Several recent stories paint a patchy portrait of India
by Rashmee
Posted on November 12, 2019 / The National
Some sense of what is happening in India can be gleaned from four news stories. On Wednesday, the Indian Supreme Court decides on whether it should be bound, like other public agencies, by the Right to Information Act; the Indian rupee last week fell by 0.5 per cent after ratings agency Moody’s lowered the country’s … Continue reading “Several recent stories paint a patchy portrait of India”
Read MoreWhat state elections in India have in common with Istanbul and Budapest
by Rashmee
Posted on October 29, 2019 / The National
The results of recent elections in two Indian states — Haryana and Maharashtra — have come as a surprise to prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party as well as its opponents. The BJP’s vote share in Haryana, which borders the Indian capital Delhi, fell by 22 per cent, in contrast to its triumphal performance in the national election … Continue reading “What state elections in India have in common with Istanbul and Budapest”
Read MoreThe Trump effect was underway long before Trump. But now, it is empowered
by Rashmee
Posted on October 4, 2019
Israel, India, Britain…The grim rollcall of countries where long-standing norms of political behaviour are increasingly disregarded, and where elected leaders attack the tools that keep democracy vibrant and true. Stanford political scientist Larry Diamond has described some of these tools as follows: judicial independence, a free media, a deeply engaged civil society, universities, the civil service, … Continue reading “The Trump effect was underway long before Trump. But now, it is empowered”
Read MoreKashmir has become a place obscured by mist and forgetfulness
by Rashmee
Posted on October 1, 2019 / The National
In Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2015 novel The Buried Giant, an elderly couple set off to look for their long-lost son, of whom they have only fleeting, faint memories. The story is set in sixth-century Britain. The Saxons have arrived, King Arthur is dead and an uneasy peace exists between the Britons and Saxons. The … Continue reading “Kashmir has become a place obscured by mist and forgetfulness”
Read MoreWho needs factories? Good question to ask America but not countries like India
by Rashmee
Posted on July 17, 2019
When manufacturing activity in the US and China, the world’s two largest economies, perks up, everyone heaves a sign of relief. Manufacturing, according to most knowledgeable people, is the key to a strong economy. Now here’s the other point of view. Who Needs Factories Anyway? asked Michael Schuman on Bloomberg View some little time ago. It was … Continue reading “Who needs factories? Good question to ask America but not countries like India”
Read MoreWhy politicians around the world are getting on the radical love train
by Rashmee
Posted on July 3, 2019 / The National
Populism of the most hateful sort has had a baleful presence in the headlines for the past two years, but now a very different political perspective is challenging it, without animus. It’s called “radical love” and had its first electoral win on June 23, when Ekrem Imamoglu was elected mayor of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city. … Continue reading “Why politicians around the world are getting on the radical love train”
Read MoreA manifesto for lost liberals?
by Rashmee
Posted on June 15, 2019
Every lost liberal, defeated by the Indian election result and the Hindu nationalists’ emphatic win, should read sociology professor Avijit Pathak’s piece in The Wire. (Click here or just read the blog below. It has the highlights of Professor Pathak’s argument). Professor Pathak makes an important concession: “In contemporary India, no concept has created more … Continue reading “A manifesto for lost liberals?”
Read MoreA new era of pragmatic foreign policy appears to be emerging in Modi’s India 2.0
by Rashmee
Posted on June 11, 2019 / The National
How will Narendra Modi’s India deal with the world now? Differently from his first term as prime minister, as far as confidence and competence are concerned. Mr Modi is newly empowered, having won an emphatic re-election last month. Bestriding India and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr Modi faced no political pushback in the swift … Continue reading “A new era of pragmatic foreign policy appears to be emerging in Modi’s India 2.0”
Read MoreFor India, it wasn’t the economy
by Rashmee
Posted on May 29, 2019
Shashi Tharoor, an MP of India’s Congress Party, asked a pertinent question the other day: wasn’t it right for Congress and the rest of the Indian opposition to assume people would vote in their own economic interest? Mr Tharoor meant Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s controversial economic decisions – demonetisation, for instance, when nearly 90 … Continue reading “For India, it wasn’t the economy”
Read MoreThe Orbanisation of India? Before that, there was the Modi-fication of Hungary
by Rashmee
Posted on May 23, 2019
The Orbanisation of India? Before that, there was the Modi-fication of Hungary. Now that Narendra Modi has decisively won re-election he is master of the narrative, the history books, of legislation and much, much more. How much more can be best explained by considering the following: The Election Commission of India’s unwillingness or inability to do … Continue reading “The Orbanisation of India? Before that, there was the Modi-fication of Hungary”
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Rashmee has lived and worked in several countries in the past decade, including Afghanistan, India, Haiti, Tunisia, the UAE, US and UK