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New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: When India’s premier police investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), started a probe into the June 2 Balasore train tragedy, it was termed as an attempt by the Narendra Modi government to find a “political solution” to the inherent technical shortcomings in the country’s railway system that had caused the man-made disaster. Less than 48 hours after the accident, which left at least 275 people dead and 1,000 injured, Union Minister of Railways...

Title: Hurt Sentiments: Secularism And Belonging In South Asia Author: Neeti Nair Publisher: Harvard Pages: 699 While this book explains and contextualises the meanings and the interpretations of the word, ‘secularism’, and the political practices followed in its name over the last eight decades in the Indian subcontinent, its immediate relevance cannot be overemphasised. Neeti Nair offers a historical context of how claims of hurt religious sentiments have been weaponised by majority...

Title: India Is Broken—And why it’s hard to fix: A People Betrayed, 1947 to Today Author: Ashoka Mody Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 512 Price: ₹899 For an academic and international civil servant to write a magnum opus that takes a broad sweep of India’s contemporary history and political economy, in a language that is understandable to the lay reader, is not an easy endeavour. When Professor Ashoka Mody was asked by an interviewer why he published his book at this juncture, nearly nine years...

The outcome of the elections to the Karnataka legislative assembly has predictably led to euphoria in the Congress and other political parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Some have gone to the extent of arguing that Saturday’s results signify the beginning of the end of the authoritarian rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It would be premature to jump to such a conclusion. The next Lok Sabha elections are ten months away. Much could happen in this period. Still, Karnataka is...

During a heat wave in the Indian state of Haryana in 2022, the Adani Group supplied less power than it was contracted to and also diverted power away from Haryana to the state of Gujarat. This summer, Adani Power can officially supply less power to Haryana and get paid more for each unit, despite a Supreme Court judgment which said there is no justification for hiking tariffs. Here, we report on how Haryana’s chief minister has overridden a long-term, binding power contract with Adani, even...

Gurugram/London/Bengaluru: In 2018, the Congress party had alleged that the Narendra Modi government had turned a blind eye to Jatin Mehta’s alleged misdemeanours, allowing him to leave India and delaying the filing of cases against him. It had asked whether the “protection” for him had anything to do with his “close relationship with an industrial house closest to Narendra Modi through marriage of his son”. This industrial house is, of course, the Adani Group. In Part 1 of this two-part series...

Long before allegations of fraud levelled by banks against Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi made headlines in the media in India and the world, another diamantaire from Gujarat, Jatin Mehta, and his group of companies had caused a major loss to Indian and international banks and became the one of the largest wilful defaulters of loans, together with Kingfisher Airlines headed by Vijay Mallya – all four of them are currently outside India. Unlike the cases of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya...

Book: Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda Author: Ruth Harris Publisher: Belknap Price: ₹799 This nuanced and detailed account of the life and times of Narendranath Datta (1863-1902), better known as Swami Vivekananda, by a professor of European history at the University of Oxford has come at a time when the century-long target of achieving a Hindu rashtra by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is arguably at its closest. Ruth Harris’ book on the saffron-robed ascetic, who inspired...