Shekhar Gupta

Asim Munir tightens grip, but that fifth star could spell trouble for India

Asim Munir has locked up Imran Khan, had his handmaiden Parl mangle the Constitution, & given himself an extended tenure. But the additional jingle of that fifth star will not change facts on ground

Indians must eschew prejudice if they want the 'narrative' on their side

Victimhood is often seductive and we have cultivated it into some kind of a chronic disease across generations. There are, however, many problems with this proposition

Pak's 7-year itch resurfaces, but is India's deterrence enough this time?

Pakistani establishments and their proxies are prone to a severe, predictable 7-year itch. Each step up the escalation ladder buys India about these many years of deterrence on average

Why General Munir may have seen Kashmir normalcy as a threat to 'destiny'

The April 22 Pahalgam attack may be rooted in a deeper anxiety inside GHQ Rawalpindi, where Kashmir's peace disrupts the old script of rebellion and resistance

SEAD, off-ramp, and the Pahalgam trigger: A conflict vocabulary grows

Terms like kinetic action, SEAD, and escalatory ladder now define how India and Pakistan are scripting a conflict that shows no signs of stepping off the warpath

Operation Sindoor mix: Surprise, optics and audacity define Indian strikes

Everybody in Pakistan, and indeed in India, knew strikes were a matter of not 'whether' but 'when'. The Modi govt utilised these 14 days after Pahalgam to build an impression that there was no hurry

Caste census: A fraught & electorally-loaded idea forcing its way in

One of the reasons we call the caste census a bad idea is that so far, nobody has figured what to do with the data, except Rahul Gandhi

Pahalgam terrorist attack: Pakistan's ISI targets Hindus, tests India

At some point, the ISI's calculation has been, Hindus will rise in reprisal against their own minorities. That's a crisis they've been conjuring up in India. A nation at war with itself

To beat Modi, Opposition needs new ideas-not nostalgia and caste math

Stuck in the past, the Opposition is recycling slogans while Modi scripts a new political grammar

When 2 elephants fight: India eyes opportunity in US-China trade war

At the very least, there might be things India can make for the US markets that the Chinese can't compete with, given these tariffs

Mr Bharat, India, Bharat: Patriotism through Manoj Kumar's cinematic lens

This isn't an obituary of Manoj Kumar. It's about the influence he had in defining patriotism for two generations of Indians across our most perilous decade, say from 1962 to 1972

Trump's threat to pull the trigger may jolt India's complacent elite

India needs another shot of difficult reform, of the kind only possible at gunpoint. Mr Trump holds that gun to our heads now

A leader & 19 months: Lal Bahadur Shastri's legacy beyond Tashkent peace

Among Shastri's contributions were the Green Revolution, appointing C Subramaniam as his food minister, and recognising the talent of M S Swaminathan

Trick or retreat: Bofors aside, Rajiv's term reshaped India's defence plans

Stockholm-based SIPRI, which estimates imports in terms of constant 1990 dollars, puts the value of India's total arms imports in 10 years (2015-24) at a little over $23.7 billion

Minimum Trump, maximum Modi: Their contrasting views on civil servants

For Modi/BJP supporters, Deep State is some amorphous entity, including global foundations, Left-activist corporations and investors, and also intelligence proliferations working in cahoots with them

Making nukes great again: How Trump buried non-proliferation forever

Nukes are today a fairly low-tech option and inexpensive deterrent. If the Pakistanis could build them in the 1980s, anybody could do so now

Deep state, shallow state, non-state: The rise of conspiracy theories

From bhikshus of Ashokan 3rd century BC and medieval Sufis to Oxfam, Omidyar and Soros now, non-state actors have any real power only when they work in conjunction with a real state

Kejriwal's no-ideology politics over as his 'cynical image' cost him Delhi

Kejriwal and the AAP are devastated, but not finished. They still have a big state in Punjab, the municipal corporation in Delhi and 43 percent of the vote, even in defeat

Socialist delivery, a nuclear promise: Hoping the Budget meets its goals

Those of us who were so excited by that flurry of reforms and hailed it as a true and virtuous example of not wasting a crisis are now chastened

In defence of Murthy & Subrahmanyan: Valuing entrepreneurs and job creators

It's easy to beat up on the corporations. But a society that does not give its entrepreneurs, wealth & jobs creators love and respect, is doomed to be frozen in a low-middle-income status