Mani Shankar Aiyar

In Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi Begins Demolishing Modi's Fibs

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Monday October 16, 2017

Rahul Gandhi has been touring Gujarat while the Trio of Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath and Smriti Irani have been descending on Rahul's parliamentary constituency of Amethi in UP.

What Critics Miss When Jeering Rahul Gandhi As Congress Boss

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Thursday October 5, 2017

It is all very well to say that inner party democracy demands an alternative choice, but the eternal question remains: who is going to bell the cat?

Mani Shankar Aiyar On Ram Madhav's Offer Of Dialogue To Kashmir

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday September 26, 2017

By sheer coincidence, I happened to arrive in Srinagar on a private visit on the very day, September 22, when Ram Madhav was quoted by Ashiq Hussain, the Srinagar correspondent of The Hindustan Times, as having said in the J&K capital, "We are open to dialogue".

On Congress Leaders And Their Travel, Amit Shah Knows Nothing

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Thursday September 21, 2017

Of the many cretinous remarks that have escaped the lips of Amit Shah's bearded visage, perhaps the most unlettered was his statement last week that the Congress only undertook yatras when they carried the ashes of their dead leaders around the country.

Dear Smriti Irani, RG Showed Courage In Critiquing His Mother

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Wednesday September 13, 2017

Smriti Irani is the Master (or is it "Mistress"?) of the Trivial. Her rebuttal of Rahul Gandhi's speech and Q&A at Berkeley was confined to personal abuse (of the person who had thrashed her in the last elections) and jibes at a handful of phrases used by RG, while completely bypassing the substance of what he had to say at the University.

Mani Shankar Aiyar On Ram Rahim's Blockbuster Appeal

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday August 29, 2017

Several unfortunate women suffered grievously at his hands; lakhs upon lakhs only benefited.

Amit Shah Forces Shotgun Wedding For EPS, OPS

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday August 22, 2017

The factions have been sternly told to get together, failing which their remaining four years in office would be in jeopardy of yielding to President's Rule. Fearing the ballot-box even more than fearing Amit Shah, EPS and OPS have agreed to say, "I do" even if their principal bone of contention - ridding the party of Sasikala - remains open on the...

Mani Shankar Aiyar Reviews PM Modi's Aug 15 Speech

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Thursday August 17, 2017

Words, words, words. And yet more words. For the last three years, the nation has had to sit through a cataract of alliterations and acronyms flowing from the ramparts of the Red Fort to end up misinformed, misled and misdirected by a cocktail of evasions, half-truths and white lies. This Independence Day has been no different.

Amit Shah Beaten By The Congress' Own Chanakya

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Thursday August 10, 2017

This time he was upstaged by the Congress party's own Chankaya who understood Shah's underhand manipulations and deployed his own deep understanding of Gujarat's politics to keep one step ahead.

Bhutan Stands By India, But Modi Is Weakening It

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Saturday August 5, 2017

While the nation remains riveted on developments in the Doklam plateau, not enough is being said or considered about our relations with the cis-Himalayan states, Nepal and Bhutan, that constitute a critical part of the bulwark of our defence in any major confrontation with China.

What Bengaluru Has Against Hindi In Its Metro And Elsewhere

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Saturday July 29, 2017

Is it a manifestation of a troubled quest for identity that is being traduced by Modi's version of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan?

Modi Has Squandered Goodwill He Won In Nepal

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Thursday July 20, 2017

These opinions ranged, at one end of the spectrum, from the Rashtriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N), a recently formed conglomerate of the numerous disgruntled Terai parties, to the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) or UML at the other end, with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) falling in between while tilting to the Left,...

Reading Modi's Many, Fervent Hugs For Netanyahu

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday July 11, 2017

Can Israel be de-hyphenated from Palestine any more than Modi 2002 can be de-hyphenated from Modi 2017? The question is germane because even as Modi and his apologists try to distance Modi in domestic policy from the pogrom over which he loomed in Gujarat, so do Modi and his cohort try in foreign policy to project an Israel that is unrelated to the...

Open Letter From Mani Shankar Aiyar To Swapan Dasgupta

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Wednesday July 5, 2017

You justify the spate of lynching we have been witnessing since the brutal killing of Mohammad Akhlaque two years ago by claiming, "There is a streak of underlying violence in India's public culture", adding, "India remains a violent place". Shhh! Don't let Modi hear that for he told his Sabarmati audience on 29 June, "We are a land of non-violence...

Rajinikanth Unlikely As A BJP Star

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Thursday June 29, 2017

Will he, won't he? Like teenagers seeking to divine their romantic prospects, Tamil Nadu (and much of the country) is plucking petals from the daisy to answer their anxious question. But, should Rajinikanth eventually decide to come in, would that be such a game-changer?

Mani Shankar Aiyar Is Wrong On Triple Talaq

Opinion | Zakia Soman, Noorjehan Niaz | Tuesday June 20, 2017

Mr Aiyar and the progressives must find other fronts for opposing the central government and not place hurdles in the Muslim womens' struggle for gender justice and equality.

Modi's Maun Vrat On Farmers' Crisis Says Much

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday June 20, 2017

We need nothing less than a revolution in the Indian political mind-set that will respond as we used to do in the four decades from Nehru to Rajiv: "Everything can wait, but not agriculture". We are stoking the death of our democracy by failing to do so.

What's At Risk If Triple Talaq Is Declared Unconstitutional

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Wednesday June 14, 2017

The lawyers have had their say. The constitution bench has reserved its judgement. We will have to wait till July to hear their final decision. The matter is thus sub judice. So, we have to tread warily.

When Army Chief Says He Wishes Kashmiris Were Firing At His Men

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday June 6, 2017

Of course, we must respect our men in uniform. Of course, we must stand by them when they lay down their lives for the nation. But is this a "war-like" situation, as Arun Jaitley describes it? Or is it a street confrontation with stone-pelters and five-year old kids who kick at soldiers as they do at their own parents to vent their child-like anger...

The Danger Of Becoming Jammu vs Kashmir

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday May 30, 2017

Let us move forward with whom we can - but let us move forward. We cannot remain mired in denial.

How India Can Save Kulbhushan Jadhav

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Friday May 19, 2017

The moot question is: have we saved Kulbhushan Jadhav's life? And the sad fact is that we have not. What we have won him is a three-month reprieve till August.

China's Smug Forecast About India Proves Right

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Wednesday May 17, 2017

The Belt Road Initiative Forum in Beijing has begun and ended. We have had our say - outside the Forum. The Chinese have had theirs - inside the Forum. How does the score-card read?

Modi Alienates Another World Leader

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday May 9, 2017

Nurturing relations with Turkey is like walking on eggshells.

How We Are Letting Heart Of India Slip Away

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Friday May 5, 2017

The Maoists/Naxals are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their insurgency in the forests of Dandakaranya.

AIADMK Could Split Into 4 Factions; What To Expect

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Monday April 24, 2017

The Amma soap opera continues. For a while, I thought I had gone wrong in thinking the Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) government could not last and that the end must come later if not sooner. Now, it would seem the end is likely sooner than later.

3 Options For India In Saving Kulbhushan Jadhav

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Monday April 17, 2017

Can we get Kulbhushan Jadhav back? If so, how?

We Are Capable On Our Own: Mulayam Singh Dismisses Son Akhilesh Yadav's Alliance Talk

India News | Written by Sandeep Phukan | Monday April 17, 2017

The friction between Mulayam Singh and his son Akhilesh -- buried in the aftermath of the Samajwadi Party's drubbing in the recent assembly elections - has come to the fore again over the suggestion of yet another alliance.

What TV Channels Got Wrong About My Meeting Pak's Kasuri

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Friday April 14, 2017

I find myself flayed on certain (happily, not all) TV channels for escorting a virtually life-long friend (who has attended all the weddings in my family, and with whom I routinely stay in Lahore) at a time when, to the deep concern of all of us, including Khurshid, sentence has been pronounced on Kulbhushan Jadhav

Why Vajpayee Would Never Pick Adityanath

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Tuesday April 4, 2017

Would Atal Bihari Vajpayee have appointed Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh? Asking such a question is not a mindless exploration of the "Ifs" of history, but one way of assessing where we stand today in relation to the evolution of the Hindutva right in the shaping of our polity.

Why Congress Feels No Need To Sack The Gandhis

Opinion | Mani Shankar Aiyar | Monday March 27, 2017

Above all, the party President must be - and seen to be - elected. Rahul is on record as personally favouring endorsement by the party over right by birth to lead the party. His problem, as indicated earlier, will be to find an opponent - like Lee Kwan Yew, he may be forced to nominate his opposition! But the post needs to be transparently seen as ...