Editorials

Sajjan Kumar is likely to spend New Year’s Day, in 2019, in prison. Thirty-four years after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the killings of Sikhs that followed, a political leader who may have electorally benefitted from communal violence has been sentenced to imprisonment for life. The wheel …

The Home Minister, Mr. Y.B. Chavan said in the Lok Sabha to-day [December 16, New Delhi] that they had the greatest respect for the decisions of the Speakers’ Conference, that when a Chief Minister’s majority was in doubt the Assembly must be convened within a week to decide the fate …

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani’s decision to stay away from the December 9 Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh is the latest reminder of the growing disunity among the Gulf countries. Qatar, blockaded by three GCC countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, and their non-GCC allies, has …

Whether the Congress erred in privileging members of the old guard to lead the governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh has become a subject of debate. Those who argue that it missed a trick in not picking Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia as Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya …

A gathering of journalists, academics and the public at “Fourth Pillar: India Journalism Week” turned out to be another open house. This was an initiative by Academe India and the University of Chicago Center in Delhi to examine the role of journalism in democracies. Along with Pamela Philipose, Public Editor …

The last date for filing claims and objections for Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been extended by the Supreme Court to December 31, from December 15. This exercise of compiling the NRC in the first place has sparked a debate around its political, economic and humanitarian consequences, and …

India’s national income statistics are under a cloud. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released official revisions of the GDP estimates for the years 2004-05 to 2013-14 in the Manmohan Singh-led government’s tenure. The revisions make the Narendra Modi government’s performance on the economic front appear better than that of …

New space has emerged for de-escalating Sri Lanka’s political crisis with the timely and judicious intervention by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court. Following the two rulings made by the top court, last Thursday and Friday, Ranil Wickremesinghe — the Prime Minister who was sacked on October 26 by Maithripala Sirisena, …

The Government of India “will take over” the grounds of the Birla House, where Gandhiji met his martyrdom, improve it and maintain it with due care, dignity and solemnity, Mr. Jagannath Rao, Minister of Works and Housing announced in the Lok Sabha to-day [December 17, New Delhi]. Mr. Rao did …

Memories of tracking cricket in the Australian summer inevitably have the alarm clock’s shrill ring during nippy December dawns. It was an annual ritual: wake up groggy, gulp your morning brew and catch live action beamed in from Channel Nine.The telecast quality was top-drawer; the commentary was a mix of …