To ‘SIR’, With Distrust
In The Indian Express, P Chidambaram criticises the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, citing arbitrary deletions, lack of transparency, and possible disenfranchisement. He highlights inconsistencies in voter lists, questionable criteria like “permanently relocated,” and errors in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura constituency, warning that credibility of electoral rolls is gravely undermined.
"SIR lacks credibility, transparency, supporting evidence, and reasoned conclusions. SIR seems to have been started with a priori assumptions and the exercise undertaken to justify those assumptions. In a country whose population is growing by 0.89 per cent annually, any revision of electoral rolls must result in increasing the number of voters, but SIR in Bihar has had the opposite effect."P Chidambaram, The Indian Express
Dystopian Realities
In The Telegraph India, historian and columnist Mukul Kesavan critiques India’s democratic backsliding, citing the Prime Minister’s Red Fort address and the Election Commission’s deletion of 6.5 million Bihar voters through a dubious revision exercise.
He warns these actions normalise authoritarianism and disenfranchisement, urging citizens to confront the State and demand accountability for preserving democratic freedoms.
"In his Red Fort address, the prime minister made a series of dog-whistling allegations about “infiltrators” or ghuspaithiyas (read Muslims and Christians) deliberately trying to change India’s demographic composition by targeting India’s daughters and sisters (read love jihad). What unites the prime minister’s inflammatory claims and the turmoil over the roll revision in Bihar is the bid to invalidate citizenship, seemingly without due process."Mukul Kesavan, The Telegraph India
A Moment of Pride
Ira Pande, social commentator for The Tribune, reflects on Independence Day’s enduring emotional resonance despite institutional decay. She recalls generational memories of pride, from her mother-in-law’s Banarasi sari and Sarojini Naidu’s speech to the shared thrill of evening lights, arguing that even today, song-filled ceremonies and the sight of the Tiranga evoke deep connection. Cynicism may linger, but pride endures.
"There is just a thin line that separates jingoism from patriotism. On all occasions, I can tell one from the other but Independence Day is an exception. Whenever I see our Tiranga flying proudly atop public buildings or displayed on home balconies, watch a little urchin selling it at a traffic crossing or stuck on vegetables or fruits at wayside stalls, I feel a swelling of pride. The same happens each time I hear the National Anthem sung (even if often off-key). From early childhood, it is such a vital part of our public display of pride in our country that no amount of indifference from cynical friends can smother it."Ira Pande, The Tribune
On India’s First Test Tour, How a Mutiny Was Quelled
Senior sports journalist and author Gulu Ezekiel, in his column for The Indian Express, narrates how mutiny nearly derailed India’s maiden Test in 1932. Royals Porbandar and Limbdi faltered, leaving C.K. Nayudu to captain. Players resisted, but the Maharaja of Patiala’s intervention enforced discipline, preserving India’s debut and honour at Lord’s.
Ezekiel writes: "Imagine preparing for the first Test to be played by your country and not knowing till after 4 am on the day of the match — less than eight hours before the toss — who your captain would be. This was the crisis Indian cricket found itself facing as the clock ticked down to the most important moment in the history of Indian cricket."
Regional Disputes Must Quit India
Regional pride in language and culture is natural, but it must not overshadow India’s collective identity. Political pushes for a “Hindu-Hindi Rashtra” risk reviving colonial-style divisions and weakening unity. Writing in The New Indian Express, columnist Anuja Chandramouli argues such disputes must end if India is to move beyond post-Independence discord.
"If we cannot agree on basic rights for our fellow Indians where are we headed? Earlier, we stereotyped our country folks just for laughs with the South assuming that all North Indians are brash people who perform the bhangra unreservedly at inopportune moments while the North insisted on pretending that all Madrasis eat idlis or noodles slathered with curd and worship Rajnikanth; but it is no longer remotely funny. Especially since we have allowed assorted differences to tear us apart and set our collective progress as a nation back by a few centuries."Anuja Chandramouli, The New Indian Express
We Cannot Raise Our Sons Alone
In The Indian Express, writer, public speaker, and talent scout Aparna Piramal Raje shares how her family invites role models to mentor their teenage sons through dinner conversations. Inspired by Steve Biddulph’s Raising Boys and wary of toxic influencers like Andrew Tate, she stresses community involvement in raising empathetic, grounded men.
"The idea to set up a dinner series of role models for our boys had three origins. First, a few years ago, I helped create Wonder Girls, a digital learning programme for underprivileged adolescent girls, where having access to relatable role models was a cornerstone of the initiative," writes Raje.
She adds: "The girls loved being able to speak to a curated set of professionals, from scientists to journalists. It was transformative in expanding their worldview. The programme got me thinking: Are boys being left behind when it comes to role models?"
Digital Diwani: How India Lost Her Online Soul
In The Statesman, Tejesh Srivastav laments India’s loss of digital sovereignty, spotlighting how culturally rich domain names, like samachar.com and khel.com, were sold cheaply to global firms. He likens the process to colonial extraction, where Indian intermediaries enabled foreign “Domain Giants” to reap the value. Unlike China’s protective strategies, India surrendered valuable online assets through short‑sighted flips and weak valuations.
"The difference between China’s billion-dollar domestic digital economy and India’s niche market status illustrates what happens when digital sovereignty is treated seriously versus casually. We are at a crossroads. The premium English.com names representing our culture are largely gone, exported for modest sums during our digital adolescence. But the vast territory of the vernacular web remains largely unsettled," Srivastav writes.
Am I an Indian Citizen?
Prabhu Chawla, veteran political journalist and editorial director of The New Indian Express, highlights the uncertainty surrounding Indian citizenship. He notes that Aadhaar, PAN, voter ID, and even biometric data fail to establish nationality in court. With millions at risk of disenfranchisement, Chawla urges the creation of a universal citizen card to secure identity.
Chawla writes: "Where does one find evidence about his Indian citizenship? The Register of Citizens (RoC) hasn’t been revised since 2011 dues to bureaucratic wrangling. The RoC is perhaps the only credible document that is prepared after due diligence by millions of government officials after every decade."
"Now it’s the ECI which has evolved its own mechanism of granting franchise to an Indian. It also means it has taken over the role of the RoC, because only an Indian citizen can participate in the elections. It wants 11 documents from any prospective voter to claim his right to vote," he adds.
Reframing the Stray Dog Question
Rahul Bajaj, opinion columnist at Deccan Herald, spotlights the alarming disconnect between India’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) policy and its reality. Despite ABC centers envisioned under the rules, most are either dysfunctional or nonexistent, exposing stark gaps in how stray dog management is being implemented across neighbourhoods.
"The trouble lies not in recognising the problem or proposing decisive measures, but in how the Court has framed its response. First, during the hearing, when a suggestion was made that the Court’s directions must be consistent with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, the Court brushed it aside with the remark that this is an emergency and so no law, nothing," Bajaj writes.
He adds: "This is worrying. Coming from the apex court, it signals an ends-justify-the-means approach that disregards statutory safeguards. To casually cast aside the governing statute undermines the very constitutional discipline the Court is meant to uphold."