Minhaz Merchant
Open Magazine
Mumbai, MH, India
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Past articles by Minhaz:
The Professional Pessimists
DURING CHINA’S CURRENT Covid crisis, empathy has oozed from the pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post. At its peak in India, during the lethal second Covid wave in the summer of 2021, instead of empathy, vitriol poured out of foreign media and a hoary cabal of professional pessimists in India and … Continue reading "The Professional Pessimists" → Read More
Race and Rishi
PART ONE OF THIS two-part column on why India has never had a Muslim prime minister ended with the question: “Does India need to learn from British politics?” If Britain, with people of Indian origin forming just 2.3 per cent of the country’s population, could select a prime minister from such a tiny minority, why … Continue reading "Race and Rishi" → Read More
A Muslim PM - Open The Magazine
IT’S AN UNCOMFORTABLE question: Why has India never had a Muslim prime minister? India has had several minority presidents, including three Muslims and a Sikh as well as a Sikh prime minister. There are two reasons why India has not elected a Muslim prime minister. Between 1947 and 1977, there was no vacancy. Only three … Continue reading "A Muslim PM" → Read More
Misplaced Nostalgia
INDIA WILL ASSUME presidency of the G20 group of nations on December 1, 2022 for the next one year. The G20 comprises a kaleidoscope of developing and developed countries. All seven members of the powerful G7 are also part of G20. Notably though, of G20’s members, only four countries are also members of the Commonwealth—the … Continue reading "Misplaced Nostalgia" → Read More
Hope or Hoax? - Open The Magazine
ARVIND KEJRIWAL IS an enigma. He began his career as an executive in Tata Steel but soon joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) before leaving to become an activist. The Anna Hazare movement in 2011-12 elevated his profile. The newly formed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won landslides under Kejriwal’s leadership in the Delhi state Assembly … Continue reading "Hope or Hoax?" → Read More
America’s Sepoys
YOU CAN COUNT on them. The West blows the whistle and brown sepoys, heads held high, keyboards at the ready, troop in obediently. The masters have called. The West’s geopolitical interests must be defended, the narrative moulded into shape. The drill is well-rehearsed. First, the West’s political leaders set the tone, determine the terms of … Continue reading "America’s Sepoys" → Read More
The Root Cause II
STAND-UP COMEDIANS, like circus clowns, are intrinsically sad people. Their job is to make others laugh. But they live in constant fear that their jokes will fall flat. A stand-up’s worst nightmare is stony silence from the audience after cracking a joke. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen often. Those who go to stand-up shows know they … Continue reading "The Root Cause II" → Read More
The Root Cause
THE DRUMBEAT OF hate from Haridwar was shocking. Equally disturbing was the reaction to it: a shrug of Hindu shoulders. When did open animosity towards Muslims in India become socially acceptable? The majority of Hindus, across caste and class, are not anti-Muslim by nature. And yet, even among educated Hindus, there is growing ill-will for … Continue reading "The Root Cause" → Read More
The Anatomy of Hate
THE OTHER DAY I ran into an old friend who is a lifelong liberal. “Oh, we haven’t met for years,” she trilled after removing her mask, and giving me and my wife (in that order) a tight hug. “CAB,” I told her when we’d disengaged. “Oh, you mean that horrible Citizenship Amendment Bill,” she grimaced. … Continue reading "The Anatomy of Hate" → Read More
The Balance of Wealth
IN 1981, THE Rolling Stones released their hit single “Start Me Up” as part of their new Tattoo You album. Fourteen years later, Microsoft founder Bill Gates asked Stones’ Mick Jagger how much it would cost to use the song in a television commercial for the launch of Windows 95. The deal was struck for … Continue reading "The Balance of Wealth" → Read More
The Enemy Within
RICHARD VERMA SERVED as the US ambassador to India from 2014 to 2017. An Indian-American, Verma recently addressed students of an Indian university. Here’s what he said: “I look out at the year 2030, for example, and I see an India that may lead the world in almost every category… most populous nation, the … Continue reading "The Enemy Within" → Read More
Antisocial Media
IF TWITTER WAS weighed as boxers are, it would be a flyweight in the social media arena. Twitter is relatively tiny. According to businessofapps.com, its reach (over 300 million monthly active users) is dwarfed by Facebook (2.8 billion active users), WhatsApp (2 billion) and Instagram (1 billion). Twitter’s market cap ($46 billion) is a fraction … Continue reading "Antisocial Media" → Read More
Modi’s Year of Reckoning
THE 2024 LOK SABHA election is three years away. But the shadow of the key Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly polls, due in January-February 2022, is beginning to fall on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The road to power in Delhi passes through Lucknow. Lose UP next year and the 2024 General Election will be thrown wide … Continue reading "Modi’s Year of Reckoning" → Read More
Empire of the Internet
WHEN YOU THINK of Liverpool, you think of The Beatles and the iconic Liverpool Football Club. The city hides a darker truth. For nearly two centuries, between the 1600s and 1800s, Liverpool was the slave capital of the world. Its businessmen commandeered 55 per cent of the transatlantic African slave trade—one of the most brutal … Continue reading "Empire of the Internet" → Read More
Congress’ Hard Left Turn
THE LEFT EXERCISES an influence on academia, media, law and civil society disproportionate to its strength in Parliament. It is increasingly pulling the Congress into a tight embrace. In the forthcoming West Bengal Assembly election, Congress and the Left are sharing seats in an effort to convert a potentially quadrilateral contest into a triangular one. … Continue reading "Congress’ Hard Left… → Read More
Nawabs of Negativity
BORIS JOHNSON, WITH his cultivated air of dishevelment, won’t be missed on India’s Republic Day. It’s as good a time as any though to assess where India stands 71 years after the Constitution was adopted. A key argument centres around the state of democracy in India. Congress President-in-all-but-name Rahul Gandhi declared with the air of … Continue reading "Nawabs of Negativity" → Read More
The Evolution of A Prime Minister
DELHI HAS SHIFTED Narendra Modi, imperceptibly, to the centre. Over the past six-and-a-half years, Modi has recognised that you can run a state (Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, for example) from the right but you must run a country from the centre, or at most from the centre-right. What does this presage for the remaining three-and-a-half … Continue reading "The Evolution of A Prime Minister" → Read More
Left, Right and Nowhere
YOUR FREEDOM ENDS where my nose begins. As long as what you say or write does not incite violence or cause public disorder, freedom of speech is absolute. The Supreme Court is wrestling with a slew of issues around the limits of free speech. If hate speech causes communal or caste enmity, it breaks the … Continue reading "Left, Right and Nowhere" → Read More
How the combination of Ram and welfare benefits will serve BJP in the upcoming polls
The construction of the Ram Mandir has been carefully timed: it is expected to be ready to admit its first devotees three months before the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. → Read More
Why it is now time for India to play Tibet and Taiwan cards against China
As the world unites against Beijing over the draconian security law it has imposed on Hong Kong, India has two potent diplomatic weapons in Tibet and Taiwan. → Read More