene hoped it would end violence in Lanka. And Rajiv Gandhi had good intentions for the Tamils.
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How Nehru added ‘conditions apply’ to Article 19(1)(a) & India lost way to gates of freedom

+TFP Sonal Matharu -
The 16-day freedom of speech debate in Parliament pitted Jawaharlal Nehru against Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Their echoes continue to bedevil and bruise India today.
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India’s anti-defection law didn’t stop power politics. It just moved from farmhouse to resort

+TFP Abhishek Dey -
Maharashtra turmoil shows Rajiv Gandhi's 1985 anti-defection law changed nothing, but only left India 'with the worst of both worlds'.
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CPI was first communist party in world to win election. Then came its identity crisis and fall

+TFP Vandana Menon -
Within a decade of coming to power in Kerala in 1957, the cracks in the Communist Party were showing. A British 'spy', Nehru, and China made them wider.
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India and US went pro-choice around the same time. Only one strengthened its abortion laws

Abantika Ghosh -
India's Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 established women’s right to seek an abortion two years before US Supreme Court judgment in Roe vs Wade.
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Somnath and Gyanvapi temples were rebuilt – long ago by Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar

+TFP Vandana Menon -
All major places of Hindu pilgrimage owe something to Ahilyabai. Her piety became her power in a world of men.
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How Nehru’s friend Jayanti Dharma Teja went from Lutyens’ darling to international fugitive

+TFP Vandana Menon -
Before Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi, there was Jayanti Dharma Teja — scientist, shipping magnate, and alleged scamster who led the Indian government on a wild spin.
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Opinion

Hasina’s was a trial in absentia, but not a trial without justice

Faisal Mahmud -
The Sheikh Hasina trial represents an inflection point in the struggle to place citizens above rulers and prevent the next massacre.

Not just Nehru, even Hindutva stems from Macaulay legacy

India has a geopolitical trilemma with Afghanistan. It’s not a good vs evil choice

Economy

At Charcha 2025: Local entrepreneurship, not just big IT, will drive next wave of distributed AI work

Mrinalini Dhyani -
While global corporations setting up GCCs in India continue to express confidence in availability of skilled AI engineers, the panel argued that India’s real challenge lies elsewhere.

Defence

Can’t stay behind tech curve anymore, must catch up—Vice Chief of Navy Staff ahead of Swavlamban 2025

Tejas Bhatotia -
New Delhi: Noting that India cannot afford to stay behind the technology curve when it comes to war-fighting, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff...

National Interest

INDIA has a Congress-sized hole. And the fix begins with a little humility

Shekhar Gupta -
Without a Congress revival, there can be no challenge to the BJP pan-nationally. Modi’s party is growing, and almost entirely at the cost of the Congress.

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