ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ravi Shanker Kapoor
Ravi Shanker Kapoor BLOGS
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Aurangzeb row underlines demise of free speech
March 23, 2025, 11:57 AM IST
Censorship has a thousand fathers; free speech is an orphan. Not just an orphan, but one that is abused all the time. The level of abuse rose higher this month as a police complaint was filed against Samajwadi…
March 23, 2025, 11:57 AM IST
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Vodafone redux: Retrospective taxation in a new avatar
February 26, 2025, 8:07 AM IST
Learning from mistakes is not a virtue our policy and decision makers can boast of. Nothing else explains their recent recourse to retrospective taxation. Last year, the government lost a case involving input tax credit…
February 26, 2025, 8:07 AM IST
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Freebies are steroids of politics
February 4, 2025, 9:11 PM IST
Steroids are the bane of the profession of bodybuilding and Indian politics—literal for the former and figurative for the latter. Freebies are the steroids that pump up gladiators in the political arena. No contestant can…
February 4, 2025, 9:11 PM IST
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There is no such thing as Islamophobia
January 16, 2025, 3:32 PM IST
The UK grooming gang scandal is not new, but the scandal becoming a, if not the, central issue in the country politics is. The problem was brought into the limelight by billionaire Elon Musk’s tweets….
January 16, 2025, 3:32 PM IST
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Today is tomorrow: How machines rule India
November 4, 2024, 12:37 PM IST
In their book with the self-explanatory title Why machines will never rule the world, Barry Smith and Jobst Landgrebe argue that, “for mathematical reasons, there will never exist an artificial intelligence that is able to…
November 4, 2024, 12:37 PM IST
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Regress as default option
August 21, 2024, 11:08 PM IST
It was said about the Bourbons that they “have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” This was because in the wake of their restoration in the early nineteenth century, they continued with their old ways which…
August 21, 2024, 11:08 PM IST
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Modi 3.0 should prefer growth over welfarism
June 10, 2024, 12:35 AM IST
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s underwhelming performance in the general elections has been widely analyzed and commented upon. A variety of causes has been attributed to the fall in the BJP’s seats, yet a critical one…
June 10, 2024, 12:35 AM IST
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Scotland must learn from India’s Section 295A experience
April 25, 2024, 10:09 PM IST
By enforcing the Hate Crime & Public Order Act on April 1, the Scottish government has set into motion a process that, if not checked, will lead to the demise of free speech there. It…
April 25, 2024, 10:09 PM IST
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How Machiavellian games erode personal freedoms
April 2, 2024, 10:49 PM IST
In his book, The Rebel (1951), Albert Camus wrote that “all contemporary action leads to murder, direct or indirect.” In contemporary India, all action leads to infringement of individual rights and the concomitant empowerment of the State….
April 2, 2024, 10:49 PM IST
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Unreasonable ‘experts’ support irrational Kisan Andolan 2.0
February 27, 2024, 5:24 PM IST
There is something odd about the ongoing farmers’ agitation. The Narendra Modi government, known for its aggressive stance on almost every issue, already lost a battle to farmers when in 2021 it was forced to…
February 27, 2024, 5:24 PM IST
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State vs citizen: The Indian tragedy
January 20, 2024, 3:15 PM IST
Our political masters never tire of championing the cause of the poor and common people. In the seventy six years of Independence, however, they have done little to justify their claims. So, the worth of…
January 20, 2024, 3:15 PM IST
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The shipwreck call social justice
January 3, 2024, 11:15 PM IST
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promised on December 28 that his party, if elected to power, will carry out caste census, a demand vociferously made by politicians (most of them Lohiaites) who specialize in caste-based…
January 3, 2024, 11:15 PM IST
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Political narratives are dirtier than Delhi smog
November 12, 2023, 11:12 PM IST
The Dilip Kumar-starrer Daastaan (1972) had a song, beautifully sung by Muhammad Rafi, “Na tu zameen ke liye, hai na aasmaan ke liye/Tera wajood hai ab sirf dastaan ke liye (Neither for the land, nor for the sky/Your…
November 12, 2023, 11:12 PM IST
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Taxing gaming: Killing the goose
October 24, 2023, 8:59 PM IST
Every government needs tax to run the administration, provide internal security and national defence, build infrastructure, and the like. So, revenue maximization on the part of government per se is not improper. The mode of maximization, however,…
October 24, 2023, 8:59 PM IST
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PM Modi: The solitary workable option
October 17, 2023, 3:32 PM IST
A few decades ago, when the Indian National Congress was the largest party and the Opposition was scattered, political commentators talked about the TINA (‘there is no alternative’) factor. Today, the situation is worse because…
October 17, 2023, 3:32 PM IST
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Rahul Gandhi doesn’t know what he would sell in Mohabbat ki Dukaan
January 11, 2023, 11:56 AM IST
Ringing in 2023, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Here’s hoping that in 2023, every lane, every village, every city has a ‘Mohabbat ki Dukaan’ (a shop that sells love).” But what does he intend to…
January 11, 2023, 11:56 AM IST
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A fantasy called Global South
December 14, 2022, 4:05 PM IST
When India began the one-year G20 presidency on December 1, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that the country would be the “voice of the Global South that is otherwise under-represented in such forums.” This…
December 14, 2022, 4:05 PM IST
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Non-alignment has begun hurting India
November 4, 2022, 11:19 AM IST
Chickens are coming home to roost. Our adherence to the unwise and discredited policy of non-alignment, recently expressed in its refusal to condemn Vladimir Putin’s unwarranted attack on Ukraine, has begun to hurt us. Pakistan…
November 4, 2022, 11:19 AM IST
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Individual freedom, civil liberties are British gift to India
September 29, 2022, 7:04 PM IST
What is it about the British Raj that makes politicians and intellectuals of all persuasions hate it viscerally? An American TV news anchor said something good about the Raj, and there was a flood of…
September 29, 2022, 7:04 PM IST
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Tyagi mahapanchayat: Demise of morality, reason
August 25, 2022, 5:27 PM IST
The Tyagi mahapanchayat in Noida, held recently in support of Shrikant Tyagi at Noida in Uttar Pradesh, is symptomatic of the immorality and irrationality that today characterize public life and political arena. It is incredible…
August 25, 2022, 5:27 PM IST
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