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The world's Top 10 Rogue States: Guess who has made it to No 1 in 2026

The term “rogue state” was invented by the US, during the Clinton administration, and also abandoned during its tenure, with the term being replaced with the more benign “states of concern”. The term “rogue state” has never been defined properly except to lump those that the US was not happy with into one pejorative grouping. At various points in time, the US has used the term to define North Korea, Afghanistan under the Taliban (the previous one under Mullah Omar), Cuba, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Iran under the Ayatollahs, Syria under Bashar al-Assad, Libya under Muammar Gaddafi, Islamic State under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, etc. More recently, some Latin American states like Venezuela have been lumped under the category, even though they were too small to threaten anybody. Given the current state of the world, where two unending wars are killing thousands of people and many non-state actors are involved in terrorism and even attacks on critical supply chains and critical energy infr...
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Meet Justice Kaul, an author now, trying to sell his book with some "masala" on DY Chandrachud

When previously prominent or powerful personalities write a book, publishers are more than willing to print their reminiscences, but with one proviso: give us something that will raise a controversy so that the book can sell. This is probably the case with retired Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, whose book, Without Fear of Favour , is set to hit the stands soon. He has already been interviewed over its contents. As Kaul tells it, former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, in whose collegium of senior judges he had served, was deferential to the government. CJI Chandrachud (sometimes) consulted the government before making judicial recommendations, says a Times of India report quoting from a Wire interview. “This has unfortunately become a practice of names being discussed, and some kind of previous discussion with the government. That used to happen. It has been happening. I think before CJI Chandrachud, and after. That is why it troubles me.” There are a few problems with this...
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For a former CEC, SY Quraishi doth protest too much against the Election Commission. What's his agenda?

With every passing week, former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi is becoming shriller. Especially after many opposition political parties decided to call for the resignation of current CEC Gyanesh Kumar and Quraishi himself became the go-to guy for unbridled criticism of Kumar. If nothing else, this shrillness may well help sell his latest book, India and I: A Hundred Memories, Not a Memoir , launched in July. Nothing like regular TV appearances to sell your book. In recent interviews to foreign media, he has made over-the-top allegations against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, and called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls a “scam”. Among the negative comments he made against Gyanesh Kumar to London-based Pervaiz Alam, a former BBC journalist (why is one not surprised?), Alam put these claims made by Quraishi on social media site X : “He (Gyanesh Kumar) was not even found fit for the Additional Secretary panel. Later he was also found unfit for th...
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India should not be taken in by Rubio's sweet talk; the US may still unleash mayhem on us when it feels more confident about itself

An apocryphal quote attributed to Winston Churchill has this to stay about Americans: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” Having done their damnedest to undercut the India story – by imposing extraordinarily tariffs, changing laws to prevent Indian students and services professionals from working in the US, and even sending a Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, to tell us that the US won’t help India rise – the US is now sending different signals. In particular, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in India on a charm offensive. He visited the Reliance Jamnagar refinery to check out the capabilities of the world’s biggest single-site and most complex refinery – one that can process Venezuelan heavy crudes. Not just that, Rubio and Ambassador Sergei Gor went out their way to engage the Indian media by giving them interviews that really said nothing much that we didn’t already know. These interviews w...
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Despite his recent success in grabbing the headlines, Rahul is still the BJP's biggest political asset

Is Rahul Gandhi the BJP’s biggest political asset? Most BJP supporters think so, using the derisive “Pappu” nickname to dismiss him as a political threat. Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Print online publication ( www.theprint.in ), thinks that Narendra Modi sees Gandhi as his most potent political threat. He argues that Modi’s support base thinks differently about Rahul Gandhi than their leader himself. I don’t think Gupta is quite right on this, even though Modi may not be as dismissive of Rahul Gandhi as his followers. The difference between Modi and his followers is in how they view Gandhi. Where they actually agree is that as long as Rahul Gandhi heads the Congress, it will be easier to defeat. There are two ways in which Modi views Rahul Gandhi. He knows that the dynast has the ability to surprise him and get under his skin. Some years ago, he suddenly walked across the Lok Sabha floor to hug Modi. The Prime Minister was not only caught off guard, but unamused by thi...
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To SIR with Love or Hate: Why SIR has worked in Punjab, and how Didi sabotaged it in West Bengal

There is something perverse in a political posture where one can target the Election Commission of India (ECI) is abusive language for conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, but then mark out convenient exclusions to suit your political purpose. What, however, one must highlight here is one simple truth: no successful electoral process (whether in compiling voter lists or conducting elections) works purely as an ECI standalone activity. Reason: the ECI depends on staff provided by states and Centre, and active and positive participation by political parties is important to ensure success. Here are two contrasting stories: from Punjab now and West Bengal earlier. In Punjab, which goes to the polls early in 2027, four parties – Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress, BJP and Akali Dal – are seeking either to retain power, dethrone the incumbent, or increase their political clout from where it stood in 2022. But even as all opposition parties are trying to targ...
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Rahul Gandhi is trying to intimidate two constitutional authorities; he is the one undermining democracy

There are protests and marches going on in Delhi and a few other places, apparently to save democracy by getting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar to resign. If one were to look closely at what various parties, including the Congress and the allegedly non-political pressure group Cockroach Janta Paty (CJP), have been saying or threatening, it seems more likely that it is the opposition that is a bigger threat to democracy. On 12 October, the Congress party’s leader, Rahul Gandhi, sought a private meeting with Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant after leading a march towards the highest court. Though the CJI declined to meet his party on grounds of propriety, a Kerala Congress handle on social media site X directly asked for the CJI to resign if he was unwilling to deal with law-and-order issues. The tweet read: "Dear Surya Kant, if law and order is not your domain, resign now. We will find your replacement who can handle it." Though the tweet was del...
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