Page 2 - Shekhar Gupta

What the middle class isn't

What the Modi govt got wrong: Moving away from its generally upbeat messaging of 'India is on the rise, growth will get steeper, and markets are red hot and will get hotter'

Union Budget 2024: BJP back to BASE

The 10 budgets of the Modi government so far were BJP budgets. This is its first coalition budget

Watching space Rahul

Congress party's score of 99 in the Lok Sabha elections has vaporised three painful questions dogging Rahul Gandhi for two decades. His record so far deserves a closer look

Modi & 'jai jawan, jai kisan' trap

Modi govt will need to address massive challenges without the total power it got used to, in the face of relentless electoral challenges, one after another

Modi 3.0, T&C apply

A changed reality for Modi govt in its 3rd innings is by no means rise of a new phenomenon. It's a return to old normal where even majorities had to routinely wrestle with storied million mutinies

Which way the Sangh blows

Occasional lovers' tiffs have marked the history of RSS-BJP relations. To think that Nagpur will bring about any change in leadership is a misreading of both its intent and its power

Hindu-Muslim coalition back

The Muslim vote is the BJP's biggest worry. Knives are already out and probing its most critical fault line. Without recovering UP, the BJP's decline threatens to become chronic, and progressive

The game is on

Doctrine of necessity and survival will now make the BJP concede spaces to allies

44-day polls: 10 hot takes

2024 was a one-candidate election. Narendra Modi was the only candidate for whom the BJP sought votes, and he was the only opponent most of its rivals wanted defeated

Writings on the Valley wall

Reading the writings on the wall in poll-bound Kashmir, we find change for the better, aspiration, a quiet celebration of peace, but don't confuse it for closure

Writings on the Valley wall - 2

This is the second set of excerpts from Shekhar Gupta's "Writing On The Wall" from the poll-bound Kashmir Valley

Abki baar 90 paar?

An additional 30 seats for the BJP won't make any difference to the strength and quality of government. Thirty fewer, however, will have several substantive consequences

Chamkila, Canada & dangers ahead

Even in the weeks leading up to Chamkila's assassination, there were massacres every other day. To airbrush all of this is sheer intellectual cowardice, if not a crime

Frontrunner & elusive poll theme

Excitement is often highest in 'wave' elections. There is a sense of anticipation, a better future, even vengeance. For these reasons, 2024 is turning out to be an unexpectedly themeless election

Six states to watch

While this election looks predictable in large swathes of our political landscape, it is also more keenly contested than 2019 in some states

Modi's new BJP at 44

As the BJP heads for a likely third successive term in power, it's fascinating to debate how true it looks to the original proposition: A party with a difference

Politics for nuclear winter

Opposition parties know better than most what they are up against. Much of the talk among them is more about where they could limit Modi, rather than having him voted out of power

Who threatens the court?

Modi's reference to the 'committed judiciary' takes us back to the 1970s, when Indira Gandhi's government twice superseded senior judges while appointing the CJI

The idea of Kejriwal

The 'idea' Kejriwal's politics grew around was a no-holds-barred fight against corruption. That is the reason the Modi govt has now tarred him and his entire party with the same paint

CAA: A fading story

For BJP, CAA was strategic move that did not quite work out because those it would benefit could've been accommodated under existing laws, and new entrants would remain excluded