Managing Editor, India Abroad and rediff.com, Saisuresh Sivaswamy began his journalistic career at the Times group in 1985, first at the Times of India before moving on to the Evening News, and then to The Illustrated Weekly of India. After senior editorial assignments at Onlooker, The Indian Post and Mid-Day, he founded the Bombay Tribune and later established the Express Newsline in Mumbai. In between, he also held a senior position at Plus Channel, as associate editor of Business Baatein, and worked for a television software company producing programmes on Star TV.

Vajpayee has lost his moral right   - April 23, 2002
'Vajpayee has shown that he is first the prime minister of the BJP, and only next of India. And even here, not of all the one billion citizens of India, but PM of that section of Hindu Indians who get turned on by the macabre happenings in Gujarat.'

Do we really need the ISI?   - March 7, 2002
'Independent India's recent political history is replete with instances where instant provocation brings to the surface accumulated baggage of pique, resentment and, often, local enmity.'

Brave New World   - September 19, 2001
'Had a tragedy of the enormity of what happened in USA struck India, either there would have been a carnage directed at the Muslim community, or India would have ceded Kashmir without demur.'

Nayak vs Khalnayak   - September 11, 2001
'If at all Indian democracy holds out one valuable lesson, it is this: no ruler in a democracy is going to succeed fighting the system. S/he will have to work within the system in order to wreak the changes that matter.'

Few steps backward   - July 17, 2001
'There is only one issue between the two countries -- Kashmir. If India's stand is going to be that even a discussion is not to be held, then let us all prepare ourselves for the long haul.'

The treacherous road to peace   - June 6, 2001
'What strengthens the chance of peace is that New Delhi is not dealing with a civilian puppet in Islamabad but the face of the military, which alone, is the arbiter of that nation's course.'

The Tau of politics...   - April 13, 2001
'Long before the phrase Big Bull came to be coined by the media, Devi Lal was all that and more. The lessons learnt from him in the one year that he played a prominent role in the central government, won't be forgotten in a hurry.'

Holiday spirit   - April 5, 2001
'The reason why we are where we are is that we as a nation give ourselves far too many holidays. What I think the government should do is identify one holiday from each major religious community, which will be the only holidays during the year.'

Good journalism, bad politics   - March 20, 2001
'The BJP is not doing what Rajiv Gandhi did. He utilised his brute majority in the Lok Sabha to steamroll any reasonable debate on Bofors. And yes, stalwarts of the Opposition who are today railing against the BJP were part of the anti-corruption brigade then, and the contrast between the two governments cannot escape them even if they are blinded by the colour saffron.'

10,00,000 sperms, and these XI?!   - March 13, 2001
'We Indians probably show more passion towards cricket than we do towards even those we love. And yet, for all our troubles, for all our passion, what we get is a spineless display that our gully cricketers would feel mortified by.'

Jaye he!   - March 7, 2001
'Will it be a case of collective amnesia if the Tamil Nadu voter goes with Jayalalitha again? Not really. Even established national parties have sacrificed principles at the altar of political expediency, so why is the voter expected to not be swayed by arguably lower standards?'

Sushma's swaraj   - February 27, 2001
'Does Fashion TV, whose prurience is of a vastly reduced scale than what is peddled on the main avenue of any Indian metropolis, merit the ministerial wrath, especially when this is a land where the sensual, the carnal and the bestial have always co-existed -- as evidenced in the sculptures of Khajuraho or on the murals of any number of temples across India?'

Tears for fears   - February 13, 2001
'Yes, it is truly touching that Musharraf has taken time off to extend a hand of friendship during India's hour of need, but one cannot help feeling that the gesture would have carried more weight if only his other hand were not unleashing the dogs of war into Kashmir at the same time.'

No, Mr Prime Minister   - February 2, 2001
'He should cut the crap and get some things done. He could put systems and infrastructure in place where a natural calamity, or an artificial one, does not hobble the nation.'

The great bath, et al   - January 23, 2001
'If the Sangh associates think their votebank is so fragile that it will bolt to the Congress thanks to Sonia's dip in the Kumbh, imagine their horror if she were to, say, recite the Gayatri mantra!'

Talk of the town   - January 16, 2001
'While it is good that Musharraf is keen on talking to India, he must first ensure that he carries his people with him in ratifying whatever agreement, whenever it is inked. The question for India is more fundamental: what is the point in talking to him if he cannot?'

The BJP's real opposition   - January 4, 2001
'The only credible opposition that Vajpayee faces at the moment is from the RSS and its various outfits. And that, as should be obvious by now, is all part of the family. The saffron family.'

Ayodhya yet again   - December 19, 2000
'Ayodhya is not the demand of the voter, but the demand of the BJP's workforce. The BJP could afford their cries elsewhere in the country -- where anyway it did not amount to much. But with UP, things are entirely different.'

Ayodhya again!   - December 12, 2000
'Yes, the PM has taken sides in a partisan dispute over a conqueror vs native legacy -- and if you took a comprehensive poll in the nation you will be surprised at what its findings are.'

Will Pak first call off the dogs of war?   - December 5, 2000
'It is ironical that the two who have been cast in adversarial moulds actually need each other to realise their ambition. Vajpayee needs Pakistan to win Kashmir, and Musharraf needs New Delhi to pull his nation back from the brink. This is a reality that advisors on both sides of the border cannot ignore, or reject.'

Ceasefire, cricket and Kashmir   - November 28, 2000
'To associate the men who are waging a war against India with the country's second largest faith is giving a bad name to those Muslims of India who have nothing to do with the war being waged in their name and for who, I am sure, associating the ceasefire with their holy month would be nothing short of anathema.'

Sonia's choice   - November 21, 2000
Sonia is saddled with a huge credibility factor, and as of now she, with her status quoism, has become the albatross around her party's neck.'

Fall of the legends   - November 15, 2000
'I am sure Mohammad Azharuddin has his reasons to keep his own counsel. But his silence, so soon after outsinging Lata Mangeshkar before the Central Bureau of Investigation, is damning. Silence is not only consent, it is also admission.'

'Did you wash your arse today?'   - October 14, 2000
'I would have been happier if the people had marched to Mantralaya, the civic headquarters, the ward offices, perhaps even Breach Candy hospital, and gheraoed them -- yes, even defecated outside these places.'

In defence of PVN   - October 10, 2000
'To convict Rao of corruption, that too for providing stability at a time when the nation most needed it, and without taking into consideration the extenuating circumstances, is simply unfair.'

Truth or dare...   - September 26, 2000
'Journalists are not this bunch of untrustworthy, unreliable, callous bunch of buccaneers for whom cooking up stories, quotes, reactions is all part of the day's work. Of course there are a few who fit the bill, but they would be minuscule in number. But when someone no less than the prime minister talks about being misquoted by the media in broad daylight, it's probably time to wonder if the lie, thanks to ad nauseam repetition, has become the truth.'

Master of all he surveys   - September 12, 2000
Power, it sure would seem, puts back the spring in one's step, the spunk in one's stride, the steel in one's soul. Age may wither beauty and the beast alike, but a dollop of power is all it would take to bring back the magic

Only the good die young   - September 7, 2000
There's a warning for all political parties. Which is that their sword arm needs a backup which, in order to be useful, must be younger.

Rule by wimps   - August 2, 2000
The urge to go down in history, obviously, is so strong that prime ministers are sometimes blind to the fact of their nation going down the drain.

Has Bhujbal really left the Sena?   - July 25, 2000
'The biggest gainers in this political one-upmanship are obviously the Shiv Sena and its chief,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.

Can a tiger regain its lost stripes?   - July 12, 2000
'The Thackeray brand of politics is bound to come a cropper at the hustings. And one does not have to be a political pundit to arrive at this conclusion; one simply has to be a resident of Maharashtra.'

Autonomy can't be all that bad   - July 5, 2000
'The autonomy card is the only option left for Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah. And, possibly, the only option left to India as well.'

Highway scars   - June 28, 2000
'If you thought rumblers and speed-breakers on a national highway were strange, you don't know Maharashtra's recent political history.'

But aren't Muslims discriminated against!?   - June 20, 2000
'We Indians are ever-willing to believe the worst against Muslims, for it is already established in our minds that the Muslim has extra-terrestrial loyalties, that the Muslim is a born criminal, that they are out-breeding us. They are not *of* India, even though they may be *from* India.'

Death and beyond   - June 13, 2000
'In the gerontocracy that India has become since 1991, the relatively youthful Pilot, one had hoped, would be a little more than a footnote.'

In defence of tehelka.com   - June 6, 2000
'Let not the rest of the media's insistence on ethics confuse you. If you want a soupcon of their high ethical standards, allow Manoj Prabhakar and his hidden camera to travel with the media on just one of the prime minister's jaunts.'

The lure of Lanka   - May 23, 2000
India's options lie with a united Sri Lanka, not with a truncated one, however much local sentiment may desire otherwise. What we did in 1987 was a historical blunder, as was what we did prior to 1985.

LTTE hoist by its own petard   - May 9, 2000
Nine years after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, it is perhaps time to acknowledge that in his death, he redeemed himself. That with his life, he gave back Tamilians their sense of perspective.

Madras musings   - May 2, 2000
Can a man love two women at the same time? Tangentially, can one love two cities at the same time?

A Case for Jaswant Singh   - April 18, 2000
'Apart from ending India's isolation after Pokhran, it is a fact that the BJP's allies are far more comfortable in his presence than they would be in, say M M Joshi's or Advani's.'

The BJP's yin and yang   - February 8, 2000
'If today the hordes are allowed to get away with arbitrating what is offensive or not to "Indian culture", then tomorrow we could all land in a situation where the desi answer to the Taleban could dictate what you and I should do, wear, say...'

R P Gupta floats a trial balloon   - February 1, 2000
'What is going to matter in the heartland are not glib terms like Kargil, economic reforms, women's empowerment, I-T revolution et al, but Advani-ism. Which, in short, translates into Ram, Ram, Ram.'