History has an uncanny way of intruding into contemporary life and shaping our public conversation. A new controversy emerged recently over the relationship between Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose.
Articles by Chanakya
Democracy seems EC
When did you last hear that quaint phrase booth-capturing? If you haven’t come across it even as elections are on in places like Uttar Pradesh, have you wondered why? Chanakya explains.
Updated on Feb 12, 2012 12:42 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
The phone bill polls?
You don't have to have your ear firmly on the dusty plains of UP to notice that this round of finger-pointing pertaining to corruption in the other camps is all a bit half-hearted, writes Chanakya.
Updated on Feb 04, 2012 09:31 PM IST
None | Chanakya
Quite off target
The barracks’ doors have always remained firmly bolted when our political worthies have popped around sensing an opportunity to put their oar in. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Jan 22, 2012 12:57 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Anna go lightly?
All political parties share the blame for corruption. But Team Anna should have stuck to its core issue — that of getting the government to pass a strong Lokpal Bill, writes Chanakya.
Updated on Jan 14, 2012 10:22 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
The bad federalist
The Trinamool Congress has, for all practical purposes, become the real opposition to the UPA - of which, in case it isn't apparent, it is an ally, Chanakya writes.
Updated on Jan 08, 2012 12:16 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Small, not beautiful
Smaller parties must realise they are part of the democratic process and have to earn their right to be part of the highest law-making body,writes Chanakya.
Updated on Jan 01, 2012 01:26 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Bijli, sadak, jaati
Delhi and the nation’s television screens popped and crackled with the fate of the Lokpal Bill the whole of last week but across the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh, it was pre-assembly election business as usual. But what is ‘business as usual’ in circa 2012 UP? Chanakya writes.
Updated on Dec 25, 2011 12:21 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Picking up the Bill
Procrastination is the not-so-fine art of delaying things. Doing a rush job is the even less celebrated art of, well, rushing through things. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Dec 17, 2011 10:50 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Is anybody home?
In India, as we've seen from the roll-out of a liberalised economic policy in the 1990s and the reforms in various sectors that followed, to the India-US nuclear deal in 2006, a democratic consensus is required. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Dec 11, 2011 02:12 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
A hung Parliament
Politics in India has one favourite format that never loses appeal with our politicians: the pot calling the kettle black. Last week we saw the Grand Old Pot asking the Not-So-Visible-Kettle to play by the rules as Par-liament came to a standstill even as the crucial winter session started. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Nov 27, 2011 12:26 AM IST
None | Chanakya
Ups and downs in UP
Mayawati's announcing the process of carving out four states from existing UP has the advantage over other pre-poll promises and demands of being tangible and sketchy at the same times, writes Chanakya.
Updated on Nov 20, 2011 01:40 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
How to love an ally
For the junior ally in any national alliance, the timing of going into an angry sulk and issuing the threat of pulling out is of primal importance. Banerjee's timing this time was truly rotten. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Nov 12, 2011 09:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times | chanakya@hindustantimes.com
Remember reforms?
Azim Premji has an institutional belief in government. What he essentially announced this week is that many of those in authority aren't doing their job. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Nov 05, 2011 10:07 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Stop the gang war
What has played against the Anna Gang is its no-holds-barred entry into the fringes of electoral politics, something it insisted it was too high-minded to get into. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Oct 29, 2011 11:22 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Mayawati is for real
The 2012 Uttar Pradesh election boulder has started to roll and it's Mayawati who is first off the block. Come to think of it, she's the only one off the block. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Oct 22, 2011 10:19 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
The Sardar’s success
By being lonely at the top, Singh manages to lead a political life of splendid isolation where he doesn’t get bogged down by party intrigues and cloak-and-dagger routines. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Oct 16, 2011 12:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Petals make this lotus
Don't choke on your Sunday coffee - and I hope Nitin Gadkari doesn't choke on his morning samosa if and when he reads this - but I've found something common between the BJP president and Jawaharlal Nehru. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Oct 08, 2011 11:39 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Why let the dogs out?
The most expendable of the senior cabinet ministers would be holding the 2G can and the government would be exorcised of the taint. At least, theoretically, that was the plan. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Oct 02, 2011 12:19 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Connection failures
Last week at a bar in central Delhi’s Khan Market, 10 stand-up comics were fighting it out to win the audience’s approval. One thing common to all of them was that, regardless of the quality of their jokes, every one was getting the laughs. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Sep 24, 2011 10:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Will he, won't he go national?
On the face of it, since the Gujarat riots, the chief minister has not put a wrong foot forward... But he still remains the man whom many admire, but can't quite bring home for dinner. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Sep 18, 2011 01:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
9/11: The India story
So where is India in the war on terror today? Well, we aren’t in the sweet spot we were in the George Bush years. But we aren’t in the outhouse we were in the first year of Obama either. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Sep 11, 2011 01:19 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya, New Delhi
Third Front, anyone?
If there was anything missing in the whole handling of the Anna Hazare issue over the last few weeks, it was lack of governance.
Updated on Sep 03, 2011 10:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Our flip-flop-flip government
If the Anna Hazare-Government of India saga was a television soap opera, there would really be no point in having a recap of ‘what has happened till now’ before the latest episode is aired.
Updated on Aug 27, 2011 10:00 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Our box-office flops
BJP president Nitin Gadkari is not known for his finesse. Rather, he is given to colourful - if often off-colour - remarks every time he tries to be statesmanlike. So, forgive me for trying to discern the subtext of his latest proposition that the BJP has a raft of leaders to choose from and so will not go into the next election projecting any prime ministerial candidate.
Updated on Aug 20, 2011 10:28 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Our days are not numbered
For those of you who haven’t already moved on to the next brouhaha, the battle over numbers in Parliament last week was as entertaining as it was confusing.
Updated on Aug 06, 2011 10:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Pre-punishment posting
The latest number of people in prisons without a conviction is actually 2.1 lakh — that’s a staggering 70% of the 3 lakh-odd undertrials in the country, writes Chanakya.
Updated on Jul 30, 2011 10:17 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Murmurs on Murdoch
There are some things in common between the eruption of Mount Murdoch in Britain over the News of The World phone hacking saga and the Niira Radia quake in India with the 2G scam as its epicentre. Chanakya writes.
Updated on Jul 23, 2011 10:38 PM IST
None | Chanakya
What’s the disincentive?
Down the ages, the fear of god has been a pretty good incentive for people to be good — or, at any rate, to not be bad, writes Chanakya.
Updated on Jul 16, 2011 09:29 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Neo-judicial ideologues?
The judiciary is not an op-ed page contributor or a JNU post-graduate in post-colonial studies. Last heard, the job of judges is to deliver verdicts in specific court cases and to pass orders, writes Chanakya.
Updated on Jul 09, 2011 09:28 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya
Stick to the plan, Anna
He is the ‘Gandhian’ face of a ‘people’s movement’ and no doubt still carrying a great deal of popular goodwill with him. But when Anna Hazare starts to refer to himself in the royal third person (“Anna is not afraid to face bullets”) and goes on a finger-wagging overdrive (“I will teach this government a lesson”), let’s face it, we have a right to be perturbed.
Updated on Jul 02, 2011 11:04 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Chanakya