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Aakar Patel Page-5

This is the second time we overtook the UK, the first being a few years ago. But as our growth slowed, we fell behind again. (Representational Image)

Aakar Patel | Can India do what it takes to make a big leap forward?

The nations ahead of us are Germany, Japan, China and the United States

06 Sep 2022 12:13 AM

The fact is we don’t really even know why we want to be on the UNSC or what we would do with the veto power if we were suddenly handed that bauble. We cannot bind our region economically, we have hostile or borderline hostile relations with all our neighbours, and if we had any chance of being the great power in South Asia, we have ceded much of that space to China. — PTI

Why do we want a permanent seat at UNSC? If we get it, what will we do?

India has had no proper discussion internally on why we want to be in the Security Council

30 Aug 2022 9:47 AM

Citing the Covid-19 pandemic, the Narendra Modi government says that it cannot be done now. (Representational Image)

Aakar Patel | Why, for the first time in 150 years, India’s Census won’t be on time

Since 1881, even during wars in the past, it has never been postponed

23 Aug 2022 12:07 AM

One wonders what, given the recent past and the record since 1947, the next quarter century holds in store for India. (DC Image)

Aakar Patel | Amrit Mahotsav: Do we celebrate past, or what we’ll achieve by 2047?

Have we done enough economically to pass on something meaningful to the next generation?

16 Aug 2022 12:18 AM

India is among only a dozen nations that have put an object in orbit. (Photo: PTI)

Aakar Patel | Will India get left behind as world speeds up space race?

It is hoped India’s first uncrewed mission will be launch by 2023’s end, as part of a Rs. 9,023- crore project

09 Aug 2022 12:05 AM

Aakar Patel | Despite harsh laws, India can’t become a police state

Real question is whether the impulse of State is to move towards greater liberty for individuals or greater restrictions and a police state

02 Aug 2022 7:20 AM

Aakar Patel | Why is nation’s highest court failing to act on pressing issues?

It has been over two years since the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed and challenged in the SC as being in violation of the Constitution

25 Jul 2022 11:55 PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with USA President Joe Biden and Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau. (PTI)

Aakar Patel | A benign mask for whole world; fangs bared to citizens at home

India’s government does not want to be recognised abroad for what it is — a majoritarian, authoritarian State

19 Jul 2022 12:07 AM

An aircraft flies above the slums near the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India. (Representational Photo:AP)

Aakar Patel | India must work hard to catch up; world is changing faster than ever…

The International Monetary Fund says that for the foreseeable future Bangladesh is expected to be ahead of India

11 Jul 2022 11:59 PM

Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair (in white cap) is escorted by policemen at the Patiala House Court in a case related to an allegedly objectionable tweet he had posted in 2018, in New Delhi on July 2, 2022. (Photo: AFP)

Aakar Patel | State’s targeting of Zubair, others will make India’s rise even harder

It is the Union govt’s agencies under home minister Amit Shah that have been misusing their vast powers to destroy the lives of citizens

04 Jul 2022 11:51 PM

In the United States, the Supreme Court hears and disposes of only 80 cases a year. In India, the Supreme Court has 70,000 pending matters. (ANI)

Aakar Patel | Courts, even SC, shouldn’t be the only place to go to secure rights

The courts are important, but they are not the only place where citizens’ rights can be defended or claimed

27 Jun 2022 11:50 PM

Youngsters stage a protest against the newly announced Agnipath scheme, at Jalandhar-Delhi national highway, in Jalandhar, on Saturday. (PTI Photo)

Aakar Patel | Anger on streets over Agnipath reflects how New India has no jobs

There are no jobs in New India and the anger over the changes in the Army recruitment system is emblematic of a much larger problem

20 Jun 2022 11:29 PM

Muslims protest after offering prayers at Mecca Masjid against Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal for insulting statements against prophet. (DC)

Aakar Patel | What govt, BJP must do so that India doesn’t get pressured

BJP must not do things that give the outside world a chance to lecture us

14 Jun 2022 6:53 AM

While Pakistan attempted to secularise, India has gone the other away. (Reresentational Image/ AP)

Aakar Patel | From secular to communal: The changing story of India & Pakistan

Today, there is no Muslim chief minister in India for the first time since 1947

07 Jun 2022 12:44 AM

Saffron flags lie outside a mosque a day after communal clashes in Jahangirpuri, a neighborhood in northwest Delhi. (AP Photo)

Aakar Patel | Failure of India’s bureaucrats to stand up for what’s right is troubling

It means that the entire bureaucracy is fine with the violence against minorities catalysed by the State

31 May 2022 12:31 AM

Aakar Patel | Like Ayodhya, Gyanvapi issue will live with us for decades

Parliament has the right to repeal the Places of Worship Act, and indeed some people in the BJP have been asking for this to happen

24 May 2022 7:14 AM

In 2015, over 3,200 people were held in “administrative detention” in India. — Representational Image

Aakar Patel | Sedition not the only law that should go. There are many more…

Once it dawns on the judiciary that some laws are out of place in a 21st century democracy, then problematic laws will fall

17 May 2022 1:52 AM

Aakar Patel | Fixing issues, not PR alone, may improve India’s image

To correct a problem, one has to first acknowledge a problem

10 May 2022 12:51 AM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President J P Nadda. (PTI)

Aakar Patel | Where the BJP has succeeded, over its 2 terms from 2014, and where it failed

It appears to be the case that the BJP has shifted its focus from the economy to its primary social agenda

03 May 2022 12:06 AM

There appears to be no particular advantage or benefit that we get in officially changing our constitutional and legal state from a secular one to a Hindu Rashtra. (Representational Image/ PTI)

Aakar Patel | If India turns into a Hindu Rashtra, what will it mean…

o understand what changes can come here, we must first try to understand what the term Hindu Rashtra means

26 Apr 2022 1:41 AM

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Syed Ata Hasnain