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Karan Thapar

Karan Thapar

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The works of Krishnan Srinivasan: Mr Marco and Ms Deb, solving crimes in Kolkata

The works of Krishnan Srinivasan: Mr Marco and Ms Deb, solving crimes in Kolkata

Michael Marco is not dissimilar to the great detectives of fiction like Sherlock Holmes, or Perry Mason. He’s a most unusual but rather appealing...

sunday 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

The ugly Indian and other stories of racism

The ugly Indian and other stories of racism

It’s not the case that we are unable to recognise racism or are unconscious of it. We’re very prickly when we’re the victims

19.10.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

MF Husain: Man and myth, art and artist

MF Husain: Man and myth, art and artist

Husain Sahab was an extraordinary man. We should have been proud to own him. Indeed, to boast of him. Not turn our back and pretend we’ve forgotten...

12.10.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Mother Mary Comes to Me: In which Arundhati gives it those ones

Mother Mary Comes to Me is partly an account of Roy's troubled relationship with her mother Mary Roy, and partly the auto-biography of many periods of...

05.10.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

The home and the world, in a time of nationalism

To an extent, it’s true to say how an Indian relates to Pakistan is determined by the part of the country he comes from

28.09.2025 8

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Living in the grey zone: Peter Mandelson’s story

His most recent denouement was a result of his close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. This was more than Keir Starmer the British PM had bargained for

21.09.2025 4

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

A challenging time for Indian diplomacy

How much improvement can there be in India’s relationship with China? Its relations with Pakistan are unlikely to change. The border problem remains...

14.09.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Monsoon in Delhi, summer in London

This year, summer temperatures in London have rivalled Delhi’s, often making London hotter. The BBC says London has seen five separate heat waves...

07.09.2025 30

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

It is no more about trade; peoples’ ties are at risk too

Peter Navarro now calls the Ukraine war “Modi’s war”, claiming “the road to peace runs through New Delhi”. Doesn’t this feel vindictive and vengeful?

31.08.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Shimon Peres and the war on Palestinians

The Oslo Accords were the natural result of what he was saying in his interview that day. It is the closest that Israel came to solving the Palestine...

24.08.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Hell hath no fury like Donald Trump scorned

There is a view that Trump is using India to send a message to China and Russia. It means we’re collateral damage and he doesn’t really care what...

17.08.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Questions that Bihar SIR brings to the fore

With the exception of the two assembly elections of 2005, the total number of registered voters in Bihar has increased with every election since 1977.

10.08.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Why voting rights at 16 is the way forward

The BBC interviewed Alex Nurton, Chair of the UK Youth Parliament’s Vote At 16 Campaign and he was better informed and more thoughtful than most...

03.08.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Process as punishment and deceptive closures

We need to apologise, profoundly. But who is we? Is it just the police for framing them with false evidence? Or the courts for dragging the case for...

28.07.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Missing in the list of Bharat Ratna awardees

The world has recognised the Dalai Lama’s enormous contribution, but we in India — the country he considers himself a son of — have remained...

20.07.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

ECI needs to course correct on Bihar SIR

SIR requirements have to be complied with within a month or names will be deleted from the electoral roll. How many will have the time for this?

14.07.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Watch | Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on the Terror Pakistan Inflicts on India

09.07.2025 4

The Wire

Karan Thapar

Wimbledon is on, it’s time to watch tennis

Tennis is a sport made for television. Simply put, the camera covers the action on the court and the players. Our involvement in the game is thereby...

06.07.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Saving Veeraswamy, a British institution

The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) dined at Veeraswamy so frequently that his coat of arms used to adorn the entrance.

29.06.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Blinded by devotion to power and her son

Indira Gandhi never apologised for the Emergency nor accepted it was a mistake. She only regretted aspects of it which she considered excesses

22.06.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Valmik Thapar: Cousin, critic, and wise counsel

He wasn’t a politician, but he had an unerring feel for what would attract attention

15.06.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

By censuring Tharoor, Congress lost the plot

The Congress could have gained in stature, while also teasingly embarrassing the government, if it had thought coolly and carefully, strategically and...

09.06.2025 9

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Rights and duties as per the Constitution

Whilst the Constitution specifically identifies the fundamental rights conferred on us as citizens, it doesn’t identify constitutionally enforceable...

01.06.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Kashmir, Kashmiris, and the politics of retribution

In sharp contrast to the behaviour of Kashmiris in the Valley after the Pahalgam attack, is the way Kashmiris were treated in the rest of India

25.05.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

The double life of an academic and murder mystery writer

I won’t go into the stories, but I’ll reveal that he has a knack for capturing the way people speak

18.05.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Full Transcript | 'Trump's Statements on India-Pakistan Ceasefire Were Disappointing': Shashi Tharoor

15.05.2025 8

The Wire

Karan Thapar

Portrait of Pope Francis: His life, message, legacy

Pope Francis cared about people. The position he took on the issue of immigrants and refugees proves this

04.05.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Revealed: The mystery that Agatha Christie was

Lucy Worsley’s A Very Elusive Woman -- a fascinating biography of Christie -- reveals much about the author at her desk and in her home

27.04.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Farooq Abdullah and the predicament of Kashmir

The Farooq Abdullah story Amarjit Singh Dulat relates centres around three great betrayals the former has faced

20.04.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Watch | 'Farooq Abdullah Was Willing to Help Abrogate 370 But Wasn’t Consulted': A.S. Dulat

17.04.2025 5

The Wire

Karan Thapar

Watch | 'Trump Has No Plan; He’s Impulsive and Wants to Be the Centre of Attention'

15.04.2025 10

The Wire

Karan Thapar

Calls to make Doon co-ed ignore its identity, history

The Doon School campus is, arguably, too small to accommodate all the facilities and alterations required for a co-educational institution

13.04.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Danger From Trump Tariffs Remains, Impact on India May Be Greater Than Thought: Arvind Subramanian

10.04.2025 4

The Wire

Karan Thapar

Censoring ‘Santosh’ and the grim truth of police torture

The film portrays an unvarnished, unrelenting, unrelieved reality that may be hard to watch but we cannot be blind to

06.04.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Time to look beyond the collegium system

There are many instances where the misconduct of judges is discussed in public, but in-house proceedings against them have never been initiated

30.03.2025 8

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Political crisis in the delimitation dilemma

Delimitation would resolve northern concerns but result in anguish for the south. Postponing it would leave the unfairness perceived by the north...

23.03.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

General in the cantonment, writing murder mysteries

The different shades of colour and subtlety of description in General Manoj Naravane’s thriller, The Cantonment Conspiracy, are pleasantly surprising

16.03.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Watch | If Buses Run on March 12, We Will 'Stop Them Tooth and Nail': Kuki Spokesperson

11.03.2025 10

The Wire

Karan Thapar

Congress party and its Tharoor dilemma

Shashi is not a conventional politician. He does not operate in cabals and coteries. Congress leaders, on the other hand, have flourished through...

09.03.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Is Trump making America great or diminishing it?

The incredible, if not unbelievable, spat that has broken out between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky is not just unedifying but also an...

03.03.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Full Text | What Does the Trump-Zelenskyy Spat Mean For the World?

02.03.2025 5

The Wire

Karan Thapar

Twattling does not make a person ultracrepidarian

Thera are archaic English words that we could usefully revive and use today. They’re as pertinent now as they were a few centuries ago

24.02.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Close encounters on London Underground

Its official name is the London Underground, but everyone calls it the tube because that’s what it looks like

16.02.2025 10

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Appraising the Constitution on its 75 anniversary

Scholars have criticised the Constitution for being colonial. The RSS claims it’s not rooted in an Indian ethos. So, in what sense has it been good...

02.02.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Full Text | Govt Needs to Accept that What It’s Doing Hasn’t Worked: Arvind Subramanian to Karan Thapar

30.01.2025 6

The Wire

Karan Thapar

'On All Fronts, Economy Not in Great Shape': Modi Govt's Former Chief Economic Advisor

30.01.2025 20

The Wire

Karan Thapar

24 Akbar Road, home of Aung San Suu Kyi

“Last week, when the papers started to reminisce about 24 Akbar Road, I realised I knew it before it became a political office”

26.01.2025 9

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

Issues that will come under Trump 2.0 fire

What sort of relationship is Trump likely to pursue with China and Xi Jinping? And what will be the implications for India?

19.01.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar

BJP's Overreaction to Mark Zuckerberg May Help Party, But Not India: Karan Thapar on 'Modi's Loss'

15.01.2025 30

The Wire

Karan Thapar

India is a fine country after all, as Brits found

W.D. & H.O. Wills once issued a handbook with guidelines for British soldiers arriving in India. It was intended to ease their sojourn in our land

12.01.2025 20

hindustantimes

Karan Thapar