Shashi Tharoor

AWAKENING INDIA

Former UN under-secretary-general, member of India's parliament for the Congress party and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs

India’s lunar triumph

Indians are proud of their space program, for good reason.

2w ago

The US and India’s non-aligned alliance

Modi's recent visit to Washington appears to mark a new chapter in the India-US relationship.

The Modi Decade

Dissent is framed as disloyalty, with criticism of government policies labeled “anti-national.”

Crime and Punishment in Uttar Pradesh

The shortcomings of India’s criminal justice system extend far beyond Uttar Pradesh. Just last month, the 69 defendants accused of perpetrating the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre in Ahmedabad were all acquitted.

India’s democracy in detention

What happens to Gandhi has important implications for India’s future.

Hypocrisy on Stilts in India

The BJP’s charge against Gandhi is a serious one.

Shashi Tharoor on India-Russia relations, the Quad, Ambedkar, and more

Shashi Tharoor, a former UN under-secretary-general and former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, and an MP for the Indian National Congress, discusses his most recent book, India’s foreign policy, and India’s majoritarian turn in an interview with Project Syndicate. 

America's missing ambassador to India

Given India’s strategic importance, why has the White House left the ambassador position vacant for two years?

October 16, 2022
October 16, 2022

Can India’s Oldest Party Reinvent Itself?

For the first time in nearly 25 years, Congress will elect a president who is not a member of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

September 19, 2022
September 19, 2022

India’s long infatuation with Russia must end

Against the backdrop of China-Russia ties growing stronger, India must urgently review its geopolitical options.

July 8, 2022
July 8, 2022

Are the BRICS breaking up?

The recent virtual BRICS summit, which brought together the heads of state and government of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, was interesting as much for what did not happen as for what did.

June 10, 2022
June 10, 2022

The promise and pitfalls of Indian foreign policy

Two episodes in the first week of June starkly illustrate both the promise of Indian foreign policy and the pitfalls it faces as a result of the country’s increasingly toxic domestic political culture.

May 18, 2022
May 18, 2022

India’s Covid Con

India is no stranger to political controversies. At least half a dozen rage in its fractious public life at any time. But perhaps the most unseemly dispute recently has been the one over the country’s Covid-19 mortality figures.

April 9, 2022
April 9, 2022

What is India doing in Ukraine?

The Ukraine war has exposed India’s strategic vulnerabilities in a tough neighbourhood as arguably nothing else could, raising fundamental questions about the country’s global position and regional security.

March 11, 2022
March 11, 2022

India’s Ukraine Tightrope

Russia’s war in Ukraine has exposed India’s strategic vulnerabilities as few other things could, raising fundamental questions about the country’s position in the world, its regional security, and the wisdom of its long-term relationships.

January 7, 2022
January 7, 2022

India’s Chauvinist Crusade

The restrictive, illiberal trend that has come to characterise India over the last five years has a new data point.

December 10, 2021
December 10, 2021

The global coal hypocrisy

India has somehow emerged as the villain of last month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), blamed for resisting cuts to coal consumption even as toxic air envelops its capital, New Delhi.

November 23, 2021
November 23, 2021

Column by Shashi Tharoor: Modi’s Anti-Muslim Jihad

After India’s recent defeat by Pakistan at the T20 Cricket World Cup tournament, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami faced vicious trolling on social media.