The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has given birth to some serious questions. Countries with tough regulations, boisterous state control and big governmental infrastructure have fared rather well in comparison to…
Month: February 2021
Elephants in the room
The political discourse about democratisation in Pakistan is in the habit of hitting the target while entirely missing the point. It is your stereotypical forest for trees situation. Decades of conditioning has…
The shorter telegram
(First appeared on February 06, 2021) In the past 20 years, I have brought up The Long Telegram by George Kennan more than a dozen times. Kennan was the Deputy Chief of…
Pity India
(First appeared on January 30, 2021) A tractor rally by protesting farmers on India’s Republic Day. Now that is a neat little idea. What a statement. What a reminder. That India’s republic…
America — a warning
(First appeared on January 23, 2021) Joseph Biden is now the 46th president of the United States. As he said in his inaugural address, democracy has prevailed. The assault on democracy failed…
Two Indias
(First appeared on January 16, 2021) An argument had broken out. A few peers were debating whether India’s Hindutva mob would give the same love-jihad treatment to Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley…
Assault on Democracy with a capital D
(First appeared on January 09, 2021) In Lev Grossman’s The Magicians trilogy, which was subsequently made into a TV series, all magic flows from a wellspring in an imaginary world called Fillory,…
Doval’s playground
(First appeared on January 02, 2021) For any intelligence operative, Modi’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval has a rather asymmetric presence on the internet. Just search his name on YouTube and you…
While you were sleeping
(First appeared on December 26, 2020) The recent exposé by the EU DisinfoLab pertaining to an Indian propaganda network functioning around the world is mindboggling. Since the publication of the report, many…
Technology, security and paranoia
(First appeared on December 19, 2020) In this age of conspiracy theories, endless conjecture, and massive disinformation campaigns it is rather surprising that the paranoia about emerging technology has taken a backseat….
A theory of everything extreme
(First published on December 12, 2020) India is witnessing a fresh round of protests. Indian farmer unions are protesting to demand the repeal of three laws for the past two months. As…
Principle-centered leadership
(First appeared on December 05, 2020) If you are reading this piece expecting a discussion on Stephen Covey’s book with the same title, please stop. It is not about that. Nor does…
Learning in the time of corona
(First appeared on November 28, 2020) While politics keeps distracting us we should never lose sight of the extraordinary times we live in. As the dreaded second wave of Covid-19 sweeps the…
Arc of the immoral universe
(First appeared on November 21, 2020) Reading president Obama’s new book took me back to that November night in 2008 when after eight years of Cheney’s endless wars we heard that an…
America needs constant vigilance
(First appeared on November 14, 2020) Are you surprised by the drama that is slowly unfolding in the US election? Some parts can be easily explained. Yet there are others which may…
A lethal mix of prejudices
(First published on November 07, 2020) As you read these lines, vote counting continues in the United States. Do we know who is going to win by the end of the prolonged…
Have you been pilled yet?
(First published on October 24th, 2020) In 2018, when little Zainab’s tragic case surfaced, a rather astonishing debate took hold of the media discourse. A doctor turned televangelist turned media executive and…
On banning women
(First published on October 17, 2020) A well-known investigative journalist recently took a screengrab of a female workout instructor from a TV morning show and tagged Prime Minister Imran Khan in a…
The worst is yet to come
(First published on October 10, 2020) Donald Trump has Covid. The United States president is considered the most powerful man on the planet. And yet a microbe infinitely smaller than him plunged…
The hinge of prejudice
(First published on October 3rd, 2020) On September 30, a special court in Lucknow robbed India of its democratic credentials. Democracies usually have fully functioning institutions where some semblance of impartiality is…
Binding the wounds of division
(First published on September 26th, 2020) “When she was two years old, she would lift her hands over her head and say very sweetly, “Dada, up.” His friends expressed surprise. The baby…
Writing a clash
(First published on September 19th, 2020) There is something in Orson Welles’ acting, directorial and writing debut film, Citizen Kane , which defies logic. For one, after 79 years of its release, many critics…
What keeps Modi in power?
(First published on September 12th, 2020) When coronavirus panic struck the world, populist leaders in many countries were averse to shutting down the economy. On the one side there was the myth…
That’s what’s wrong with the opposition!
(First published on September 5th, 2020) When last week I wrote that two men, Asif Ali Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif, had brought their respective parties to their knees I had little idea…
What is wrong with the opposition?
(First published on August 29th, 2020) Do you get the feeling that something weird is going on with the two major opposition parties? That whenever they plan to challenge the government, a…
Fool’s perdition
(First published on August 22nd, 2020) One of my favourite pastimes these days is to see Pakistanis underestimate their country. In a nation given to strong mood swings, this is to be…
Kashmir policy today
(First published on August 15th, 2020) This piece reaches you on August 15 — India’s Independence Day, and a day after Pakistan celebrates its freedom. This piece addresses neither. Not directly at…
Modi unleashed
(First published on August 8th, 2020) Prescience and foresight are the most fetching attributes of wisdom. Two mundane examples come to one’s mind. The first is of the American television series House of…
Pakistan’s actual fault lines
(First published on August 1st, 2020) If you are a Pakistani fascinated by the country’s history there is a good chance you have been brought up on a controlled diet. There is…
Blinded by colours
(First published on July 25th, 2020) NYC Comedian Ryan Long came up with a brilliant video in which two men, one woke one racist are discussing matters pertaining to colour and race….