Mainstream Weekly

A Distinguished Political Reporter

S Nihal Singh — 2016-07-09T09:08:10Z

TRIBUTE
Krishan Kumar Katyal, who died in New Delhi on Wednesday (June 8) at 88, was a distinguished political reporter who had a nose for news, persistence in following up on tips and a talent for cultivating sources in political parties as well as several wings of the government. In the world of journalism, he was universally known by his initials and took jokes on KKK, matching the infamous Ku Klux Klan in America, in his stride.
We were colleagues on the political reporting team of (…)

- 2016

Jo Fox

S Nihal Singh — 2016-06-26T20:18:35Z

A mother of two small children at 41 after a life of passion doing good for the unfortunate, the refugee, and a member of Parliament to boot, shot dead on a British street talking to constituents. And you tell me there is a God.
S. Nihal Singh

- 2016

Journalists' Journalist

S Nihal Singh — 2013-07-01T05:40:48Z

Nikhil Chakravartty's fifteenth death anniversary on June 27 is an occasion not only to recall his contribution to journalism but also to juxtapose that contribution against the present-day media scene. Several leading journalists and others who knew him present their opinions in the following pieces.
Evoking the memory of Nikhilda, as he was universally known, is to return to a different world of Indian journalism. It was in large part before the era of 24-hour television, internet news (…)

- 2013

Obama's Visit to Russia in Retrospect

S Nihal Singh — 2009-07-27T15:44:37Z

The short point to US President Barack Obama's first visit to Russia in his new avatar is that he forgot to reset the button before leaving Washington. To say “forgot” is to indulge in euphemism because the American foreign policy-making elite has no intention of fulfilling what Vice-President Joe Biden initially promised in resetting the button in relations with Russia.
True, the US and Russia took the first steps in agreeing to reduce their gargantuan nuclear arsenals to replace (…)

- July 2009

Beijing's Suppression Of Tibetan Unrest

S Nihal Singh — 2008-03-29T03:33:13Z

Beyond the spin the Chinese Government has put on the Tibetan unrest and the world's reaction to it is a central problem: has Beijing the suppleness and wisdom to alter its monolithic view of how China should be governed? Deng Xiaoping had the stature and vision to improvise the Hong Kong experiment of “one country, two systems”. His successors in the shape of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao have failed to measure up to their responsibilities thus far.
For one thing, the Chinese authorities are (…)

- March 29, 2008

Yeltsin and Putin in Retrospect

S Nihal Singh — 2007-05-19T09:31:45Z

Between them, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin destroyed the Soviet Union, the former out of the noblest of motives and the latter for opportunistic reasons. The West sang paeans of praise first for Gorbachev for his glasnost and perestroika, and later for Yeltsin for delivering the coup de grace to the Soviet Union. There was no job left for President Gorbachev because he had lost his country.
Yet Yeltsin, who was laid to rest in the Novodevichy, together with the great poets and (…)

- May 19, 2007