From Deen Dayal Upadhyay's mysterious death and Madhavrao Scindia's plane crash to the Gandhi family assassinations, so much of what happens in politics has little to do with calculations and much more to do with fate.
Even as India, Pakistan have seemed on the edge of war, their intelligence services have often sought to find space to de-escalate tensions and reduce risks for the two countries.
On 15 December 1988, PM Rajiv Gandhi spoke in the Lok Sabha while introducing comprehensive electoral reforms, including lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, and introducing measures to protect secular values in elections.
The Bofors howitzers played a key role in India’s Kargil victory. While the performance of the gun was not in question, Chitra Subramaniam said the scam did bring down the Army’s morale.
In Episode 1579, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta recalls his involvement in publishing Madhu Jain's review of the book, leading to protests, the ban on the book & a revenge movie in Pakistan.
In 1990, after he had lost power, he said to me in an interview: ‘Yes, I was young, I made mistakes.’ Off-the-record he added: ‘If you become prime minister tomorrow, you would make the same mistakes.’
In ‘The Arc of Memory’, Murlidhar C Bhandare, Congress leader and former governor of Odisha recounts his life events set to the backdrop of India’s history.
Indira Gandhi targeting RSS during Emergency & legitimising it, Rajiv giving up mandate in 1989, and Vajpayee, Advani advancing general elections – these errors changed the course of India’s politics.
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.
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.
Thanks Shekhar Ji for such a nice article. I am an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Leicester , UK.
If I may please, I would differ with you a bit on the 1989 analysis. The President did call RG to form the government first, but at that point RG had no other option but to decline. How would he get the additional numbers required? Congress dod not have any major pre poll alliance. At that scenario, even the leftwould have not supported the government. However, I do think RG should have formed the government after the fall of the VP government. With the CS faction out, with 197 he could have made CS the deputy PM and offered a few more important cabinet posts. Instead RG chose to repeat the Charan Singh type tale. Incidentally in a recent researcg paper we have shown by careful econometric analysis that this act did cost RG electorally in 1991.
Don’t see the connection between the so-called major blunders. The analysis is too hypothetical. It simply says had Rajiv Gandhi not sat out in 1989 politics of subsequent period would have played out differently. How? Rajiv’s government would not have lasted. He might have still felled by LTTE bullets.
Since the prism is political, sending the IPKF to Sri Lanka can be excluded. However, seeking to nullify the Shah Bano verdict and also opening the locks to the Babri Masjid was a mistake. For Mrs. Gandhi, playing footsie in Punjab, leading ultimately to Operation Blue Star.
Thanks Shekhar Ji for such a nice article. I am an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Leicester , UK.
If I may please, I would differ with you a bit on the 1989 analysis. The President did call RG to form the government first, but at that point RG had no other option but to decline. How would he get the additional numbers required? Congress dod not have any major pre poll alliance. At that scenario, even the leftwould have not supported the government. However, I do think RG should have formed the government after the fall of the VP government. With the CS faction out, with 197 he could have made CS the deputy PM and offered a few more important cabinet posts. Instead RG chose to repeat the Charan Singh type tale. Incidentally in a recent researcg paper we have shown by careful econometric analysis that this act did cost RG electorally in 1991.
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Don’t see the connection between the so-called major blunders. The analysis is too hypothetical. It simply says had Rajiv Gandhi not sat out in 1989 politics of subsequent period would have played out differently. How? Rajiv’s government would not have lasted. He might have still felled by LTTE bullets.
Since the prism is political, sending the IPKF to Sri Lanka can be excluded. However, seeking to nullify the Shah Bano verdict and also opening the locks to the Babri Masjid was a mistake. For Mrs. Gandhi, playing footsie in Punjab, leading ultimately to Operation Blue Star.