Arun Nehru, who sought to be Court Chamberlain in the Rajiv Gandhi-era, argued to continue with Indira Gandhi’s policy of playing the Hindu card in a subtle way that did not alienate Muslims.
When Rajiv Gandhi started he could do no wrong. Halfway through his five years, he could do no right. His tenure had many chastening lessons in how mega mandates can make you smug and self-destruct. His record should be essential reading for those with brute majorities now, from Arvind Kejriwal, Narendra Modi and on to Vasundhara Raje, Naveen Patnaik and Mamata Banerjee.
Shekhar Gupta
We cannot absolve the Election Commission of all the blame, but we must emphasise that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee must shoulder the lion’s share of the responsibility for these exclusions.
Fears that an escalation of the conflict could heighten a fuel squeeze & endanger the economy unnerved traders, with NYT reporting Iran stopped negotiating a truce with the US.
China patiently invested capital, skill and technology in coal gasification. Unlike it, we won’t move from words to action. As crude prices decline, we lose interest.
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