India Bends to World’s PolicemanIn his column for The Indian Express, P Chidambaram argues that the recent war involving the United States, Israel and Iran reflects a pattern of illegal 'regime-change' interventions led by Washington, which he says violate international law and the United Nations Charter. He contends that claims about Iran’s nuclear threat resemble earlier justifications used for wars in Iraq and Libya.He adds that "Modi’s support to Israel has shut the door against any role that India could have played to bring the war to an end or prevent its spread to other Arab countries."P Chidambaram, The Indian ExpressAmidst the growing violence and destruction throughout the region, India, which has vital interests — human, economic and political — in the region is isolated. Iran has targeted US military bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iraq. There are 1 crore Indians in the region. India has oil, export and other economic interests. It has committed to invest USD 370 million in Chabahar Port in Iran. Despite these interests, India is without a voice or influence — all because of India’s unprincipled endorsement of Israel’s objectives.1st Lok Sabha Speaker Faced and Survived a Motion for RemovalIn this piece by The Indian Express, Chakshu Roy draws attention to the precedent set by Ganesh Vasudev Mavalankar, who in 1954 faced the first-ever motion to remove a Speaker in the Lok Sabha but survived it after a heated debate.Elected narrowly in 1952 (building on his 1946 assembly presidency), Mavalankar encountered Opposition criticism for allegedly arbitrary rulings, such as rejecting adjournment motions and questions, which critics like Dr NB Khare (who accused him of 'mental murder' of queries). The colum talks about his story ahead of a similar debate on 9 March, when MPs are likely to discuss and vote on the motion to remove Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.Chakshu Roy, The Indian ExpressPM Nehru defended Mavalankar and called the Opposition’s motion “vicious” and the Opposition’s charges “an exhibition of incompetence, frivolity and lack of substance”. He reminded the House that the motion of removal is an extraordinary procedure, justified under extremely grave circumstances. He said that the wording used in the motion was “a gross abuse of one’s intelligence” and “to ask anybody in the House to support this is to consider that man utterly lacking in intelligence”. Lok Sabha MPs then defeated the motion to remove Speaker Mavalankar by a voice vote.Urgent ReflectionsIn this column in The Telegraph, Manoj Kumar Jha imagines how Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar would assess present-day India if they were alive, underscoring the country's deep ethical and social crisis."All three grasped, in different ways, that democracy cannot be sustained on endurance alone. It requires hope — material, social and moral — if it is to remain a living promise rather than a hollow form," he writes.Manoj Kumar Jha, The TelegraphThey would recognise, almost immediately, that the crisis before them is not one of ideas but of purpose. Gandhi would see precarity and cruelty as moral failures, warning that a nation that normalises humiliation cannot call itself free. Nehru would read rising inequality and institutional weakening as threats to democratic citizenship, reminding us that freedom without material security is an illusion. Ambedkar would be the most unsparing, insisting that political democracy without social democracy is hollow, and that majoritarian impatience corrodes constitutional morality. Despite their differences, they would converge on one truth: economic justice, social dignity and ethical restraint are inseparable.War Brings More Pain, Hurt to Women in IranIn this column for the Hindustan Times, Lalita Panicker argues that the ongoing war launched by Israel and the US against Israel will only intensify the profound suffering and marginalization already endured by Iranian women under the theocratic regime, rather than alleviate it—especially after the death of Mahsa Amini, which triggered the Mahsa Amini protests—but warns that war could push their rights struggle further back.Lalita Panicker, Hindustan TimesThe war unleashed by Israel and the US against Iran can only mean more suffering and pain than already exists for the country’s women in the near future. Iranian-Canadian human rights activist, Nazanin Afshin-Jam Mackay, speaking on CTV, says that the death of Ayatollah Khamenei signals the end of the Supreme Oppressor, not the Supreme Leader. Women are not shedding tears for him. However, she is concerned that those who might be put in place — and at this moment, it is his son Mojtaba Khamenei — could be no different from the earlier ones and that the US might choose “stability” over real change.Mideast War Test for India's Strategy, Economic StrengthIn this piece for the Deccan Chronicle, Manish Tewari portrays the US-Israeli military strikes on Iran as a major systemic shock to Eurasian geopolitics and a critical "perfect storm" test for India's strategic autonomy, economic resilience, and diplomatic maneuvering. Manish Tewari, Deccan ChronicleThe most immediate and visceral impact is on the macroeconomy, channelled through the price and composition of its energy imports. India, which imports over 85 per cent of its crude oil, with nearly half historically sourced from West Asia, is profoundly vulnerable. The spike in Brent crude directly exacerbates India’s current account deficit and exerts depreciative pressure on the rupee, widening the fiscal arithmetic the Union government must manage. However, a purely volumetric analysis of oil disruption misses the deeper, more insidious threat.Pakistan Stirs the Hornet's Nest with War on Taliban, Strikes on KabulIn this column for the Deccan Chronicle, Bhopinder Singh argues that Pakistan’s recent military escalation against the Afghan Taliban marks a dangerous turning point in a relationship that Islamabad once nurtured. Singh says Pakistan launched large-scale airstrikes—under Operation “Ghazab Lil Haq”—targeting dozens of sites across Afghanistan, including cities such as Kabul, Kandahar, Khost and Paktika, claiming it was retaliating for attacks along the border and killing hundreds of militants.Bhopinder Singh, Deccan ChronicleNaturally, the Afghan Taliban government is horrified at the audacity of the Pakistanis flexing their obvious air superiority vis-à-vis the non-existent air defences of the still ragtag Afghan Taliban regime. Considerable hardware destruction, including more than 100 Afghan tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces, are claimed. However, despite the initial bravado of having “hit” the Afghan infrastructure and fighters of what Pakistan calls “Fitna Al Khawarij” (pejorative term for the TTP group), the portents for the Pakistanis are darkly grave. The Afghan side (both the government and the Pakistan-facing groups) are the battle-hardened masters of asymmetric and long-drawn warfare of unimaginable fury and tenacity.The Chaos of a Failed State in Iran Would Be a Perfectly Acceptable Outcome for NetanyahuIn this column for The Guardian, Aluf Benn, editor-in-chief of Haaretz argues that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pursuing a strategy in the current Israel–Iran war that prioritizes weakening or destabilizing Iran—even if it results in long-term chaos inside the country, which serve his strategic and political interests far better than any negotiated peace.Aluf Benn, The GuardianIsrael’s counteroffensive—relying on military prowess and ever-growing American support—led to the destruction of Gaza, defeat of Hezbollah, the fall of the Syrian Assad regime, the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, and closer to home, land-grabbing in the West Bank. The former “chickenshit” has turned in to a trigger-happy warrior. The man who spent his career opposing territorial concessions was now presiding over territorial expansion in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.Fallacy of Parental Consent in MarriageIn his column for the Hindustan Times, Karan Thapar sharply critiques the Gujarat government's proposed amendments to the Registration of Marriages Act 2006, which would mandate parental consent, notarized applications, identity proofs, and declarations for marriage registration—even for adults. Thapar calls this a "fallacy," arguing that Indian law and the Constitution (via Article 21) grant full autonomy to women over 18 and men over 21 to marry without parental or community approval.Karan Thapar, Hindustan TimesHow different things were when Nisha and I got married in 1982. She was Catholic. I was Hindu. She wanted a church wedding, and Father Terry Gilfedder was happy to arrange a full religious service with communion despite the fact that I wasn’t a Catholic. He didn’t ask for witnesses. He didn’t care whether our parents had granted permission. He didn’t require notarised declarations of our identity. Father Terry was more concerned about the love that had brought us together. “I love you are three words that symbolise today”, he said in his sermon, after he’d declared us man and wife. “But remember, love not only joins the words I and you, it also separates them.” His advice was simple. Remember you’re two individuals, with your own tastes and preferences, and love will grow. Forget, and it could suffer.Laughter Under Surveillance and the Curious Case of the Offended StateIn this The New Indian Express column, Ravi Shankar critiques India's growing "Republic of Permanent Offence," where the state surveils and suppresses satire as a perceived threat, revealing institutional fragility rather than strength."Somewhere between colonial hangover and postcolonial insecurity, we built an establishment that believes dignity is preserved by suppressing laughter. The uniform must not smile. The state must not be seen to enjoy itself. The State reacts to jest with procedure," he succinctly adds.Ravi Shankar, The New Indian ExpressWelcome to the Republic of Permanent Offence. These trainees were not mocking the State. They were not parodying the police. They were, if anything, celebrating the very idea of government service. Their boast was aspiration wrapped in self-deprecating humour. But in India, authority has no sense of irony about itself. Ironically, police departments themselves run chirpy social media accounts, posting memes about traffic fines and helmet rules, hoping to appear relatable. Humour is acceptable when it is institutional and curated. 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