Is the caste certificate still the real passport to winning elections in India? Yes, to a large extent, it still is...

War drums are beating again. Loud. Relentless. Almost theatrical. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: every war is not ours. And every fire does not demand that India jump in with a bucket.

Power changed its grammar. Quietly. Almost politely. For a decade, Narendra Modi ran a tight ship. One captain. One command. No coalition chaos. No midnight bargaining. The old circus of the 1990s and 2000s was pushed off stage. Between 2014 and 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party did not just win elections. It bulldozed fragmentation. It ruled with muscle.

Recent events have proved that India’s democratic structure, despite its messiness, can be more responsive and representative than the more rigid American system, which largely serves a smaller population, less heterogeneous and more prosperous than India.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently asserted a fundamental truth: India’s destiny will be forged by its own intrinsic strength, not by the grace or grievances of others.

A democracy, like applause, cannot function with one hand alone. It is sustained by the essential interplay, the understanding, restraint, and constructive dialogue between the government and the opposition. When the House falls silent due to obstruction, it is not just business that halts; the very vitality of democracy diminishes.