Ravi Shankar

Provocateur

The tyranny of little guys

Indian public life has become ludicrously litigious with a police complainant hiding behind every door, ready to leap out with a punitive yell to torment cocky columnists and social media mavericks.

22 May 2022

Leave Lord Hanuman Out of Power Games

Trust politicians to warp the most sacred of symbols to feed their power hunger.

15 May 2022

Out of the Blue

Elon Musk buys Twitter, the world’s most powerful social media weapon which has 23 million Indian users. What does this mean for free speech, trolls and government control?

01 May 2022

Humour is freedom’s subversive statement

Was it fine for Will Smith to get pissed off at funnyman Chris Rock for joshing his wife Jada who has a hair fall problem?

03 Apr 2022

Selective indignation is racist hypocrisy

All lives are equal but some are more equal than the others. Caucasian lives command a larger premium in the outrage market than others.

27 Mar 2022

The menace of the solitary dictator

The personality profile of tyrants is a stereotype with a few variations in the scope of their cruelty. They are mesmerising orators.

13 Mar 2022

Truth and Lies Behind the Veil

Metaphors have a purpose. They allude to a deeper meaning that represents the human initiative to hedge a bet.

27 Feb 2022

Inside the mind of Vladimir Putin

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine looks imminent and the world teeters on the edge of war. At the centre of the maelstrom is the enigmatic Russian president, popular at home and hated by the West.

13 Feb 2022

Saris are the answer to the raging hijab row!

A hijab cannot be worn to school or college. Just as a religious symbol of any faith, ideally, has no place in any temple of learning.

13 Feb 2022

PG vs MoGi war will dictate dynasty's fate

Priyanka Gandhi faces a different G-Force now than Indira and Sonia Gandhi ever did -- MoGi, which combines Modi's mass appeal and Yogi's Hindutva.

30 Jan 2022

Yogi Adityanath is no alternative to PM Modi

The mouthy monk could pull off a return to Lucknow. But that cannot make him Modi’s equal, let alone his superior.

23 Jan 2022

The Blasphemy of Mother Teresa

A news report in 1991 in the respected German magazine Stern estimated that only seven percent of the millions of dollars MoC received were used for charity.

09 Jan 2022

The importance of being Shashi Tharoor

Tharoor is one of the few most illustrious Congressmen -- a former senior UN diplomat, celebrated author, what is more, a three-time Lok Sabha member from Kerala. And a civilised man too.

02 Jan 2022