On 24 March 1977, Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressed a rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi following the Janata Party's victory in the Lok Sabha elections, which unseated Congress from power for the first time.
Beef panic reached Hindu kitchens in 1983. The upholders of purity, Jains, were accused of selling animal fat in 'shudh' ghee. Lok Sabha rocked. VP Singh was on the defensive.
While founders never had majority & had to keep a diverse coalition intact, today's BJP doesn’t need allies. Credit goes to Modi-Shah but they should thank founders, especially Vajpayee.
Archival documents on the Emergency show the incredible ease with which national capitals across the world pivoted to the new realities of India’s constitutional autocracy.
In ‘Capturing Institutional Change’, Himanshu Jha writes about the Official Secrets Act and the Janata government promising ‘openness’ after Emergency.
Under Indira Gandhi, JNU turned a deep shade of red because of curricula and faculty chosen by Education Minister Syed Nurul Hasan from a pool of pro-CPI teachers.
While bond yields tend to fall amid low inflation & interest rate cuts, market experts say they’ve been rising due to concerns over tax collections, fiscal deficit & potential impact of US tariffs.
It is one of the most advanced long-range air defence and anti-missile radars. It has been acquired under an about USD 145-million deal signed in 2020.
To be truly functional and durable, even eternal, a state doesn’t just need a leader, a party or an ideology. It needs functional and robust institutions.
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