A few words today on the tempest brewed up this week in the social-media teacup over Joseph Lelyveld’s new biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi. The controversy is over reports that the book depicts Gandhi as bisexual, particularly in its description of the Mahatma’s relationship with a German architect. Lelyveld he had treated the …
In case you were not among the billion-plus people watching today’s Cricket World Cup semi-final, India has just won. It was a tough, close match with both sides getting a chance to show off their bowling. That’s not this Indian team’s strength, but they were in good form today and overpowered the Pakistani batsmen, who started strong …
There is one cricket tradition on the Subcontinent that, unlike those dapper white v-neck sweaters, has endured into the 21st century: cricket diplomacy. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to attend tomorrow’s semi-final match in the Cricket World …
Wikileaks has revived one of the most sordid episodes in India’s recent history — in which members of the opposition waved bundles of cash on the floor of Parliament — and forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to answer, yet again, for charges of corruption within his party.
The cable in question, from July 17, 2008, was sent by …
Who’s worried about nuclear power?
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that China has no plans to alter its nuclear program in the wake of Japan’s catastrophe:
“There is a higher standard in China than the world’s average” for building nuclear power plants, Xu Mi, an official at China National Nuclear Corp., said.”
Not to …
The Indian newspaper The Hindu has published an absorbing, multi-story Wikileaks package today about 5,100 diplomatic cables covering everything from India-Pakistan relations after the November 2008 terror attacks to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war and influence-peddling in Nepal. There are also some revealing behind-the-scenes …
What happens when the Dalai Lama steps down as political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile? As far as India is concerned, he will always be welcome, according to statements today by the external affairs ministry.
“His holiness the Dalai Lama is an honoured guest in India. And he is a spiritual and religious leader,” an MEA
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I visited Bihar for the first time in 1998, when its reputation for lawlessness was well-deserved. Traveling by train from Delhi, you knew exactly when you crossed the border into Bihar. That’s when groups of aggressive, ticket-less riders suddenly jumped onto the train, comfortable in the knowledge that, in Bihar, no one would …
India’s simmering telecom scandal has already dented the reputation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Now, it may soon inflict some political damage to Singh’s Congress Party. At stake is the party’s alliance with a regional partner, the DMK, led for the last 40 years by the charismatic poet-politician M. Karunanidhi. With …
Ah, the perils of oneupsmanship. Kanwar Singh Tanwar was hosting a reception to honor his son’s wedding this week, and the main event was to be the arrival of a helicopter, a thoughtful little wedding present from the bride’s parents. This was not just any helicopter—of the kind that nouveau-riche farmers might merely rent to arrive at …
The case of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank, gets curiouser and curiouser. Earlier today, Grameen announced that Bangladesh’s Central Bank had fired Yunus, apparently because he had stayed on beyond the legal retirement age.That was a surprise in itself. Monday’s board meeting, which was billed as a …
Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning founding father of microfinance, has been pushed out of the Grameen Bank. The board of the bank held an inconclusive meeting on Monday to determine whether he would stay. Apparently, efforts to work out a face-saving exit have failed. The official reason given by the Bangladeshi government, which …
I can remember a time not so long ago when journalists covered the unveiling of India’s annual budget using the classic “man on the street” interview. Farmers, housewives, shopkeepers and students all got their say on the government’s latest set of subsidies, taxes and signals about the country’s financial and political …