Counterview

By Nava Thakuria*  India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently triggered widespread public debate after reiterating that an Indian passport should primarily be treated as a travel document and not as conclusive proof of Indian citizenship. The clarification, issued on the occasion of the 14th Passport Seva Divas, drew strong reactions on mainstream and social media, with many questioning the legal and practical implications of the statement.

By Shabnam Hashmi*  The Gujarat government must be held accountable for what appears to be a deeply disturbing instance of state-sponsored communal profiling. Ahmedabad resident Sahal Qureshi recently shared with me an official document , which I translated with the help of AI before forwarding it to several media organisations and political leaders. 

Mohd. Ziyaullah Khan  He lived for only thirty‑two years, yet his life contained more drama, turbulence, and moral courage than many works of fiction. Some lives are so remarkable that they seem almost unbelievable, and the life of Shahid Azmi (1977–2010) belongs to that rare category. His journey moved through communal violence, radicalisation, wrongful imprisonment, intellectual rebirth, and finally an unshakeable commitment to justice.

By Bharat Dogra  In the Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh, as tap water from a new network of pipelines and tanks reaches more villages, it brings immense relief—especially to women, who are freed from the daily burden of fetching water. Yet the transition is not always smooth, and several problems keep cropping up. Many villages still have not received water in their taps, while in others, certain hamlets or households have been left out.

By Harsh Thakor*  Ranking amongst the greatest fast bowlers, Ray Lindwall wasn't just that—he was poetry in motion, a craftsman who turned the brutal art of pace bowling into something beautiful and devastating in equal measure. With his low, slinging action and flowing, wave-like run-up, he redefined what it meant to be a fast bowler in the post-war era. 

By Ravi Ranjan*  Sara Rai’s fiction in Hindi has always inhabited that delicate space where memory, sensation, fear, and imagination intermingle to form the inner landscapes of human experience. Among contemporary Hindi writers, she stands out for her ability to locate profound emotional truths within seemingly ordinary domestic worlds.