Asia Bibi, freed from death row by Pakistan Supreme Court, calls for reform in 'harsh' blasphemy law
Asia Bibi was the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws
Lords of the ring
Not since the days of Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe has heavyweight boxing grabbed the kind of mind space as it does now.
Read India must come before Skill India
The recently released Annual Status of Education Report, India’s largest NGO-run yearly survey, paints a distressing picture of basic reading and arithmetic abilities of students: with 25 per cent of students completing Class 8 without any reading competency, and over 50 per cent unable to even divide numbers.
Cults, religious sects are not a thing of the past
The tragic and inglorious end of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple, Osho’s Rajneeshpuram, Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo and other such associations across the world by no means implies that cults are a thing of the past
Sanatan Sanstha: A Hypnotic Attraction
The secretive organisation set up by hypnotherapist Jayant Balaji Athavale has been accused of serious crimes like murder and bomb blasts but remains popular among the youth for its ideology
Collegium has flaws, but that’s the cost of judicial independence
While there can be no getting away from the truth of these criticisms, the question we need to ask ourselves is whether they mean that the collegium system should be done away with?
Collegium has to go, and it is just a matter of time before it does
The question whether the Supreme Court collegium should be dropped as a mechanism for appointing higher court judges has become redundant. Every day that passes points to this opaque process being completely incongruous with the democratic ideals of transparency and accountability that India aspires to.
An Idea Eternal: The Billion Interpretations of Draupadi
Her character was shaped on the anvil of dharma by kings and rishis, executed by lesser men, honed by desire, and cheated by her own
Where RSS Men Love Their Pork
The RSS and its Hindutva affiliates are making deep inroads into the many tribes and ethnic communities that make up the Northeast by trying to hoist, at least, 109 existing indigenous faiths in a strategic bid to counter evangelical Christianity.
Lines drawn for Didi of all battles in West Bengal
There was both an intended and unintended consequence of Mamata Banerjee’s curious dharna against the CBI’s attempt to question the Kolkata Police Commissioner in connection with the Saradha scam.
Tigress by the Tail
Nowadays, the people of Bengal want to hear news about jobs and are loath to follow the antics of the CBI, Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Our struggle will go on till the last man, the last day: Manzoor Pashteen
Unlike the Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, Manzoor Pashteen does not believe in guerrilla warfare or weapons
Muddle in the Middle
India's middle order is poised precariously on a precipice where their response mechanism oscillates between susceptible and suicidal.
The many shades of Red and how to erase them
Guns or roses, what should the government’s strategy be against the nettlesome Maoist insurgency?
No country for an Asia Bibi
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan. In an environment of relative impunity, the state’s opportunistic appeasement of extremist groups dedicated to the implementation of the stringent laws encourages their use as a potent tool of persecution and prevents reasoned debate or reform.
Time may have come for Islam to go local
Neither the Quran nor the Prophet give the Arabs superiority over their brethren, but the Arabs have imposed the language and dress code on Islam worldwide.
Raman Singh’s development card didn’t turn the trick for adivasis
In the midst of the Maoist killing fields, the government built a skill city, an education hub, a multispeciality hospital and also set up a call centre. A one-time Maoist stronghold, Palnar turned into a ‘digital village’, hooked up to the world.
Jaat’s the way to do it!
Haryanvi hip-hop is making a mark, re-enforcing tired tropes about women and caste. Rappers from the state fuse rustic notes with electronic beats and lyrics that often overflow with local slang, to carve a new saleable musical sub-genre
Mr Modi budgets for the EWS
While presenting the interim budget in the Parliament, Piyush Goyal has not left any significant socio-economic group out of his speech - from farmers to soldiers, salary earners to investors
Black is the new white in Hollywood
New-age Hollywood is learning to experiment with power equations of the African-American race