A rotten joint venture

The late night air around the three-storeyed Kingfisher Airlines’ Vile Parle office in Mumbai on October 13 was thick with expectation. Reporters stood outside waiting. Five hours later, when the chairmen of Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways emerged, armed with their wide smiles, the “alliance” they announced — which experts termed ‘cartelisation’ — only served to cover their next day’s intent.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, October 21, 2008

Searching high and low for the law

There are two forces of physics acting upon a changing India today. On the economic front, as India expands into global terrains, a centripetal force is gathering momentum, best represented by the country’s 8 per cent growth rate. This force, however, is being pulled back, through an equally strong centrifugal force that looks inward, is fragmented and savage in its execution. Caught in between are the rest of us. If economic development and mass prosperity have to be delivered, the politics of violence that the centrifugal force represents needs to die. And there lies a political opportunity for Elections 2009.

Opinion in Hindustan Times, October 07, 2008