All stories by AAKAR PATEL
Is this the India we want?
Rediff.com6 Apr 2017'There is a discomfort among many of us at the fact that the Republic is not more Hindu than it could or should be.' 'This discomfort is producing laws such as the one we now have in Gujarat,' says Aakar Patel.
Why hope is running out for the Congress
Rediff.com28 Mar 2017'The Congress in 2017 stands for nothing positive, not even secularism.'
What does 2019 hold for Narendra Modi?
Rediff.com22 Mar 2017The numbers, however, look very good for Modi. We could say it is his election to lose, rather than the Opposition's to win, says Aakar Patel.
Time to fight Trump's war on human rights
Rediff.com17 Mar 2017'Responding with outrage is not enough. It is the time, and the responsibility of all who hold those rights dear, to fight back, says Aakar Patel.
Modi, master of his craft, is on top of his game
Rediff.com11 Mar 2017'We are in the presence of a truly great politician,' says Aakar Patel.
Only students can oppose, resist and dissent today
Rediff.com10 Mar 2017'The only forum for resistance and dissent has become the university.' 'Free thinking is the right our brave students have been demanding.' 'As another round of violence and hatred against 'anti-nationals' begins, all of us, whether or not we agree with their views, should support and defend them,' says Aakar Patel.
The Congress party is comatose if not dead
Rediff.com3 Mar 2017'When it vanishes as a national force (meaning when it can no longer get sufficient votes to hold onto its symbol, the hand) it will not have been the first large Indian party to die,' says Aakar Patel.
Demonetisation has failed to curb militancy in Kashmir
Rediff.com24 Feb 2017'The more harder India pushes its nationalism on to its population, the further away we send Kashmiris.' 'We should understand that the unrest in that state cannot be solved by demonetisation. There are much deeper causes,' says Aakar Patel.
Did Uma Bharti violate her oath of office?
Rediff.com16 Feb 2017'We expect mobs on the subcontinent to hand out punishment without trial.' 'To have ministers doing it and then being proud about it says something about how the law is treated in India and how seriously ministers take their oath of office,' says Aakar Patel.
Lessons India can take from America
Rediff.com10 Feb 2017'It will be a fine day when we can claim to have institutions in civil society as influential and as popular as ACLU, which is a strong body only because millions of Americans support its values.' 'When Indians take offence at how other Indians are treated, when we take injustice to others personally, we will begin to make India great,' says Aakar Patel.
Will the 1984 victims ever get justice?
Rediff.com3 Feb 2017'The BJP has the opportunity to undo a lot of the damage that we have suffered as a society which looks away from mass violence.'
Donald Trump and the lessons for India
Rediff.com24 Jan 2017'The real problem of joblessness and democratic politics is happening here in India. And it is happening now, right before us.'
By 2020, there will be no newspapers
Rediff.com19 Jan 2017The end of newspaper reporting will produce a landscape so barren that it will be terrifying, says Aakar Patel.
Stop this showy nationalism!
Rediff.com18 Jan 2017'If Amazon's officials had secured their visas through proper paperwork, under what rule or law was Swaraj threatening to cancel them?' 'If she felt a crime had been committed, as a law abiding citizen she should have registered a first information report or a complaint.' 'Instead she fired off a twitter fatwa, acting like a despot.'
What I learnt after fracturing my foot in the UK
Rediff.com14 Jan 2017The UK spends about Rs 1.5 lakh per citizen. India spends Rs 260 per citizen. Of course we are a poor nation, but we are a poor nation that last year spent Rs 59,000 crore buying 36 fighter planes and this year is spending Rs 99,000 crore on a bullet train, says Aakar Patel.
BJP will continues its successes in 2017
Rediff.com2 Jan 2017'Even if we expect that the economy will be hit and GDP is lowered for a few quarters by the reckless demonetisation, this will itself not be sufficient to dislodge Modi's popularity,' says Aakar Patel.
No leader could have achieved what Modi has
Rediff.com28 Dec 2016'If one is looking for evidence of his talents as a mass leader, it has been on display since he announced demonetisation on November 8.' 'Let us look at it and appreciate it, because we are in the presence of a true master,' says Aakar Patel.
How Rahul messed up the chance to corner Modi
Rediff.com20 Dec 2016'We are in the middle of the biggest self created crisis of this government.' 'A crisis which involves and includes citizens and affects the way we go about our lives.' 'It is a crisis that is being managed poorly by the government and, it is absolutely clear, even more shoddily by the Opposition,' says Aakar Patel.
Who will be proved right? NaMo or Manmohan?
Rediff.com17 Dec 2016'Singh has written that he fears demonetisation will end up a mammoth tragedy.' 'Modi has told us we will enter a better world in January.' 'Both men can't be right and we will know which one of them is wrong soon,' says Aakar Patel.
Easier to travel Bangalore-London than Bangalore-Surat
Rediff.com15 Dec 2016What is required is boring leadership that ensures that the basics are right and not genius leadership that dreams of bullet trains, says Aakar Patel.