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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. He has written on intellectual history, political theory, law, 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
July 22,2024 16:20:16 PM
ICJ advisory on Israel’s actions in Gaza highlights how Netanyahu has converted a serious crisis into an existential one
Tue, Jul 23, 2024July 17,2024 19:41:55 PM
The problem for the Democratic Party is that the focus on the persona of Trump, and the preoccupation with Biden clinging onto power by all means, is obscuring the fact that Trump is acquiring more ideological coherence, governing plausibility and undercutting Democrats on their own terms
Sun, Jul 21, 2024June 24,2024 12:41:29 PM
Exams are a test of a certain kind of skill: If nothing else ambition, concentration, endurance, commitment and character. India’s coaching industry is much derided. But coaching is an inevitable consequence where competitive stakes are high
Tue, Jun 25, 2024June 22,2024 15:28:47 PM
The investment banker’s new book details how lowering interest rates and 'rescuing' failing banks and businesses made the economy work against the poor
Sat, Jun 22, 2024June 14,2024 19:21:22 PM
The building of the temple was popular and communalism is growing. But the BJP made the mistake of thinking this could transform into political capital indefinitely
Sun, Jun 16, 2024June 04,2024 16:05:18 PM
At the very least, the result pricks the bubble of Prime Minister Modi’s authority. He made this election about himself. But today, he is just another politician, cut to size by the people
Wed, Jun 05, 2024May 21,2024 19:19:55 PM
Reaction to International Court seeking arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders shows international order is beyond even the redeeming comforts of organised hypocrisy
Wed, May 22, 2024April 28,2024 07:00:40 AM
The book is an attempt to recover the strength of Rushdie, the person, occluded by Rushdie, the targeted writer
Sat, Apr 27, 2024April 26,2024 14:48:39 PM
Protests against the war in Gaza across US universities are a sign of a triple crisis: Of liberal democracy, of the university, and paradoxically, of anti-war protests as well
Sat, Apr 27, 2024April 23,2024 16:10:20 PM
The BJP’s biggest fear is that the palpable lack of national issues makes this a normal election: An amalgam of messy local equations, caste and subcaste politics, organisational rivalries, and opportunistic alliances
Fri, Apr 26, 2024March 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, 2024March 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, 2024March 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, 2024February 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 façade of constitutionalism. They need to be part of a pattern that challenges the consolidation of authoritarianism and communalism
Fri, Feb 23, 2024February 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, 2024January 21,2024 14:28:46 PM
Ram’s dhwaja has been planted. But the question of dharma is met with a silence
Tue, Jan 23, 2024January 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, 2024December 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, 2023December 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, 2023December 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, 2023December 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, 2023November 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, 2023October 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, 2023October 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, 2023October 06,2023 07:13:20 AM
As the war in Ukraine continues, the Russian leader will remain a problem that needs to be managed — in defeat or victory
Fri, Oct 06, 2023