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Friday, Apr 05, 2024
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Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Pratap Bhanu Mehta is Contributing Editor at the Indian Express. He has been vice-chancellor of Ashoka University and president, Centre Policy Research. Before he started engaging with contemporary affairs, he taught political theory at Harvard, and briefly at JNU.Ā He has written on intellectual history, political theory, law, Ā India's social transformation and world affairs. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize, the Adisheshiah Prize and the Amartya Sen Prize. Follow @pbmehta
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More From Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Pratap Bhanu Mehta on Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest: The mask is off, what stares us in the face
March 22,2024 16:31:43 PM
The government will probably claim that it was simply following the law; that Kejriwal was not responding to summons. But the law was already being applied in a way that was highly discretionary. If you have a government that does not allow the Opposition to mobilise, organise and govern, it is hard to pretend that we are a democracy. The election is already being vitiated
Sun, Mar 24, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: With CAA Rules, excluding minorities by stealth
March 13,2024 18:26:27 PM
At some point, the SC will awaken from its slumber and fully consider the complex issues involved in the CAA. But for now, the government gets to fulfill its promise, and use it as an election talking point, while throwing cold water over the apprehensions of an NRC being used to disenfranchise citizens
Thu, Mar 14, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes on Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant pre-wedding: Shaadi No 1
March 04,2024 19:28:01 PM
Publicness of Ambani festivities, move away from traditional reticence of Indian business, represent broader shift in culture
Tue, Mar 05, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: On recent Supreme Court verdicts, hold the celebrations
February 23,2024 07:06:15 AM
While SC judgments on electoral bonds and Chandigarh mayoral election are welcome, they ought not to merely be an episodic legitimisation of the faƧade of constitutionalism. They need to be part of a pattern that challenges the consolidation of authoritarianism and communalism
Fri, Feb 23, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta on Donald Trump’s trial: When the court needs to do the saving, democracy is lost
February 08,2024 07:07:47 AM
It will take an incredible feat of legal finesse, persuasive eloquence and consensus in the Supreme Court to navigate this thicket. But there is no evidence that the Court is capable of rising to the occasion
Thu, Feb 08, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: What January 22 is, what it isnātSign In to read
January 21,2024 14:28:46 PM
Ramās dhwaja has been planted. But the question of dharma is met with a silence
Tue, Jan 23, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: In 2024, tough choices for voters everywhereSign In to read
January 01,2024 07:33:50 AM
None of them show a clear pathway of how we prevent ourselves from sleepwalking through multiple crises. We hope that democracies can engage in an act of retrieval
Mon, Jan 01, 2024
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The collapse of parliamentary democracy in Bharat that is not IndiaSubscriber Only
December 21,2023 16:26:22 PM
One might ask, why does the government have to act in such a high-handed manner? It has a parliamentary majority. But as with many things with this government, the impunity is a point: In a democracy attracted by power rather than constitutional form, power will continually need to be projected
Fri, Dec 22, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Gaza is being talked to death, with no remedy to stop the deathsSubscriber Only
December 16,2023 07:43:15 AM
We can engage in endless historical counterfactuals. But there is no genuine political movement with a grip on reality to stop this war
Fri, Dec 22, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes on abrogation of Article 370 being upheld: Has SC established a dangerous precedent for federalism?Subscriber Only
December 11,2023 17:01:35 PM
No one expected the abrogation to be reversed. But SC's judgment lacks the reassurance that it has the integrity to uphold the Indian Constitution, in whose name it speaks, in full measure
Thu, Dec 14, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Why Opposition doesn’t have the words or ideas to take on the BJPSubscriber Only
December 06,2023 14:48:36 PM
Opposition is struggling to find language and space for a critique that hits the mark. Meanwhile, it speaks to the converted
Thu, Dec 07, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: How Henry Kissinger tricked the worldSubscriber Only
November 30,2023 15:55:24 PM
Kissinger was the ultimate confidence man. His ability to successfully pull off the appearance of indispensability made him larger than life, and overshadowed any assessment of his actions
Fri, Dec 01, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: What Israel-Palestine conflict reveals about world leadersSubscriber Only
October 30,2023 07:55:37 AM
Israel-Hamas conflict shows governments today are making bedfellows of extremists. States across the world are pushing societies deeper into the abyss
Tue, Oct 31, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: On marriage equality, the Supreme Court stops shortSubscriber Only
October 17,2023 18:53:24 PM
There is a quip going around about the current Court: They proclaim values with the high-mindedness of philosophers, thread fine lines on process with the ingenuity of lawyers, give history lessons with an erudition that shames historians. But ultimately, the directions cause the executive no discomfort
Fri, Oct 20, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The opacity of Vladimir Putin and the fate of the Ukraine warSubscriber Only
October 06,2023 07:13:20 AM
As the war in Ukraine continues, the Russian leader will remain a problem that needs to be managed ā in defeat or victory
Fri, Oct 06, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes on new Parliament: India’s age of ambitionSubscriber Only
September 19,2023 17:40:39 PM
The infrastructural nationalism that marks the transition to a new Parliament building is symbolic of our times. Perhaps, it can make room for a more representative parliamentarianism
Fri, Oct 06, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Defending Sanatan Dharma without acknowledging the horror of caste is moral duplicitySubscriber Only
September 05,2023 15:32:40 PM
Stalin and Priyank Kharge were asking a question: What will promote moral equality? Their answer may not be wholly convincing. But the BJPās response proved their point
Wed, Sep 06, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The current talk of decolonisation is about an exclusionary political agendaSubscriber Only
August 31,2023 19:43:29 PM
Current decolonisation project drips with resentment. It conflates modernity merely with colonialism. To see the insidiousness of this project, just ask this question: What should be the terms on which citizens relate to each other?
Fri, Sep 01, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes on BRICS: All the might-have-beensSubscriber Only
August 23,2023 07:10:23 AM
World needs more rebalancing against both the US and China. BRICS has not kept its promise
Wed, Aug 23, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes on laptop import ban: India needs an industrial policySubscriber Only
August 10,2023 07:07:01 AM
No country in the world has industrialised merely by deregulation
Thu, Aug 10, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: In Israelās floundering, their future, and oursSubscriber Only
July 27,2023 07:07:09 AM
The crisis is the sign of the times ā a future more authoritarian and in the grip of exclusionary nationalisms
Thu, Jul 27, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: After Manipur, our self-serving moralitySubscriber Only
July 22,2023 06:43:57 AM
The video of the assault on women shakes us to the core. But our reactions -- and the PM's -- do not address the atrocity
Sat, Jul 22, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: The Unbearable Lightness of Milan Kundera (1929-2023)Subscriber Only
July 12,2023 18:37:47 PM
The voice of both the great and barbaric threat to freedom as well as of the void that freedom creates, Milan Kundera was a political novelist in the deepest sense of the term
Wed, Jul 12, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Ahead of 2024, BJPās worry withinSubscriber Only
July 12,2023 07:00:35 AM
The only part on which the BJP has delivered is the institutionalisation of Hindutva. But it will, for the first time, have to project that in a context where there will be nothing else ā no other economic narrative, no organisational distinctiveness, and no novel narrative
Mon, Jul 17, 2023
Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: Uniform Civil Code must be about justice, not majoritarianismSubscriber Only
June 29,2023 19:27:06 PM
It will be a tragedy if the project of justice becomes hostage to two forms of bad faith: Majoritarianism, and the fear of majoritarianism
Fri, Jun 30, 2023