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CHURUMURI POLL: Who will win Ayodhya title?
As if its thali wasn’t full enough, Judgment Day in the Ayodhya title dispute has landed in the UPA plate, sending it in a bit of a tizzy. Prime minister …
‘Business is now just an extension of politics’
Swapan Dasgupta in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “At one time, politicians saw business as the milch cow of election funding and nurtured crony capitalism to ensure a reliable source of resources. …
‘Online extremism has lowered tolerance levels’
Apropos the plight of M/s Husain, Nasrin and Rushdie, the BJP strategist cum columnist Swapan Dasgupta offers this comment in today’s Telegraph: “60 years of a democratic Constitution should have …
‘The Lone Ranger of Loony Hindutva’ versus…?
A somewhat tenuous peace has been achieved in the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party after the “nasty jolt” it received in the May 2009 general elections. But a detente …
In an ocean of unctuous praise, islands of dissent
Jyoti Basu‘s death has resulted, as all death does in the eyes of a star-struck, ratings-driven, uncritical media these days, in a flood of faux reverence that would, in wiser …
India’s best editors, wiser than rest together?
Via Twitter, CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai, names the “most outstanding election analysts across channels” on counting day, October 22. His verdict: Kumar Ketkar, editor of the Marathi daily Loksatta, and …
12 things no one’s telling us about namma Nandu
Nandan Nilekani‘s appointment as the head of the national ID card project has been greeted with the same seriousness that an appointment to the Vatican would have received. Sure, it’s …
BJP defeat is a defeat of BJP brand of journalism
PRITAM SENGUPTA in New Delhi and SHARANYA KANVILKAR in Bombay write: The stunning defeat of the BJP in the general elections has been dissected so many times and by so …
How come no one saw or heard the worm turn?
SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: Hindsight, as the moronic aphorism goes, is always 20/20. And we have been seeing plenty of hindsight dressed as foresight over the last fortnight following …
Like in an ODI or T20 match, every single counts
The latest desktop calculations of the editors of DNA with the two main alliances and the “others” running neck-and-neck. An opinion poll reportedly conducted for a weekly newsmagazine by a …
Why A.R. Rahman is India’s first global rock star
S.R. RAMAKRISHNA writes from Bangalore: Many say A.R. Rahman‘s music for Slumdog Millionaire is “noisy but nice”. That phrase could come in useful when you look at his oeuvre as …
How the BJP got it right, and Congress didn’t
Journalist turned BJP strategist Swapan Dasgupta, who had an inside track on the BJP campaign in Karnataka, writes about how the BJP learnt from and implemented the findings of an …
‘IT is economically important but electorally not’
Swapan Dasgupta writes in The Telegraph, Calcutta, that by taking its cue from IT honchos and by directing its ads at “non-voting classes”, the Congress in Karnataka appears to have …
9 ways to skin a cat. 2 ways to win an election.
Swapan Dasgupta in The Telegraph, Calcutta: “In an election year—although, strictly speaking, the Lok Sabha election is likely to be in early 2009—every government is under pressure from the political …
‘BJP out of tune with modern India’s impulses’
Swapan Dasgupta in The Indian Express: “It is striking that despite being a beneficiary of rudderless governance [of the UPA], the NDA is not confident of notching up a clear …
50 mandays’ work for 13 households = Rs 5.96 cr?
Swapan Dasgupta in The Sunday Times of India: “There is pressure on the government to widen the scope of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, now operational in 330 districts, …
Not this, not that, and not the other thing either
Swapan Dasgupta in The Telegraph: “Unlike its larger eastern neighbour, which cast a spell on outsiders, first as a spiritual haven and subsequently as a breeding ground for clever nerds, …