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Friday, August 8, 2025
TopicSwatantra Party

Topic: Swatantra Party

Is India ready for a new Libertarian Party? Free markets, free temples, free choice

The Libertarian Party of India, launched in Panchkula last year, wants to take a chainsaw to red tape, high taxes, caste politics, and state intrusions on personal freedom.

Zareer Masani showed us how to respond to the superficial JNU-AMU anti-colonialists

Like his father Minoo before him, Zareer Masani had moved away from undergraduate leftism to a mature conservative stance.

Piloo Mody on Russian ‘friendship’ trap and how India paid the price when shopping for arms

On 21 April 1975, Godhra MP and founding member of Swatantra Party spoke in the Lok Sabha during a debate on defence expenditure and purchase of arms. 'We have been, especially since the last war with Pakistan, shopping round the world.'

For Minoo Masani, Indira Gandhi’s bank nationalisation Bill ‘came in the dark, like a thief’

On 25 July 1969 in Lok Sabha, Rajkot MP Minoo Masani listed the economic and political grounds on which his Swatantra Party opposed the Indira Gandhi government's Bill to nationalise private banks.

SubscriberWrites: Does Indian politics have space for libertarians?

There is a new wave of a combination of populism, and fiscal irresponsibility, masqueraded as ‘new welfarism’, sweeping through our politics today, writes Vibhav Kavoor.

Minoo Masani is India’s forgotten liberal who went against Nehru’s all-pervasive socialism

Masani's commitment to individual liberty extended beyond economics—he was deeply invested in defending autonomy in different forms.

Swatantra Party had a lot to say on China after 1962. If only Nehru had heard them

The reaction of Swatantra Party leaders C. Rajagopalachari, Minoo Masani, K.M. Munshi and N.G. Ranga during the 1962 War should be emulated today.

When a Singaporean critic of Marxist socialism took Indira Gandhi to court

The day after Indira Gandhi nationalised banks, R.C. Cooper air dashed to New Delhi to challenge the ordinance.

No accident India forgot Swatantra leader & my father Minoo Masani, the beef-eating Parsi

It’s hard to imagine Rajaji and Minoo’s liberal values being tolerated, let alone heeded, in Hindutva-led India today.

60 years ago, a Right liberal Swatantra Party had challenged Nehru’s socialist Raj

It was a sign of Swatantra Party's political acumen that many of its policies would be adopted by Narasimha Rao 17 years after its demise in 1974.

On Camera

In Mohammed Siraj, the Pasmanda Muslims have a hero

There’s a subtle radicalism in a name like Siraj being spoken with national pride. His success is read as proof that someone from a working-class, Pasmanda background can achieve this status.

Smartphones, gems, pharma: Which Indian exports will be worst hit by Trump tariffs, which will be spared

Electronics—specifically smartphones—& energy & pharma products make up 30% of Indian exports to US. 25% tariff on India came into effect Thursday, extra 25% to kick in by August-end.

A shadow war over India’s defence procurement on social media raises concerns of undue influence

One such website has drawn particular scrutiny for spreading fake stories that have upset not only the Indian but also foreign defence firms by falsely attributing misinformation.

Pakistan, Dhaka have played Washington well. Back home, Modi ecosystem has an inner conflict

To protect ourselves from Trumpian diplomacy, first we must introspect the bipolarity within our establishment discourse.