On the road to Liberty

This week India would be awaiting the verdict of a court in a title suit.  But it is much more than a property dispute. It is a contest between rule of law and politicisation of religion. The dispute has come to symbolise different visions of India. Should Indians today be burdened by the past, or should India move forward, drawing the proper lesson from the past, while preparing for the future. In contrast to the frenzy surrounding this dispute twenty years ago, the prevailing disinterest in this issue is a sign of progress, and an illustration of how far the people have moved on. A shorter version of this article, " India Has Moved on From Its Mosque Controversy " , appeared in The Wall Street Journal Asia on SEPTEMBER 21, 2010 At one level, it is a dispute over land, which is quite a common occurrence. After all it is said that 80% of court cases in lower judiciary relate to land. The verdict is coming sixty years after the original suit was filed. But that too is no...

The serial bomb blasts have failed to shake the popular resolve not to be provoked. Tragically, the political consensus necessary to fight the perpetrators of terrors have failed to crystallise so far. It is clear from these attacks that the intention of the terrorists were to provoke a wider flare up among different sections of society. By refusing to get provoked the common man on the street have risen to this challenge, therefore, defeating the very purpose of these cowardly attacks on innocent people. I wrote this article in the aftermath of the serial bomb blasts that rocked Jaipur and Ahmedabad on 25th and 26th July 2008, and this was after the blasts in Jaipur in May. Serial bombs fail to shake popular resolve, yet political consensus to fight terror elude In the 16 serial blasts that rocked Ahmedabad city on Saturday, 49 lives have been lost so far. On Friday, nine explosions in Bangalore in the afternoon had killed two, and injured quite a few. With these two latest series of ...