Saturday, Jul 24, 2021 | Last Update : 05:06 PM IST

Pavan K Varma

The degree to which Dhankharji appears to have become partisan, and the blatancy of his partisanship, sets a new benchmark of gubernatorial indiscretion. (PTI)

Pavan K. Varma | Curb your enthusiasm, someone tell Dhankhar

Dhankharji’s actions, to my mind, constitute a fit case for Prez Kovind to take suo motu initiative to counsel his state-level counterpart

13 Jun 2021 7:04 AM

The lame argument that health is a state subject does not dilute the express assumption of powers by the Centre when a national emergency has been declared since March 2020 under the National Disaster Management Act. (PTI)

Pavan K. Varma | On vax policy, govt doth indeed protest too much

Dr Paul lists out seven 'myths' regarding the critique of the govt’s vaccination policy, and bravely sets out to give the correct 'facts'

30 May 2021 7:31 AM

The sanction to such a “super-spreader” event, just because it catered to what the BJP perceives to be its vote bank, was decidedly against the interests of the vast number of Hindus, and Indians as a whole. (PTI)

Pavan Varma | How govt's own credo of accountability got violated

The permission given to hold the Kumbh Mela is a classic example of doing what pleases oneself but is not for the good of the people

16 May 2021 7:19 AM

Like the proverbial pigeon that closes its eyes and believes that the cat has gone, Adityanath thinks that if he closes his eyes all the miseries that people in his state are facing will disappear. (Photo: PTI)

Pavan K Varma | Reprieve, for now, from Yogi’s victim-blaming

Yogi Adityanath, the saffron dhari CM of UP, believes that everything in his state is hunky-dory

02 May 2021 12:00 AM

The Modi government likes the label of a “decisive” government, but its actions are quite to the contrary. (Photo: AFP)

Pavan K. Varma | Second wave gives the lie to Modi’s ‘decisive’ image

The second Covid wave has vividly shown the glaring gulf between image and delivery of the Modi Sarkar

18 Apr 2021 12:00 AM

If the BJP, now in power at the Centre, could run the vaccination programme as efficiently as it seeks to run elections, we could perhaps see light at the end of this dark tunnel. (Photo: AFP)

Pavan K Varma | If only BJP were as good at vaccination as it’s at election

The government I am sure is doing its best, but its best falls short, I am sorry to say, of the optimum

04 Apr 2021 4:52 AM

We have new custodians of morality who are easily outraged by anything that does not fit into their conservative, upper-caste, patriarchal and outdated notions of correct behaviour. (Photo: PTI)

Pavan Varma | Let it rip! Stop us turning into the Republic of Hurt

A highly unwarranted subjectivity driven by medieval cultural notions and political hubris is threatening creative freedoms in India

21 Mar 2021 4:00 AM

To call the world’s largest democracy only “partly free” is incontrovertible evidence of an attempt to subvert our sovereignty and integrity, an international conspiracy directed against the Indian state. (Photo: AFP)

Pavan Varma | Freedom, conspiracy and other anti-national sins

Frankly, in my view, Freedom House, the Washington based global democracy watchdog, should be booked by our ever-vigilant govt for sedition

07 Mar 2021 4:10 AM

It has been reported that stickers are put on the doors or entrances of those who have paid, thereby marking out those who have not. (Photo: PTI)

Pavan K Varma | Not much righteous about Ram temple funds drive

Fear and unlawful pressure cannot be a basis for religious or spiritual pursuits

21 Feb 2021 4:10 AM

In a democracy there will be protests. Such protests, if they are allowed to linger on for so long, will attract global attention. (AP/Manish Swarup)

Pavan K. Varma | Maligning the messenger pays diminishing returns

Our government appears to be making the cardinal mistake of using the paranoia of the 'foreign hand' in today’s world

07 Feb 2021 7:13 AM

Pavan K. Varma | Resist new usurpers of Hindu’s eternal legacy

Hindus have been used to being Hindus in a self-assured way without being told that there is a higher 'authority' that will judge them

24 Jan 2021 7:13 AM

Justice Sanjiv Khanna (Photo credit : Wikipedia)

Pavan K. Varma | Why J. Khanna dissented from Central Vista ruling

Justice Sanjiv Khanna, in his dissenting judgment, used a very telling expression to describe the undemocratic opacity of the government

10 Jan 2021 7:17 AM

Pavan K Varma | Politics didn’t limit the enigma that was Atalji

The poet in him told him that all this was passing, a shadow play, a fleeting moment in the grand canvas of time

27 Dec 2020 7:08 AM

Pavan K Varma | Will apex court protect liberty for all citizens?

The administering of justice should never be selective, or so lacking in humanity that it revolts the human conscience

16 Nov 2020 10:31 AM

French soldiers and Municipal Police officers stand behind a cordon-off area near the Orthodox Church where an attacker armed with a sawn-off shotgun wounded an Orthodox priest in a shooting before fleeing, on October 31, 2020 in Lyon, said a police source. - The priest, who has Greek nationality, was closing his church when the attack happened and is now in a serious condition, said the source, who asked not to be named. (AFP)

Pavan K Varma | India must set example of pluralism, tolerance

India’s civilisational history presents the best example of a plural society.

01 Nov 2020 4:27 PM

BJP supporters celebrate as early trends show the party's win in the last Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly polls, at the party office in Lucknow. (PTI)

Pavan K Varma | Muslims in BJP have an express duty: Stem hate

Do the luminaries in the BJP from the Muslim community speak out against the malicious denigration of their faith

18 Oct 2020 9:38 AM

A television journalist reports from the spot where the 19-year-old woman, who was allegedly gang-raped by four men, was cremated on the outskirts of Bool Garhi village in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh. AP Photo

Pavan K Varma | Napping media awakes, puts Yogi Adityanath on the spot

Thanks to the media, most of them brave young women, the entire nation was sickened by the pitiless and high-handed behaviour of the police

04 Oct 2020 6:28 PM

File photo of prime minister Narendra Modi addressing BJP MPs.

Pavan K Varma | A Parliament without questions is no democracy

The decision to do away with Question Hour indicates that the government has no answers

06 Sep 2020 6:05 PM

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists and supporters wave flags as they celebrate before the groundbreaking ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhaya. AFP Photo

Pavan K. Varma | Will ‘Ram Rajya’ lead to a more tolerant India?

ecularism in our country is not about the absolute separation of the State and faith

10 Aug 2020 4:31 PM

An artist makes a clay idol of Goddess Durga for puja festivities, at Krishna Nagar in Nadia District. PTI Photo

Pavan K. Varma | Support the arts during pandemic, keep India’s culture alive

Governments, which are responsible for the support and nurturing of artistes, have always treated culture as a priority of the last resort

27 Jul 2020 12:30 AM

1 of 6

Columns

Farrukh Dhondy