Ever heard of “moral economy of the peasant”? You must understand this awkward phrase if you wish to make sense of the farmers’ rebellion that has arrived at the doorsteps of the national capital. Policymakers must understand this to see why their argument has no purchase with the farmers. PM Narendra Modi must understand this to realise why his approach to handling […]

A bizarre logic is being deployed by the Narendra Modi government and a section of media in the current standoff with the farmers: the recipient of an unwanted gift is being asked to be reasonable, not reject the gift, and find a “beech ka rasta”, or middle ground. The Modi government’s latest ‘proposal’ to the protesting farmers is being touted as just […]

There is a well-known rustic north Indian story of ‘99 pyaj aur 100 joote’. Ninety-nine onions or a hundred shoes. A man was asked to choose between two forms of punishment for his misdeed: Sau pyaj khao ya sau joote khao (Either eat a hundred onions or get a hundred shoe lashes). He chose to eat onions but could not go beyond 99, and thus ended up with a hundred shoe strikes as well. This is […]

The rise of the AIMIM, or All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen worries me. When I said this in a TV debate after Bihar elections, I received the usual barbs, this time from the Muslim side. I was accused of being a closet Sanghi, and of course, an Islamophobe. These reactions convinced me, even more, why the rise of the AIMIM must […]

Two weeks ago, I wrote on why I was not excited about the Bihar election. The first response came from Rama Lakshmi, Opinion Editor at The Print, as she read the article: “Must have been quite painful to write this, as a psephologist. It almost sounds like a divorce.” But not many others noticed the argument I was trying to advance. Everyone else I knew was excited about the Bihar polls. I had […]

Democrats all over the world wait anxiously for the much-deserved departure of Donald Trump. It could be a long wait and could well extend to another four years. At the time of this article being published, the vote count appears to be leaning towards Trump. Yet, those who care for democracy, must be grateful to Trump for something. He has singlehandedly demolished one […]

I can’t get myself excited about the assembly election in Bihar where polling began today. This is a strange feeling for an election junkie like myself who has spent more than three decades tracking elections professionally, politically, and passionately. It is not just fatigue. Nor is it because, initially, the outcome seemed predetermined; I can’t get myself excited even after the race […]

Is farming profitable?” Now, take a guess: from which part of India do you expect to hear a ‘yes’ to this question? I bet you would say, Punjab and Haryana, followed by Maharashtra and other western states. South might come after that. And you would expect to hear a loud ‘no’ from eastern India and, of course, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. You are wrong. In the first week […]

One week in Haryana’s Sirsa district convinced me that the farmers’ movement is resurrecting itself. Just as police firing on farmers in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur in June 2017 led to a sudden eruption of the movement, the three recent farm laws of the Narendra Modi government have triggered the second phase of the movement after it was suddenly extinguished in 2019. I was […]