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Aakar Patel

Aakar Patel

The Times of India

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From safeguard to weapon: The slow and steady evolution of FCRA

From safeguard to weapon: The slow and steady evolution of FCRA

The journey of India’s Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), from a law meant to shield domestic politics from foreign influence to one...

yesterday 10

The News Minute

Aakar Patel

Beyond prejudices and biases

Beyond prejudices and biases

Consider this thought experiment. Imagine that two large missiles struck the White House. The first hit the residential quarters at a time when the...

28.03.2026 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Iran, the underdog — and the argument for its success

I want Iran to win. What does “win” mean? Iran defines it in the following way: the United States must lift its decades-old sanctions; it must...

22.03.2026 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Back to first principles

On 4 November 2013, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to over 120 heads of Indian missions and outlined the five principles that defined his...

14.03.2026 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Power, pretence and India’s strategic meekness

I have no problem with the reality that, as a nation, we cannot always, or even mostly, get what we want. No nation is truly sovereign in the sense...

08.03.2026 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The big lie that is love jihad

There are things that this nation is agitated about, and there is real news. One of the things we are agitated about — in our media and WhatsApp...

01.03.2026 30

National Herald

Aakar Patel

From exclusion to division: the hidden costs of long-term BJP rule in Gujarat

The Bharatiya Janata Party has been governing Gujarat continuously for almost 30 years now. Notionally, Gujarat is a two-party state, but the Congress...

21.02.2026 30

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Develop the scientific temper

There is always a shortage of nationalism in our country, because there seems to be so much demand for it. In all of my decades I had not known of a...

15.02.2026 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

How the India–China story fell apart

20.01.2026 50

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Tensions and talk: Navigating the rising storm in Indo-Bangladesh ties

28.12.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The BJP's intent versus India's apathy

28.12.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Provoking a Million Mutinies?

21.12.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The fake history juggernaut trundles on

21.12.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Democracy deficit: How India's hasty lawmaking is eroding hard-won rights

21.12.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Babri demolition: The ‘accident’ that changed India

06.12.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The vendetta against Kashmir Times and how the media looked away

24.11.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Is the Indian diaspora getting a taste of its own medicine?

16.11.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

India's global rankings: The red flags we refuse to see

16.11.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The tripod that raises Zohran Mamdani, almost-mayor of New York City

26.10.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The BJP’s (non-existent) path to the UN Security Council

19.10.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Two paths India took, and where they took India

12.10.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Human rights in India in 2025: ‘Highlights’ of the year so far

05.10.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Never Before in Its History Has India Been So Adrift in the World, Confused and Humiliated

01.10.2025 30

The Wire

Aakar Patel

International relations in the New New India

28.09.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Why Hindus must rule India: The RSS conception of the Hindu as God

21.09.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Two things I have ‘liked’ about the Prime Minister over the last 12 years

07.09.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The personal touch that never was

30.08.2025 30

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Imaginary problem, unnecessary Bill

17.08.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

When PM Modi ran with the hare and hunted with the hound

11.08.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

'SIR designed to delete the landless and the unlettered'

27.07.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Shifting goalposts: The many strands of the Sangh Parivar narrative

27.07.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The importance of being Zohran Mamdani

13.07.2025 30

National Herald

Aakar Patel

75 years of the RSS in politics

29.06.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

A minute-and-a-half to Doomsday

08.06.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

India’s trajectory as a ‘democracy’

25.05.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

India’s need for a coherent national security strategy

13.05.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The pairing we love to hate

05.05.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Why a trade war, any war, is hard to end

06.04.2025 30

National Herald

Aakar Patel

India vs USCIRF: Rejecting Allegations Without Addressing Facts

01.04.2025 20

The Wire

Aakar Patel

India at a crossroads of religion vs democracy — still a ‘country of particular concern’

30.03.2025 30

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The sun is setting on the West — whether Donald Trump likes it or not

25.03.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

World Leaders Have Usually Made Their Mark in 11 Years. Modi is Running Out of Time.

18.03.2025 20

The Wire

Aakar Patel

Why Trump’s problems are the world’s too

09.03.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Why Are UP and Bihar Poorer Than Pakistan, Lower on HDI Than Basket Cases, but Kerala Isn't?

25.02.2025 20

The Wire

Aakar Patel

The missing census: A criminal gap in things we should know—and change

23.02.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The Big Ideas That Narendra Modi is Fully Committed to as India’s Leader

05.02.2025 10

The Wire

Aakar Patel

A hit and a miss: Modi’s two big ideas

02.02.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

The Constitution that wasn’t—or, a Muslim man’s vision of Independent India

26.01.2025 10

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Washington Diary: ‘Doland’ unfriends Modi

19.01.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel

Do as thy neighbour does

19.01.2025 20

National Herald

Aakar Patel