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Aakar Patel Page-8

Stan Swamy, a tamil priest spent decades working with adivasis in Jharkhand. (Twitter)

Aakar Patel | The weak case that kept Stan Swamy in jail, where he died

He was imprisoned denied bail in the Bhima Koregaon case

13 Jul 2021 9:07 AM

Aakar Patel | As world changes rapidly, Indians stuck in the past, not eyeing future

Newspaper column writers are not experts in any particular subject or field

06 Jul 2021 7:04 AM

The impoverishing of Indians and the wrecking of our economy is happening at the same time when the concentration of our wealth is being skewed towards a few. (Photo: PTI/File)

Aakar Patel | As world keeps growing, India’s sinking, going back to the past

According to the government data, our economic growth began braking sharply before January 2018

29 Jun 2021 7:28 AM

India has only managed to fully vaccinate only three per cent of its population against the world’s average of nine per cent. (PTI)

Aakar Patel | No good news: It’s difficult to be an optimist in India today

India’s economic growth has been falling for 42 months now, but the government has not spoken about why that is so and what went wrong

22 Jun 2021 7:17 AM

Aakar Patel | Civil society & NGOs: Why they matter in run-up to 2024

Adivasi resistance to the Indian State is not understood and it is not very widely covered in the media

15 Jun 2021 7:19 AM

Aakar Patel | Modi’s 15-point Vikas Yatra: How far has his govt really delivered?

The Vikas Yatra document does not refer to what the result of India climbing on the index was

08 Jun 2021 7:21 AM

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at the State Department in Washington, on May 28, 2021. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP)

Aakar Patel | How Jaishankar put on mat in US over Hindutva and other issues

India under Narendra Modi has spent a lot of energy in drafting laws that go after minorities

02 Jun 2021 7:20 AM

Twitter is slightly different from Facebook and pretends to have more independence and pretends to be a guardian of free speech. (AP)

Aakar Patel | Why Twitter’s action on BJP ‘manipulation’ is rattling govt

India is going the way of China, where the social media has to be in full compliance with the government’s desire to control the messaging

25 May 2021 7:34 AM

The official position of our government in response to a shortage of vaccines and a shortage of oxygen and of ventilators is that nobody could have anticipated this. (AFP)

Aakar Patel | Govt needed to have ‘grip’ over Covid: That is what PM lacks

The reason we don’t have enough vaccines is that we did not order them at the right time because we didn’t think we needed them

18 May 2021 7:14 AM

Mass cremation of COVID-19 victims at Parwati Ghat as coronavirus cases surge in Jamshedpur, Monday, May 10, 2021. (PTI Photo)

Aakar Patel | Don’t fudge Covid data, that’ll make crisis worse

The first reason why the government should come clean and say that its numbers are an undercount is public safety

11 May 2021 12:00 AM

Our recent history tells us that not only do we not promote fraternity, we promote its opposite. (Photo: AFP)

Aakar Patel | Constitution is just forgotten: No ‘fraternity’ exists in India!

We have lost our empathy for those who are unlike us and we do not even recognise that we have lost it

04 May 2021 12:00 AM

Burning pyres of victims who lost their lives due to the Covid-19 coronavirus are seen at a cremation ground in New Delhi. (Photo: AFP)

Aakar Patel | India’s health calamity has exposed flaws in Gujarat Model

There is no example of a developed nation that had a Third World education and healthcare system

27 Apr 2021 12:00 AM

You cannot expect to be given a position on the UN Security Council, as India does, when the world sees what you are doing with distaste. (Photo: PTI)

Aakar Patel | How the world sees India is changing… not for the better

India’s urban unemployment is at a historic high and, more important, the participation rate of India’s labour force is at a historic low

20 Apr 2021 12:00 AM

Aakar Patel | It’s wrong to say Indians have right to choose faith

In 2003, under Narendra Modi, Gujarat passed a law that essentially removed all freedom of religion for Gujaratis

13 Apr 2021 1:21 AM

It appears that many Indians are not primarily voting on the basis of issues like the economy and their own well-being as measured by data provided by the government. (Photo: AFP)

Aakar Patel | India headed in wrong direction: Is it too late to correct course?

We have become as much of a religious state as Pakistan and this is a fact

30 Mar 2021 1:16 AM

Why is the Narendra Modi government sending letters to the states that they should have strict enforcement of crowd control when Mr Modi is himself holding giant rallies. (PTI)

Aakar Patel | The ‘unreality’ of India today: Nothing makes sense any more

The second wave of Covid-19 had begun at the end of February, so the question is why spectators were allowed into the Narendra Modi Stadium

23 Mar 2021 7:55 AM

It was only under Lal Krishna Advani, and then especially under Narendra Modi, that the BJP became the mass-based electoral force it has become, from the cadre-based party that was the Jan Sangh. (Photo: PTI)

Aakar Patel | BJP has never spelt out what ‘parivartan’ it hopes to bring

The Jan Sangh said that it would repeal preventive detention laws which it said were absolutely in contradiction to individual liberty

16 Mar 2021 4:14 AM

Aakar Patel | India’s image in free fall, but govt in denial on real causes

The fact is that we do very well on political rights, and in fact the government gets 3/4 on transparency, which is hardly accurate

09 Mar 2021 11:28 AM

Aakar Patel | As democracy endangered, India’s global reputation hit

The Indian government today does not care what it does to Indians as long as it can continue on its path

02 Mar 2021 10:35 AM

The nations that follow India on the list of those with high taxes are all European nations, plus the United States and Japan. (Photo: AFP)

Aakar Patel | Who’s to blame for Rs 100 petrol: Nehru, Indira or Modi Sarkar?

India’s consumers pay the highest rate of tax on the petrol and diesel that they consume

23 Feb 2021 4:13 AM

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Columns

Bhopinder Singh