It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this piece. God chose St Francis of Assisi in the 13th Century, saying to him, “Go and repair my church”. Those were the Dark Ages of the Catholic Church, where power, corruption and hedonism were rampant; right up to the highest echelons, the popes themselves.…

Blitz, the weekly brought out by R.K. Karanjia, had three Fs on its masthead – Free, Frank, Fearless. The blitzkrieg that has hit the Catholic Church in India over the last couple of months could verily use another set of three Fs – the Frightening Franco Fiasco. It is frightening because of the incalculable harm,…

Gay activists are ecstatic that the Supreme Court has finally struck down Sec 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as being ultra vires of the Constitution, basic human rights, privacy and equal treatment. Why this ecstasy? Gay activists (which include homosexuals, lesbians and transgenders) had filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court,…

(A response to the article “The Shrinking of St Stephen’s” Hindustan Times 12th August 2018) Prof Ramachandra Guha is a historian and Gandhian of great standing, and I have often written to him expressing my appreciation of his writings. I also share some of my writings with him. However, I was deeply dismayed by his…

The kanwarias are in the news, for all the wrong reasons – for smashing vehicles, including a police van, disrupting traffic and causing mayhem on the roads. The police in U.P., where the vast majority of kanwarias are to be found, are hapless spectators, with senior officials showering rose petals from helicopters on the “pilgrims”.…

We are familiar with the Sadhu, usually a saffron robbed ascetic or mendicant. Till not so long ago most Sadhus had little or no worldly possessions, living simple and frugal lives. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi may have been the first to break the stereotype with his Rolls Royces and the stereo music of the Beatles. Madhu…