Articles written by
K Raveendran

By K Raveendran Spontaneous student protests across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh are exposing a vulnerability conventional politics has been slow to recognise. Their importance lies not merely in the numbers gathering on streets or outside examination centres and government offices, but in the absence of the organisational structure that usually accompanies political mobilisation. […]

The article Leaderless Student Protests Pose New Challenge To National Politics appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Another session of Parliament has closed with an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu. Repeated adjournments, slogan-shouting, demonstrations inside and outside the chambers and legislation moving through amid uproar have again raised the question of whether Parliament is performing the function for which representative democracy created it. The problem is no longer simply […]

The article Parliament Is Losing The Argument To The Smartphone appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Mohan Bhagwat’s attempt to open a conversation with India’s younger generation carries significance precisely because such an intervention would hardly have been necessary if the political establishment were confident that the youth remained comfortably within its fold. The RSS chief’s argument that young people are neither misguided nor directionless, and that they […]

The article When Demographic Dividend Turns Into Powerful Political Dissent appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Bankipur may eventually be remembered not as the constituency that discovered Prashant Kishor, but as the first place where the anger dramatised by the Cockroach Janta Party acquired an electoral address. The distinction is crucial. Kishor’s victory does not amount to popular acceptance of a coherent alternative to Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya […]

The article Bankipur Reveals The Politics Of Refusal And Rejection appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran India’s political conversation appears to be acquiring a new address. It is no longer confined to Parliament House, party headquarters, election rallies or television studios. Increasingly, it begins with a mobile phone placed at a flattering angle, a carefully chosen background and the familiar instruction to look into the camera and speak […]

The article When Parliament Goes Silent, Politics Switches On The Camera appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has finally resigned, owning responsibility for the NEET fiasco. There could not have been another honourable exit for the minister and the Modi government from the current situation. There is no persuasive basis for portraying the demand for Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation as a campaign driven by personal hostility. […]

The article Pradhan Has Become The Face Of A System Without Credibility appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran The spectacle in central Delhi this week carried a significance far beyond the barricades, detentions and blows captured on mobile-phone cameras. The first confrontation unfolded during the Cockroach Janta Party’s march from Jantar Mantar towards Parliament, while Tuesday brought another coercive police response when Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other Congress […]

The article By Brutalising A Youth Protest, BJP May Have Handed Congress Its Anna Moment appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Nitin Gadkari has invested considerable political capital in presenting ethanol-blended petrol as a national solution to several problems at once. It is meant to cut India’s crude oil import bill, reduce emissions, support farmers, create a market for agricultural produce and strengthen energy security. Each of these objectives has merit. Yet the […]

The article Gadkari’s Ethanol Defence Is Losing The Public Argument appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran The Supreme Court vacation bench’s observation that the “heavens are not going to fall” if petitions seeking an independent investigation into the alleged misappropriation of donations to the Ayodhya Ram Temple waited for the regular judicial process was an unfortunate choice of words. The bench may have been procedurally justified in declining […]

The article When Faith Is Betrayed, The Heavens Have Already Fallen appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran The Narendra Modi government’s position on fuel prices now looks less like prudent caution and more like an overly defensive reading of a market that has already absorbed much of the Iran-US risk. The more calibrated question, therefore, is not whether New Delhi is right to watch the West Asian security situation, […]

The article Modi Govt’s Overcautious Oil Market Reading Hurting Retail Fuel Customers appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran The alleged theft of donations from the Ayodhya Ram Temple has pushed a long-simmering question into the national foreground: who should guard the wealth of religious institutions when faith, money and power converge without adequate public accountability? The issue is not confined to Ayodhya, nor to Hindu institutions. Across denominations, religious endowments, […]

The article Faith Assets Need Secular Oversight As Temple Fraud Exposes Governance Vacuum appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran The arithmetic of India’s fuel market has long been sold as market-driven, but the latest price movements expose a more selective discipline. When crude oil rises, the pass-through to consumers and businesses is quick, stern and explained as unavoidable. When the same crude oil retreats, the adjustment becomes cautious, partial and wrapped […]

The article Retail Petroleum Prices Fall Only On Paper As Consumers Wait In Anticipation appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran India’s decision to initiate an anti-dumping investigation into cheap steel imports marks more than another defensive trade action. It is a reminder that globalisation, which New Delhi has often invoked when Indian exports face barriers abroad, becomes far more complicated when the pressure arrives at home. The steel case has exposed the […]

The article Steel Exposes Hard Limits Of Much-Vaunted Free Trade Piety appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran The new FCRA rules may look like an administrative tightening of India’s foreign funding regime, but their political effect is likely to be far larger than their legal wording suggests. On paper, the framework is simple: organisations receiving foreign donations must be more precise about what they do, where they operate, and […]

The article Strained Atmosphere Adds To Suspicion About New FCRA Rule Changes appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran The US-Iran deal marks a genuine easing of one of the most dangerous geopolitical shocks to hit the energy market, but it should not be mistaken for a reset button. The immediate risk of a military breakdown has declined, and that matters for every stakeholder: Washington, Tehran, Gulf producers, Asian importers, shipping […]

The article Oil’s Peace Dividend Is Real But No Return To Pre-War Situation appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran The promise of a ‘great settlement’ from President Trump has been enough to pull oil prices lower, calm equity markets and revive hopes that the Strait of Hormuz may return to normal traffic. Yet it shows how fragile the relief remains. A diplomatic opening can move prices in an instant, but a […]

The article The ‘Great Settlement’ That Could Decide Price Of Iran War World Will Pay appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Resolution of the US-Israel war with Iran now appears further away than at any point in the conflict, with the latest American strikes pushing global markets into a more unsettled phase. The US launch of retaliatory attacks on Iranian defence and radar systems after Washington accused Tehran of responsibility for the downing […]

The article India’s Fiscal Shield Comes Into Focus As Hormuz Crisis Darkens Outlook appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government may have done itself a favour by allowing the Cockroach Janta Party protest led by Abhijit Dipke to proceed without turning it into another confrontation between the state and restless young citizens. For a government that has often preferred firmness over accommodation, the decision to let anger […]

The article Cockroach Protest Exposes A Youth Challenge Modi Cannot Brush Away appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Public anger has a strange way of finding symbols. Sometimes it gathers around a saintly figure in a white cap, sometimes around an unlikely political label that sounds almost like a joke until it begins to speak for a generation. The overwhelming response from Gen Z to the Cockroach party carries unmistakable […]

The article Cockroach Politics And The Limits Of Public Anger appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Cockroach Janta Party may have begun as satire, but its popularity has exposed something far more serious than a passing joke on the internet. The response it has drawn from government functionaries suggests that the ruling establishment is less disturbed by the humour itself than by the possibility that the satire has […]

The article Cockroach Party Exposes A Deeper Political Unease Among New Generation appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Friday’s twin constitutional dramas exposed two serious threats to Indian democracy: the refusal of a defeated ruler to leave office, and the reluctance of a constitutional referee to invite a claimant who appeared to be assembling the numbers to form a government. Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to resign after the Trinamool Congress lost […]

The article Indian Democracy’s Black Friday: Popular Will Held Hostage By Power And Prejudice appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to resign after a decisive electoral defeat is a political act dressed up as constitutional ambiguity. It may create noise, spectacle and temporary uncertainty, but it does not create a sustainable claim to office. A chief minister holds power only so long as she commands the confidence of the […]

The article Mamata’s Defiance Makes A Mockery Of Constitutional Propriety appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

By K Raveendran Election-season restraint on fuel pricing is giving way to a harsher economic reality, and Indian consumers are likely to feel the impact first through the everyday costs that rarely appear as headline inflation until they have already entered household budgets. Petrol, diesel and cooking fuel are not merely energy products in India; […]

The article With Elections Over, Realistic Pump Prices Only A Matter Of Time appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).