Politics

Jan 13, 2008

Strange way to choose a president

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 13 January The world looks on at the US presidential primaries with a mix of hopes and fears, and not a little bemusement. The road to the White House is serpentine, its course laid out by an amalgam of federal and sate law, constitutional interpretation by the courts, party regulations,… Read more

Oct 7, 2007

Evading the Invasion

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 7 October Who’s being invaded by whom? From the headlines in Britain’s most popular newspapers, and statements from politicians, not least government ministers, you’d think the country was about to be swamped by an alien horde, a wave of immigrants threatening its culture, public services and safety. In his speech… Read more

Aug 26, 2007

As long as you’ve got your health

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 26 August St. Bartholomew’s Hospital – known to Londoners for generations simply as Barts – has a claim to being the world’s longest-established provider of free medical care to the poor. It was founded by a penitent Norman courtier in 1123 as a priory hospital on the edge of the… Read more

Aug 12, 2007

Northern Ireland: Troubles at an end?

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 12 August It was a low-key conclusion to the British Army’s longest continuous campaign. On 1st August, Operation Banner, the British military intervention in Northern Ireland, was declared at an end. Some 5000 troops will remain stationed in the area, but with the same duties as troops elsewhere in the… Read more

Jul 28, 2007

History vs. heritage

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 28 July That the teaching of history is politically disputed terrain will come as no news to Indian readers. Efforts by the Hindu right at the centre and in the states have amply illustrated how the study of the past can acquire an all-too-potent present-day ideological and communal force. In… Read more

Jul 15, 2007

Britain in Iraq; Iraq in Britain

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 15 July The British government response to the failed terrorist actions in London and Glasgow was markedly more measured than in the past. The “war on terror” rhetoric was toned down, there was no threat of yet another round of anti-terror laws, and greater care in speaking about and to… Read more

May 8, 2007

“It must be the Jews…”

Jewish Socialist, Spring 2007 I was sipping tea in a darkened room in a dusty village somewhere off the Lahore-Multan road in Pakistan. My host was a rental car driver. We’d been chatting as we made our way across the flat plains of southern Punjab, beginning with cricket, and eventually, in a transition common across… Read more

May 6, 2007

Good riddance Tony Blair

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 6 May After ten years as Prime Minister, Tony Blair faces the end of the road, and for most of us in Britain, his resignation will come not a moment too soon. A man elected in 1997 because he was portrayed as moderate, prudent and sincere has become a by-word… Read more

Apr 22, 2007

Iraq: resistance and occupation

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 22 April ON April 9, the fourth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein, more than a million demonstrators took to the streets of Najaf, Kut and other cities of the Iraqi south, chanting, “Yes! Yes! Iraq, No! No! America.” Amid an ocean swell of green, white and red Iraqi… Read more

Apr 17, 2007

Strange bedfellows

Palestine News, Spring 2007 During a visit to India in February, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, met with right-wing Hindu supremacist notables at the home of former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, currently leader of the BJP (the official opposition) in the Indian parliament. In the 1980s, Advani launched and led the… Read more