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Prime Minister Narendra Modi further said that the government has taken several measures for improving the ease of doing business in the country. (Photo: PTI)

Why 2019 can't be compared with 2004

The parallels and analysis being done and the conclusions being drawn are too simplistic and require a careful study.

29 Oct 2018 12:00 AM IST

Two Pakistani troopers were killed by the Indian Army in response to ceasefire violations along the LoC in Tangdhar sector of Jammu and Kashmir. (Representational Image | PTI)

Sound politics the only solution to J&K

Evidently, Governor's Rule in Kashmir has so far failed to push back the tempo of militancy in the Valley which has been...

29 Oct 2018 12:00 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.

A new form of book ban has been introduced

The RSS set up the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in 1964 to capture the Babri Masjid.

28 Oct 2018 6:27 AM IST

Brijmohan Agrawal

Alliance between Mayawati and Ajit Jogi will damage the Congress'

Mayawati joining hands with Mr Jogi's party will not have any impact on the BJP's poll prospects, says Brijmohan...

28 Oct 2018 5:28 AM IST

An unidentified person has issued a death threat to Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, police said on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

Dilli Ka Babu: A quiet succession

The nation's top investigative agencies are in a very public meltdown, riven by the fierce rivalries among their top...

28 Oct 2018 5:15 AM IST

US President Donald Trump shows a signed Presidential Memorandum after delivering a statement on the Iran nuclear deal from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Tuesday, May 8, 2018, in Washington. (Photo: AP)

Simple nationalism is leading us to anger

The Democrats and the business community say that the entry of blue-collar workers from Mexico helps the US economy.

28 Oct 2018 5:08 AM IST

Over the last few months, the director CBI and his deputy have been trading allegations of corruption against each other.

Is CBI a legal entity?

The CBI has no independent standing in law. It is a piece of legal fiction whose underpinnings in law are tenuous to say...

28 Oct 2018 5:04 AM IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi further said that the government has taken several measures for improving the ease of doing business in the country. (Photo: PTI)

India need not choose between Japan and China

Right now the only countries with the cash reserves to be bankers to India's plans are China and Japan.

28 Oct 2018 4:52 AM IST

YSR Congress Party Chief Jagan Mohan Reddy after he was stabbed at Visakhapatnam Airport. (Photo: Asian Age)

Probe Jagan attack speedily

News reports suggest a flagrant indifference to security concerns at Hyderabad and other airports in the area.

28 Oct 2018 4:50 AM IST

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (Photo: AFP)

Sri Lanka coup, a concern for India

Being pro-India and pro-West as Wickremasinghe was seen to be, he was always bound to be suspect in the eyes of Sinhala...

28 Oct 2018 4:47 AM IST

An angry crowd shout slogans as they sit by bodies of victims of the train accident in Amritsar on Friday. (Photo: AP)

Amritsar shows us our moral vacuum

The tragedy of Amritsar is that we can get away with the story that no one was responsible in a causal sense.

27 Oct 2018 1:13 AM IST

Yoga is the journey from A to B. A, is where you are, B is the finality. Guru, is someone, who has already walked that path and has the experience of finality. (Representational image)

Mystic Mantra: Our true religion

Modern man has erected images in his mind political, personal, that manifest in the form of symbols, ideas and...

27 Oct 2018 12:58 AM IST