Spurn your allies, only to saffron advantage

Monday 5 February '07

...that’s the lesson Cong gets after Maharashtra civic polls results; looks forward to ties with NCP in civic bodies where their combined numbers exceed those of BJP-Sena

BJP’s Modi snub to appease anti-CM sections

Thursday 1 February '07

BJP chief Rajnath Singh’s RSS-backed decision to drop Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi

Not without my vote

Wednesday 17 January '07

Get ready for old-fashioned politics, as the Big Two battle it out this year

BJP sees smoother road to Delhi via Dehradun

Thursday 4 January '07

Atal Behari Vajpayee may have declared that the BJP’s road to power in Delhi will be via Lucknow, but party leaders privately admit that Dehradun is a far more achievable...

With Atal Happy B’day, PM breaks the ice

Tuesday 26 December '06

In a signal that he was reaching out to the principal Opposition party after a rather chilly winter session of Parliament

Primary inequality

Tuesday 26 December '06

Read the Ganguly Committee’s 100-point criteria for nursery admissions in Delhi’s private schools. They reveal a deeply elitist bias that has important implications for the reservations debate

In Jharkhand’s ‘fluid’ politics, Soren still in demand

Friday 15 December '06

Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav insists he did not discuss politics with JMM chief Shibhu Soren in Tihar Jail last week and Soren’s son Durga denies that the JMM has any intention to leave the UPA and hitch up with the NDA in Jharkhand.

Despite Kerala scar, NCP says will stand by LDF

Wednesday 13 December '06

In a calibrated response aimed at keeping hopes of a future rapprochement alive, the NCP central leadership today described the LDF’s decision to expel the party’s...

If only PM had called us, said it was a slip: Jaswant

Tuesday 12 December '06

As BJP members stalled both Houses of Parliament today protesting against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remark that minorities

Mid-way, UPA gets bypoll boost

Friday 8 December '06

TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao may have emerged as the biggest individual victor and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda the most prominent loser of the spate of byelections...

The Soren-sized headache

Thursday 30 November '06

If only national parties allowed charismatic leaders to flourish within them

Look what’s happening in J-K, N-E: Ebadi takes media to task

Tuesday 28 November '06

India may pride itself for being the world’s largest democracy with a lively civil society and vibrant free press but at least one international visitor is overwhelmingly underwhelmed.

Deve Gowda fights expulsion move

Sunday 26 November '06

In what can be termed the Battle of the Bracket, three senior national executive members of the Janata Dal...

Post-Harvard, Jaswant’s self-assessment: ‘I feel like a fraud’

Saturday 25 November '06

In his characteristic faux Sandhurst baritone, Jaswant Singh makes a very uncharacteristic admission: “I feel like a fraud.” No, the venerable former foreign minister and current Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha is not ruing the brouhaha over the mole that wasn’t in his last book “A Call to Honour.”

‘Caste, not class, basis for Muslim quota’

Wednesday 15 November '06

Taking the view that caste transcends both religion and class as the primary source of discrimination in India

Karunakaran works his way to ruling coalitions

Saturday 11 November '06

Thrown out by the Congress and rejected by the Left, K Karunakaran, is set to extract sweet revenge by joining both the UPA at the national level and the LDF in the state

No win or loss, Lalu has last word

Friday 10 November '06

He may no longer be the pre-eminent political leader in his state but Lalu Prasad Yadav today proved that he is far from a spent force and no “secular” alternative to the NDA in Bihar is possible without his backing.

Boost for BJP, a lifeline for Congress

Wednesday 8 November '06

UP civic polls: BJP retains upper caste, middle class base in big towns, Cong gets 3 mayoral seats

Faring well, Uma sets off alarm bells

Saturday 4 November '06

BJS vote share in Bara Malhera and Vidisha has a section of the BJP thinking of getting her back into the fold

Grace without measure

Thursday 2 November '06

Vimla Pande entwined tradition with an ageless modernity

Bright guys finish their job

Thursday 26 October '06

Did Pranab Mukherjee want to be foreign minister? The good thing for Sonia and PM is that his commitment to the new remit doesn’t depend on the answer

Pranab is reluctant Foreign Minister in Sonia’s Cabinet tweak

Wednesday 25 October '06

In an exercise marked by characteristic caution, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today effected a minor Foreign Minister-centred reshuffle of his ministry

Parties team up to scream against creamy order

Saturday 21 October '06

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was careful not to criticize the Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision to extend the creamy layer concept to SC/ST reservations but hinted that the government would “act” after studying the order in detail

Govt reacts, promptly sets up GoM but parties brace to oppose

Friday 20 October '06

Prompted by the Supreme Court’s observations today, the UPA government cobbled up a new Group of Ministers...

MPs’ chorus for seat hike has to do with women’s Bill and delimitation

Wednesday 11 October '06

The proposal is likely to come up at all-party meeting on October 13, convened to discuss the delimitation panel report