When Dissent Becomes “Standard Practice”
On 23 September 2026, the Election Commission of India released Press Note No. ECI/PN/119/2026. Issued the same day The Indian Express published its investigation into an unprecedented internal rupture—two of three Election Commissioners formally objecting, on record, at least fourteen times over ten months to decisions taken without their knowledge—the note is less clarification than […]
When the Government Chooses the Election Commission, Democracy Pays the Price
The Election Commission of India is not an administrative department of the Union government. It is a constitutional authority entrusted with the most consequential task in a democracy: deciding whether citizens can vote, whether their votes will be counted and whether political power will change hands through a credible process. That is why the Modi […]
111th Birth Anniversary: Saluting the Poet Who Gave Urdu Elegance to Indian Cinema
A Literary Lineage in Turbulent TimesOn September 23, 1915, in Karimabad (district Gujranwala), a child was born into a family steeped in Urdu literature. Raja Mehdi Ali Khan—nephew of the prominent nationalist editor Maulana Zafar Ali Khan and son of Hubia Khanum—grew up immersed in verse. His mother was a poet of such distinction that […]
Anant Nag’s Dadasaheb Phalke Award: A Quiet Triumph for the Art of Restraint
In an age when Indian cinema often equates greatness with volume, spectacle and carefully engineered stardom, the decision to confer the Dadasaheb Phalke Award on Anant Nag feels almost radical. It is not merely a recognition of longevity or commercial success. It is an official affirmation that an actor’s most lasting power can reside in […]
The Architect in the Shadows: R.N. Kao and the Crafting of Modern Indian Intelligence
As the Research and Analysis Wing completes 58 years of silent service, the legacy of its founding chief remains the definitive blueprint for statecraft and stealth.In the delicate art of nation-building, true power rarely announces itself. The most decisive victories in a republic’s history are often those that never make the front pages: the crises […]
The Eternal Melody: A Centenary Tribute to Noor Jehan
“Awaaz de kahan hai, duniya meri jawaan hai…” (Call out, where are you? My world is still young…) A century after her birth on 21 September 1926 in the quiet Punjabi town of Kasur, the voice of Noor Jehan continues to rise across the subcontinent like a luminous call across time. Born Allah Wasai into a […]
Beyond Intermediaries: Correcting the Record on Muslim Intellectuals in India
The claim that Indian Muslims lack an intelligentsia is not just sweeping; it is empirically unsustainable. Ibn Khaldun Bharati’s opinion piece in The Print mistakes the absence of a particular kind of loud, self-appointed “thought-leader” for the absence of thought itself. What it actually reveals is a narrow, elitist definition of who counts as an […]
The High Cost of Illusion: Why Washington Sunk Into an Iranian Quagmire
A Miscalculated Doctrine of Decapitation More than 200 days after a joint U.S.-Israeli offensive shattered decades of shadow warfare, Middle Eastern geopolitics stand radically transformed. What Washington planned as a decisive campaign to dismantle Tehran’s missile architecture and force regime change has instead rigidified into an agonizing stalemate. The initial coalition strategy—relying on swift decapitation […]
From Aspiration to Reality: Decoding the 2026 BRICS New Delhi Declaration
Two decades after its inception, BRICS has moved beyond aspirational rhetoric to deliver a substantive, consensus-driven blueprint for a multipolar world order. The New Delhi Declaration, adopted unanimously on 12 September 2026 at the 18th BRICS Summit, articulates a collective vision that is unapologetically non-Western yet carefully calibrated to avoid an overtly anti-Western posture. Condemning […]
India, Bharat, Hindustan: Names That Complete One Civilisation
At the recent BRICS Summit in New Delhi on 12 and 13 September 2026, the placard placed before Prime Minister Narendra Modi read BHARAT rather than INDIA. The departure from long-standing practice on international platforms has sparked a lively ideological debate. The dispute is not merely about economic policy or geopolitical strategy; it reaches the […]
