Politics
Review: Rajdeep Sardesai’s Book On The ElectionsDispatch
An election that changed India – a cliche trotted out after every general election is doing the rounds again. It is perhaps more accurate to say that a profound…
Why I Am Angry, Why I Am ProtestingDispatch
I am angry because a woman got raped in a bus in the national capital. I am angry because I am not a member of the privileged classes. I am angry because I don’t…
Why We Need To ProtestDispatch
Kavita Krishnan’s fiery speech that encapsulates the idiocy of the government’s response to the DelhiGangRape As usual, the police are suggesting that the safety of…
#DelhiGangRape — A List of DemandsDispatch
The following demands were first tweeted by — I have edited them for grammar and clarity and reworked the order in which the demands have been listed.
What comes after Facebook
“What comes after Facebook?” This is a question that’s being asked very frequently nowadays — and by people who, a few years ago, were struggling with email. “Hah,”…
Barack Obama Is Tired Of Your F***ing S***!Dispatch
has that’s got to be making every Republican campaign official kick him/herself in the butt … It seems the audiobook of Dreams From My Father has the author cussing…
The Obama Inauguration Viewing Guide
It’s taken a long time to get here, but finally, Obama will swear in as the 44th president of the United States of America today. I live in India, and have been…
The Political Edge we gave our clients, a 100% resultDispatch
One of the businesses I’m involved in is an analytics firm. We call the political analytics wing Political Edge. In the months leading up to elections in Rajasthan,…
The Mumbai Attacks, Barkha, NDTV and the media in generalDispatch
Is it just me, or does it seem like a lot of people are cackling and rubbing their hands in glee over these Facebook groups that are lobbying to remove Barkha Dutt…
Pakistan’s General - the man the world needs to focus onDispatch
General Kayani The Indian government will make its case to the visiting US Secretary of State today. It is expected that the government will present evidence…
Enough with the candles, its time to get angryDispatch
Are you angry? If you’re like me, you are. So what are you doing about it? Lighting candles? Going out on peace marches? What the fuck for! Let me be very clear:…
Making money off the Mumbai attack … utter rubbish!Dispatch
I just got an email, originally written by someone who likes to call him(her?)self the “unknown Indian”. It’s floating around the interwebs asking people to boycott…
Mumbai Attack Impact UpdateDispatch
It’s not a good time to be in Mumbai. You just need to scratch the surface to reach the deep sense of unease amongst Mumbaikars today. And it’s a feeling that…
Understanding who’s behind the Mumbai attacksDispatch
Here’s what we know for certain: 1. There were ten simultaneous attacks. 2. The attackers were well armed, with large amounts of ammo and grenades. 3. A previously…
Post Mumbai Attack Action Plan
I just got this email — I think it’s worth sharing, especially since I agree with it in toto: Hi, My name is Vijay Parthasarathy, and I am a first year PhD student…
Mumbai Blast newsfeedsDispatch
LIVE FEEDS - - breaking news at a frightening pace - - - - - - Up at 1:39 AM - perhaps the most comprehensive source of news - - - I’m watching…
Obama vs McCain, the differenceDispatch
Jonathan Curley’s a banker who’s voted Republican in the past, but went out canvassing for Obama because his wife told him to. His does a good job of summing up…
American Fundamentalist Right No Different Than TalibanDispatch
It’s hard to believe how or why, but there really exists a subculture in America that is militaristic, hateful, vengeful, irrational and ambitious. These extremists…
Michael Jackson’s hometown just made Indiana a swing stateDispatch
On Avirook’s Blog: The last time Indiana voted for a democratic president was in 1964. But over the last week it just became a ‘battleground’ state. Losing ground…
Momentous timesDispatch
Will this be the most newsy month in 2005? As I write this Tony Blair is meeting the Queen of England to ask her to dissolve parliament. The BBC journalist…
All the way from SrinagarDispatch
Hameed from Srinagar just called up the folks on DDs Fourth Umpire and told them to rename the programme. His suggestion: Indian Umpire. As far as he's concerned,…
SolutionsDispatch
Everybody seems to have a solution to the 'Kashmir Problem.' There is wide disparity as to how to go about achieving peace here, but there is a key phrase that…
The pope is deadDispatch
The pope has popped off ... with apologies to any catholic readers who may land up here. Anyway, I am off to all the churches I can find in Srinagar ... lets see if…
VetsDispatch
Yusuf Jameel and Altaf Hussain are veteran journalists in Srinagar. Jameel reported for the BBC from the beginning of militancy here. Hussain is working for the BBC…
Sex in SrinagarDispatch
I hooked up with this bunch of journalism students -- both men and women -- and decided to talk dirty with them. Sex, not very surprisingly, is taboo around here.…
Two sides ...Dispatch
News begins to lose its easy urban character out here pretty quickly. There is no straight story. The balanced story ceases to exist. Fact is shrouded beneath…
Srinagar notesDispatch
In Delhi, people are switching on air conditioning. In Srinagar, I need a sweater all the time. But what a beautiful place this is ... no wonder everybody wants it.
Nightlife in KashmirDispatch
I went for a walk today evening. The markets in Srinagar are all closed. Delhi seems further away than ever before. Right next door to Delhi, Haryana was the first…
Tolerance vs ReligionDispatch
Just found this at kuro5hin ... The vague feeling I've always had that religion and tolerance don't go hand-in-hand just got translated into a statistic. When Marx…
Nicholas Xenos - Leo Strauss and the Rhetoric of the War on TerrorDispatch
This is very interesting ...
The New Yorker: Democracy is not a givenDispatch
âDemocracy is dangerous anywhere,â he said. âWe talk sometimes as if democracy were the natural human condition, as if any deviation from it is a crime to be…
Genocide againDispatch
The 'Janjaweed' government-backed Arab militia continues its campaign of mass murder and rape against black African tribes in Darfur. The government of Sudan not…
Opinion Journal: The real story of FallujahDispatch
Robert D Kaplan in The Wall Street Journal writes ...The meticulous planning process undertaken by the Marines at the tactical level for assaulting Fallujah was not…
Village Voice : Who killed Nick BergDispatch
After the death of poor Nick Berg, the conspiracy theories were legion, appearing first on websites dedicated to such alternate histories, then making their way to…
Village voice : Bush's grandpa was a NaziDispatch
the late Connecticut senator Prescott Bush, grandfather of the current president, along with his law partner W. Averill Harriman, a former governor of New York,…
WorldChanging: Abrupt Climate Change, the Pentagon, and The Day After TomorrowDispatch
Doug Randall wrote (along his boss at Global Business Network, Peter Schwartz) what has come to be known as 'the Pentagon study' on abrupt climate change. Their…
spiked-politics - A brief history of bollocksDispatch
It was originally going to be subtitled 'A Brief History of Bollocks' but the publishers balked', says Francis Wheen .... .... Wheen reckons we're living through a…
Tom Clancy vs George BushDispatch
Clancy is perhaps the least likely writer imaginable to lend his name to a project bashing the Bush administration. Since the beginning of his literary career in…
Corruption redefinedDispatch
There are a couple of points I wanted to raise. Our perception of corruption is coloured by mass media --- the only corruption cases that recieve coverage involve…