Minhaz Merchant
@MinhazMerchant
Biographer: Rajiv Gandhi, Aditya Birla. Ex-TOI, India Today. Founder: Sterling Newspapers Pvt Ltd, acquired by Indian Express Group. Jeejeebhoy physics scholar.
While #OperationSindoor is still on? Unbelievable.
Playing Pakistan in Asia Cup? Has @BCCI gone mad? indiatoday.in/sports/cricket…
Great news: FIDE women’s chess World Cup final in Georgia will be between 2 Indian women who beat their Chinese opponents in the semis. Divya Deshmukh defeated world no. 3 & former world champion Tan Jhongyi while Koneru Humpy knocked out top seed Lei Tingjie.
Playing Pakistan in Asia Cup? Has @BCCI gone mad? indiatoday.in/sports/cricket…
Our legends — Harbhajan & the Pathan brothers — refused to play Pakistan in the legends match. It was cancelled. But @BCCI with Rajeev Shukla & @ICC with Jay Shah put money above national interest. Our current players are too scared to take a stand.
Are the players non thinking tongue tied mutants? Why can't our players refuse to play Pakistan.
India-UK trade agreement is good news for both countries. For India, currently negotiating tough trade agreements with the EU & the US, this deal will serve as a template & boost momentum in Washington & Brussels.
SC passes the buck back to Delhi HC. Says it will pass an order tomorrow July 25.
Why the film “Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder” is about free speech, not communalism. Tomorrow, July 24, the Supreme Court will decide whether it agrees & allows the film, which Delhi HC has stayed, to be released. My @TOIPlus column. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-plus/law/w…
Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by #ECI found over 50 lakh illegitimate voters among #Bihar’s 7.75 crore voters. Most are deceased, etc but around 1% are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Nepal or Myanmar & can swing key seats. My @DainikBhaskar op-ed.
Why the film “Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder” is about free speech, not communalism. Tomorrow, July 24, the Supreme Court will decide whether it agrees & allows the film, which Delhi HC has stayed, to be released. My @TOIPlus column. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-plus/law/w…
Good to see Indian cricket captain @ShubmanGill calling out time wasting by #English openers @BenDuckett1 & #ZakCrawley, labels England’s tactics “against the spirit of cricket”. It’s also called cheating. @benstokes38 @ICC cricket.com.au/news/4320732/s…
Kanhaiya Lal, an Udaipur-based tailor, was brutally beheaded by the accused for sharing a post on @NupurSharmaBJP who had earlier made remarks on TV on Prophet Muhammad & was ostracised by the govt to placate West Asian allies like Qatar. SC verdict tomorrow. My @TOIPlus column
Why the film “Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder” is about free speech, not communalism. Tomorrow, July 24, the Supreme Court will decide whether it agrees & allows the film, which Delhi HC has stayed, to be released. My @TOIPlus column. timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-plus/law/w…
From Nehru to Manmohan Singh, Indian prime ministers preferred careful diplomacy to a display of hard military power. Pakistani terror strikes were met with Aman Ki Asha and back-channel talks designed to appease, not deter. It didn’t work. Terror attacks continued, writes…
Excellent piece by Lt Gen (R) Syed Ata Hasnain on winning the peace after winning the war. Lessons learnt from Bangladesh war must be applied to the #OpSindoor victory.
In the AI 171 saga, the biggest culprit is #AAIB for issuing an incomplete report at midnight which allowed biased Western media to feast on every insinuation possible. Remember US & British inspectors were part of the investigation & worked closely with AAIB. It was the usual…
India has long been a soft power. In response to terror strikes it sent dossiers not missiles. That changed after #Pahalgam. But the transformation from a turn-the-other-cheek soft power to a preemptive hard power is a work in progress. My @Openthemag column