From Sonia Gandhi’s 13-minute stump speech to K Chandrashekar Rao’s nose which is more admirable than his words. Madhavankutty Pillai travels through a divided land and realises that the future of Telangana is hostage to populism and opportunism
What has been missing in the speeches of Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal is levity. The man who can teach them that is Tamil Nadu filmstar-turned-politician Vijaykanth, a DMDK leader
TCA Raghavan is a former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan and Singapore. His first book, Attendant Lords: Abdur Rahim and Bairam Khan: Courtiers and Poets in Mughal India, was awarded the Mohammad Habib Prize by the Indian History Congress. He is also the author of The People Next Door: The Curious History of India’s Relations with Pakistan and History Men: Jadunath Sarkar, G S Sardesai, Raghubir Sinh and Their Quest for India’s Past. His latest book is Circles of Freedom: Love, Friendship and Loyalty in the Indian National Struggle