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Tuesday, April 29, 2025
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PastForward

Gun-toting IAS trainee vs academy director. 1981 scandal shaped dissent in civil services

In 1981, a drunk IAS probationer terrorised peers with a gun during a Himalayan trek. When Home Ministry didn’t act, academy head PS Appu quit in protest, setting off storm in Parliament.

1800s Kolkata is key to Modi’s Act East policy. It needs imagination, not just bureaucracy

A globalised India is a project of imagination. It must model itself after 19th century Kolkata, as it seeks to integrate with the economic powerhouses to its East.

George Mallory’s Everest climb was no macho heroism—It was rooted in racism, war, tragedy

In 1999, Mallory’s mummified body was retrieved from the ice, with signs of injuries suggesting he was killed in a fall. The body of his climbing partner Sandy Irvine was never found.

The spy who sold out Subhas Chandra Bose—he worked with Britain, Germany, USSR, Japan, Italy

The collapse of the Japanese in Burma and the death of Bose, brought the curtain down on Talwar’s incredible career—one that had seen him work for 3 Axis intelligence services & 2 Allied ones.

This is why Nehru-Liaquat Pact failed. Its ghost haunted Indian politics for decades

It was either war or exchange of population—and Nehru wanted neither. So he devised a third option.

Indian politicians hit the jackpot with 1957 TISCO case. It set the tone for political funding

Electoral bonds have done what past innovations in party funding couldn’t — they have sprung the issue of party funding onto the national stage.

Rabinder Singh spy scandal exposed R&AW’s ugly sides. But India hasn’t learned from its mistakes

Vishal Bhardwaj's Khufiya touches on the penetration of R&AW. The reel-world denouement, though, was quite different from the real-world ending.

1967 was the year politics changed. Modi wants to go back to the simpler times before that

Apart from One Nation, One Election, there is a strong similarity between 1967 and 2023—a dominant party at the helm, and a politics that’s bringing oddballs of opposition together.

Duties, duties, duties. Modi is going back to the Indira Gandhi Emergency era

Speaking in the Old Parliament for the last time, PM Modi said the Central Hall of Parliament inspires us to fulfil our duties. Earlier, he had changed Amrit Kaal to Kartavya Kaal.

When Indira Gandhi nationalised foodgrain and failed — a disaster and a cautionary tale

The contrast is glaring — Indira Gandhi tried to edge out private players & failed, while Modi tried to bring in private players through the now-repealed farm laws & also failed.

On Camera

How ThePrint’s small newsroom brought you Pahalgam from every angle, minus the noise

We had to deploy our resources intelligently to tell readers what had happened in the attack, what happened thereafter, and what may happen in the near future.

Hints of thaw in US-China tariff war—as Trump says duties to ‘come down’, China open to talks

Trump has expressed optimism about reaching a tariff agreement ‘pretty quickly’, while Xi said that tariff & trade wars undermine the legitimate rights and interests of all countries.

India-France sign mega deal for 26 Rafale fighters, integration of Astra missile & a fuselage facility

Delivery of these aircraft would begin in 2028, 3 years from the date of contract, and will be completed by 2030.

Pakistan ISI is killing Hindus for 45 years. To turn India into a nation at war with itself

At some point, Pakistan’s calculation has been, Hindus will rise in reprisal against their own minorities. That’s a crisis ISI has been conjuring up in India. A nation at war with itself.