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Monday, October 13, 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

No Mamata Banerjee, women’s safety isn’t a curfew issue

Nootan Sharma -
For Indian women, the smallest unit of control becomes the family; the largest, the State. Both speak the same language.

Zubeen Garg saga is resembling Sushant Singh Rajput. Did we not learn our lesson?

China has left Germany behind in in automotive sector

Economy

Niti Aayog recommends fully decriminalising 12 offences under new I-T Act to ‘foster more trust’

Udit Bubna -
Recommendations appear in Niti Aayog’s Tax Policy Working Paper Series–II. It says there is a need to shift away from fear-based enforcement to trust-based governance.

Defence

India, UK sign £350 mn deal for Martlet. What are these Lightweight Multirole Missiles

Snehesh Alex Philip -
In service with the British military since 2019, it is also known as the Martlet missile. Ukrainians have also deployed these missiles against Russian troops.

National Interest

CJI, IPS, IAS & Homebound: A wake-up call 75 years in the making

Shekhar Gupta -
Education, reservations, govt jobs are meant to bring equality and dignity. That we are a long way from that is evident in the shoe thrown at the CJI and the suicide of Haryana IPS officer. The film Homebound has a lesson too.

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