Lalita Panicker leads the opinion section at Hindustan Times. Over a 33-year career, she has specialised in gender issues, reproductive health, child rights, politics and social engineering.
Articles by Lalita Panicker
The Congress must build up its state leaders
Boots on the ground — that is what seems to have swung the election for the BJP, if the exit poll numbers are to be believed. And this is something that the Congress needs to introspect on as it prepares for a stint out of power. Lalita Panicker writes.
Updated on May 14, 2014 11:19 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
Padmanabhaswamy temple: Legend of the treasures
As a Supreme Court ruling hangs over the right to administer the massively wealthy Padmanabhaswamy Temple, the former royal family of Travancore states its case. The royal family has said they would file a petition in SC against the amicus curiae’s report before the next hearing.
Updated on May 11, 2014 01:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
PM will be remembered as a sad figure: Amartya
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a tragic figure who failed in his ambition to curb corruption and became a victim of his helplessness.
Updated on May 03, 2014 01:15 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker and Gaurav Choudhury, New Delhi
Two states: Kerala, Gujarat and their development
So we have two models to choose from. One, where the investor is wooed and social indices are given short shrift. The other where the investor is frightened off and social indices are commendable, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Apr 21, 2014 10:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
AAP made mistakes, others have erred more: AAP's Anita Pratap
Anita Pratap had waded through snake-infested swamps to interview slain LTTE chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran. She is now negotiating what she feels are the swamps of politics. Wife of Norway’s ambassador to Japan, the award-winning journalist has her plans for the Kochi Lok Sabha seat.
Updated on Apr 10, 2014 12:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
The Left has little new to offer
Nowhere is the CPI(M)’s apparent death wish more evident than in Kerala, the home of the world’s first elected communist government. Faced with a tough election, the Left has little new to offer to the young, energetic voter.
Updated on Apr 09, 2014 11:17 PM IST
None | Lalita Panicker
Former CM Dikshit quietly settles in her new role
In her new avatar as the governor of Kerala, Delhi’s once grande dame Sheila Dikshit has slipped into her apolitical role with seeming grace and ease.
Updated on Apr 09, 2014 01:56 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker, Thiruvananthapuram
Sunanda gone, Shashi Tharoor goes seeking votes alone
Congress sitting MP from Thiruvananthapuram says he has been 'vilified by many' after his wife's death. The tragedy has seems to have ispired him to work harder. His jeep top campaign starts in the early morning and ends late at night.
Updated on Apr 08, 2014 05:19 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker, Thiruvananthapuram
Tide turning against Modi: Antony
"Don’t believe the surveys. In the last two weeks I see the tide turning against Modi. I have been in politics for over 50 years and I trust my own instinct," minister for defence and Congress leader AK Antony said.
Updated on Apr 07, 2014 12:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker and Ramesh Babu, Alapuzha
BSP chief Mayawati is trying to gain lost ground
A stint out of power seems to have taught Mayawati a few lessons. Her low-key birthday celebration in solidarity with the Muzaffarnagar victims should sound alarm bells in the SP camp, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Jan 18, 2014 01:26 AM IST
Political weather may not be that conducive for AAP outside Delhi
Scams, Delhi gang rape paved the way for Aam Aadmi Party in the Capital. Now the question on everyone’s lips is, can this AAP phenomenon be replicated elsewhere, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Dec 18, 2013 02:13 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
A desire to disfigure
It really should be the person who makes threats or indeed carries out acid attacks who should lose face in society, not the innocent victim, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Jul 29, 2013 02:44 AM IST
Age is not just a figure
Our respect and caring for the elderly is very much a part of our collective hypocrisy. Geriatric care is a very grey area in India, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Mar 28, 2013 10:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
A soldier extraordinaire and the woman behind him
Lt Gen Prem Bhagat was the first Indian to be conferred the Victoria Cross during World War II. Lalita Panicker writes.
Updated on Jan 26, 2013 06:01 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
‘I strongly wish self-immolations would stop soon’
Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje, the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of spiritual Buddhism is not deterred from spreading his message of peace and spirituality. Speaking exclusively to Hindustan Times, he spoke of his discomfiture with the recent spate of self-immolations for the cause of Tibet.
Updated on Dec 11, 2012 11:44 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker, New Delhi
A cup full of beans
The Araku growth model is helping tribals chart their own destiny. It may not have taken India by storm yet, but other nations are taking note of it, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Oct 23, 2012 10:39 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
Relax immigration laws: UK varsity chief
Stressing upon the importance of attracting best academic talent from foreign countries to the UK, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, opposed stricter immigration laws, Lalita Panicker reports.
Updated on Sep 09, 2012 12:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker, New Delhi
Island in the sun
Mauritius can be a springboard for India into Africa. New Delhi can't afford to throw away the advantage it enjoys in the region, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Aug 01, 2012 12:00 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
Let's get men involved
The focus of family planning is almost solely on women. But they rarely determine the number of children they should have, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Jun 14, 2012 01:33 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
The fat of the matter
We need a campaign to educate people about the negatives of junk food, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Apr 04, 2012 01:12 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
It’s just a kitty party
The National Commission for Women has become irrelevant. Scrap it altogether or reinvent it, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Feb 29, 2012 11:00 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
Review: When Loss is Gain
Pavan K Varma’s When Loss is Gain could just as easily be made into a Hollywood movie as a Bollywood one. His first work of fiction has all the ingredients that suit both: high drama, a limited dose of sex, human frailty, betrayal, redemption and exotic settings. The story revolves around Anand, a Delhi lawyer working for his best friend Advaita’s law firm.
Updated on Feb 25, 2012 06:31 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
Sowing in the wind
In Maoist-infested Araku valley, innovative planning and financing have given tribal farmers a stake in the development process, writes Lalita Panicker.
Updated on Nov 30, 2011 09:17 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
‘We are very close to India and nothing can change that’
His party chief Prachanda may have advocated cosying up to China when he was prime minister, but his one-time deputy and current Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is very clear that ties with India are his main priority.
Updated on Oct 22, 2011 12:17 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker, New Delhi
The royal affair
The royal wedding is over, but Bhutan can’t get enough of it. Will the king break from tradition and stay in the same palace as his bride? Will her sister marry his brother? The Kingdom waits to see what comes next.
Updated on Oct 15, 2011 11:01 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
Bhutan's King weds childhood sweetheart
Bhutan's legendary gross national happiness quotient went into overdrive with prayers soaring into the mountains surrounding the startlingly beautiful 17th century monastery-fortress in Bhutan's old capital as the country's 31-year-old reformist king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck crowned childhood sweetheart Ashi Jetsun Pema his queen.
Updated on Oct 14, 2011 01:33 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker, Punakha
Pakistan's mistake was to mix religion with politics: Blair
A clash of cultures and faiths is inevitable as people come closer to each other in a globalising world. This, says former British prime minister Tony Blair, is what he seeks to address through the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, set up after he demitted office.
Updated on Sep 29, 2011 02:22 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker, New Delhi
A Pakistan cocktail
Essays that provide viable solutions for a country shortchanged by an inept civilian leadership and a violent, ambitious army.
Updated on Sep 23, 2011 11:02 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
The dark side of T3
It was sheer luck that nothing untoward happened on Sunday when Delhi's tony T3 airport terminal went on the blink for over four hours, said an unnamed source. Lalita Panicker writes.
Updated on Aug 26, 2011 04:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker
What lies beneath
Before the secret chambers under the Padmanabhaswamy temple were opened last fortnight, their riches were a myth. We uncover a few other bounties said to be lying across India. Lalita Panicker writes.
Updated on Jul 09, 2011 09:42 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Lalita Panicker