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Gen Bipin Rawat (Photo: PTI)

Army Chief should speak less, and with care

The Army Chief kept a stoic silence as our brave soldiers were killed with unceasing regularity.

9 March 2018 5:13 AM IST

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu

TDP exit, statue attacks: BJP to rethink strategy?

The TDP's pullout from the Union government has the possibility of reworking the equation prior to 2019.

9 March 2018 5:11 AM IST

Aurangzeb: 400 yrs on, relook at a cruel bigot F S Aijazuddin Updated : Mar 8, 2018, 10:42 pm IST Aurangzeb was one of 14 children Shah Jahan sired from his beloved Mumtaz Mahal. The latest installation in the dark pantheon of Hindutvas anti-heroes is the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Had he lived, he would have been exactly 400 years old this year. Dead, he has become the target of barbs poisoned with prejudice. Generations since Aurangzebs death in 1707 have been force-fed the stale gruel that Aurangzeb, the monarch was a narrow-minded, Hindu-hating bigot who wasted his Mughal inheritance in a foolhardy obsession with conquering the Deccan. Some go so far as to assert that he single-handedly rang the death knell of the Mughal Empire. A few even argue that had Dara Shukoh (Aurangzebs eldest brother and rival) not lost the battle for their fathers throne, a post-1947 India would have been one contiguous, homogenous political realm, in which Muslim rulers and their multi-religious subjects would have lived in communal harmony. Four hundred years is too long a time to sustain such wisps of conjecture. The fact is that Dara Shukoh lost and Aurangzeb won. History can be an impatient judge, often passing a hasty verdict disproportionate to the crime. That is why any biography of Aurangzeb, especially one as unbiased as Audrey Truschkes Aurangzeb: the Man and The Myth (2017) is a necessary, albeit overdue, corrective. Aurangzeb was one of 14 children Shah Jahan sired from his beloved Mumtaz Mahal. He and his eldest brother Dara Shukoh could not have been more dissimilar. Dara inherited the aesthetic sense of his forebears, Aurangzeb their martial prowess. Dara Shukoh was a man of letters, a Sufi, an ornamented prince with dreams; Aurangzeb a man of action, a soldier, a ruthless tactician. Had Aurangzeb possessed the literary flair of his ancestors, he might have left a fuller chronicle of his own reign, as detailed as the Baburnama, the Humayun-nama, the Akbarnama, the Tuzk-e-Jahangiri, or the equivalent of Shah Jahans Padshahnama. Instead, Aurangzebs personal reticence, like Cordelias, proved to be his undoing. The perfunctory Maasir-i-Alamgiri has been overtaken by less kindly legends. Aurangzebs 88-year-long life falls into four parts. Up to the age of 17, he was brought up in his fathers court and groomed in all the skills Mughal princes needed to govern.

Aurangzeb: 400 yrs on, relook at a cruel bigot'

Aurangzeb was one of 14 children Shah Jahan sired from his beloved Mumtaz Mahal.

9 March 2018 5:10 AM IST

Attacker Tejas Sharma who stabbed the Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Vishwanath Shetty at his office in Bengaluru has been taken into custody by the police. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Protect the Lokayukta

The Karnataka Lokayukta is more active than most and its actions had even once led to a chief minister's resignation.

9 March 2018 5:04 AM IST

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu

TDP's options appear limited

Naidu announced that the two ministers of his party in the Union council of ministers would resign.

9 March 2018 5:03 AM IST

Mystic mantra: New woman & the new man

The enormous dance of universe is going on seamlessly with the two principles that are indispensable and are equal and...

8 March 2018 2:46 AM IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi (Photo: PTI)

What's needed before 2019

Congress needs a total makeover if it has to have any chance in the 2019 elections.

8 March 2018 2:42 AM IST

The woman was allegedly raped by four men for about three hours near railway tracks in Bhopal when she returned home after attending a coaching class on the night of October 31. (Photo: PTI/Representational)

The narrative of misuse and ground reality of victims

The acute violence which Christian women suffer is seldom addressed; even the Church looks the other way.

8 March 2018 1:01 AM IST

Remains of the five-feet-tall statue of Lenin which was allegedly demolished by a pay-loader at Belonia in South Tripura district on Monday afternoon and was thrown at the nearby jungle. (Photo: PTI)

Chalo Paltai! Smashing statues won't bring jobs

Some have also said Lenin was a foreigner and therefore not deserving of a statue in this country.

8 March 2018 12:49 AM IST

Benazir Bhutto (Photo: AP)

Did the nuke question seal Benazir's fate a decade ago?

There can be little doubt, though, that Benazir's planned return to the fray was indelibly wedded to Western interests.

8 March 2018 12:43 AM IST

Statue of Lenin was razed down in Tripura (L), Periyar statue was defaced in Vellore (C), Syama Prasad Mookerjees statue was defaced in Kolkata (R). (Photo: Twitter | PTI | ANI)

Stop this vandalism

The Prime Minister and home minister may have spoken up against such vandalism, but they acted a bit too late.

8 March 2018 12:31 AM IST

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. (Photo: PTI/File)

Talk of 3rd front' has air of unreality

It seems there's a long way to go before a regional parties' grouping can materialise.

8 March 2018 12:27 AM IST