The Shepherd of Peripheries: A Year Without Francis
One year ago on April 21, the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica tolled not just for a Sovereign of the Vatican City State, but for a man who had successfully stripped the papacy of its imperial velvet. When Pope Francis passed away on April 21, 2025, at the age of 88, he left behind a […]
JUSTICE FOR ANKITA : AN OPEN LETTER TO A VETERAN & BJP MEMBER
Dear Colonel Ajay Kothiyal and fellow veterans associated with him, Jai Hind This is not merely my personal question—it is a serious moral concern arising in the minds of the entire community of serving and retired soldiers and paramilitary personnel of Uttarakhand. What compulsion is it that leads you to stand with a political ideology […]
Modi’s ‘Distress Address’: How A National Platform Became A Partisan Weapon
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 29-minute address to the nation on April 18, 2026, was billed as an act of contrition. After the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026—intended to fast-track 33 per cent women’s reservation through delimitation—failed to secure the required two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha the previous day, the Prime Minister expressed regret to […]
The April 17 Defeat: Why India’s Federal Fabric Trumped Legislative Bundling
The high-stakes legislative gamble of April 2026 came to a dramatic halt yesterday as the Lok Sabha rejected the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill. Despite a 298–230 majority in favour, the government failed to secure the mandatory two-thirds threshold required for a constitutional amendment. In the immediate aftermath, the Union government withdrew the Delimitation Bill and […]
The Arithmetic of Exclusion: Why India’s Gender Justice is Tethered to a Federal Fault Line
The ongoing three-day special session of Parliament (April 16–18) has laid bare a profound irony in Indian democracy. As the government moves to operationalize the long-awaited *Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill* to provide 33% reservation for women, it has inextricably lashed this progressive leap to the mast of the *Delimitation Bill, 2026*. By basing this exercise […]
Delimitation of Constituencies- Law, practice And The Current Issues
A special session of Parliament is currently on for considering the Constitutional Amendment Bill for readjustment of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly seats across the country and implementation of reservation of seats for women in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, linking it to the proposed fresh delimitation for which there is a separate Delimitation Bill. […]
The Altar and the Aegis: Trump’s Messianic Brinkmanship and the Ghost of Canossa
New Delhi,15 April2026 ,The annals of history are scarred by the friction between “the two swords”— the temporal power of the state and the spiritual authority of the Church. From the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV standing barefoot in the snow at Canossa to beg for Pope Gregory VII’s forgiveness, to Napoleon Bonaparte snatching the […]
The Blood of Amritsar: How a Century-Old Betrayal Defined Modern India
New Delhi, 14 April 2026,The history of empires is often written in ink, but it is punctuated by blood. For the British Raj, the ink of the 1919 *Rowlatt Act*—a legislative monstrosity that permitted imprisonment without trial—was quickly eclipsed by the crimson stain left on the soil of *Jallianwala Bagh*. Today, as we reflect on […]
BJP’s Phule Appropriation: A Stark Contradiction
New Delhi,13 April 2026,Mahatma Phule Jayanti was observed on Saturday, April 11, 2026. This year held special significance as it marked the beginning of his 200th birth anniversary year (bicentenary celebrations), which is being celebrated nationwide from April 11, 2026, to April 10, 2027. The commencement of a year-long birth centenary commemorations of Jyotirao Phule […]
Between Hope & Hell, A Familiar America
New Delhi ,12 April 2026 ,With a complete lid on information, the talks in Islamabad, continuing till 3 AM, two hours before this is being written, allow no peep into where the myriad issues that triggered the West Asia conflict stand. Only “a stepping stone”, as Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif put it, they will […]
