E D Mathew

@elonmusk , why is the X account of the Cockroach Janata Party withheld in India? Are you in collusion with the govt to suppress the voice of India's GenZ? How will history remember you for helping gag the youth of the largest democracy in the world?

Enough of the Kerala Assembly, now look at my other posts!

A parody account by India’s GenZ is apparently too dangerous for the world’s largest democracy. When governments start fearing memes, satire and cockroach mascots, it is usually a sign of deep political insecurity. A government frightened by young people joking online!

@HelleLyngSvends Do interview @svaradarajan and @sardesairajdeep

I would like to use this plattform this weekend to lift great Indian journalists working under difficult conditions. Please recommend some journalists I interview.

Kerala’s new Assembly witnessed MLAs taking oath in four languages - Malayalam, English, Tamil and Kannada. Where else in India does such a scene unfold within one legislature? A reminder that Kerala’s identity is not built on uniformity, but on a confident, lived pluralism.

Kerala’s new govt has done what Kerala does best: cancel the future and call it prudence. Killing SilverLine in a state where young people flee for jobs and industries refuse to come is not fiscal wisdom, it's developmental cowardice. It's celebrating stagnation. @vdsatheesan

@ShashiTharoor @ShashiTharoor 's account of his return to alma mater is deeply moving. It's a beautifully articulated meditation on time, mentorship, and the enduring power of education. It possesses rare elegance of a man revisiting not just a place, but the very architecture of his becoming.

5/5 Hearing the Dean sing my praises before a large, warm audience made me feel profoundly valued, offering a quiet, comforting vindication of that initial, bold leap I took all those years ago. Her words prompted me to recall the milestones of those formative years: winning the Robert B. Stewart Prize for the best student; the late nights founding the Forum; being elected by my peers as a student representative on the admissions committee; and travelling to other campuses to interview prospective applicants to Fletcher. It all culminated in completing my doctorate at twenty-two, a milestone that, I am told, still makes me the youngest doctorate in the school's history. I had been invited back a couple of times before, once to deliver a memorial address and years later to deliver the Commencement address for the mid-career GMAP program in 2003, but as meaningful as that was, it didn’t quite feel like the "real thing." This weekend was. It was a homecoming in the truest sense: an ineffable bridge between the boy who arrived with a suitcase full of dreams and the man who returned to thank the institution that helped shape them.

1/5 It has been a profoundly emotional three days for me at the @FletcherSchool ; a whirlwind of memory, gratitude, and an almost overwhelming sense of completion. To return to the very halls I first entered as a wide-eyed nineteen-year-old in 1975, and to stand there half a century later as the Commencement speaker, is an experience for which words are completely inadequate.

Disappointing ministerial line-up in V D Satheesan's cabinet. Pathetic surrender to factional pressure. Imagine a callow O.J. Janeesh is included when better qualified candidates are left out. @INCKerala

I have eaten Idli for most of my life never once suspecting that I was consuming a civilisational achievement disguised as breakfast. Will never again look at an Idli without the reverence reserved for ancient temples, classical music, or, pardon me Modiji, Nehruvian socialism!

In my latest column in @the_hindu, I describe the fusion of markets with statecraft. Economic diplomacy is key, as India's relationships with major powers are increasingly shaped by economic security rather than traditional geopolitics alone. I analyse how this affects India’s choices — and how our future depends on engaging with the world on terms that protect our economy while amplifying our ambition. Read on!

Heartiest congratulations to Shri @VDSatheesan ji on being named leader of the Congress Legislature Party and Chief Minister-designate of Kerala — a richly deserved recognition of his tenacity, conviction, and years of dedicated service to our party and people. I campaigned alongside him and am delighted by his richly-deserved appointment. At the same time, we all realise that the mandate that propels him to office is is not one man's victory — it is a mandate for Team UDF. Every senior leader bears an important role and responsibility in ensuring this government lives up to the expectations of the people of Kerala. The strength of our alliance lies in its plurality, and we all look forward to every constituent working in concert to build a Kerala that is prosperous, just, and forward-looking. The people of Kerala have placed their trust in us. Let us honour it by working together to transform the state.

Bravo @edmathew review of Trump-Xi summit southasiamonitor.org/indo-pacific-c… the outcome "India fears most is that Washington & Beijing may increasingly prefer managing their rivalry together rather than organising the world into competing blocs." Read more at: southasiamonitor.org/indo-pacific-c…

An Open Letter to LoP If You Can’t Decide, Let The UDF MLAs Do So À.J. Philip Dear Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji, It takes years to build public confidence, but only moments to squander it. I regret to say that this is precisely what the Indian National Congress, under your leadership, appears to be doing today. It has now been a week since the election results were declared in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry. In Kerala, the United Democratic Front secured a decisive mandate, winning 102 out of 140 seats. In neighbouring Tamil Nadu, TVK leader C. Joseph Vijay fell short of an outright majority, securing 108 seats out of 234. Yet, he was able to gather the support of parties such as the Congress and quickly form a government. I was pleased to see you seated on the dais during the swearing-in ceremony at Nehru Stadium in Chennai today. Millions who watched Vijay take the oath of office must have been astonished by the confidence and clarity with which he delivered it from memory, without once lowering his gaze. Never before in Indian political history has a leader recited the oath of office with such confidence and composure. In sharp contrast was a minister in Bihar who could barely read the oath because literacy itself was alien to her. The Governor, moved by sympathy, allowed her to sign the register after uttering only a few words of the oath. You would also have noticed Vijay’s assurance to the people that there would be no power centres within his party and that anyone attempting to misuse office for personal gain would face stern action. That was leadership speaking with conviction. Now compare this with the situation in your own party. A full week has passed, yet the Congress has failed to identify a Chief Minister. Do you not realise that K.C. Venugopal is politically insignificant without your backing? If certain MLAs are beholden to him because he financed their election campaigns, please remember that such funds were not raised by selling his ancestral property or family heirlooms. You know very well how political money is mobilised in this country. If you cannot discipline a single MP, how can you effectively function as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha? If the Congress leadership itself is unable to arrive at a decision, then allow the 102 UDF MLAs to meet openly and democratically to elect their own leader. Let the process be transparent, and let the chosen person lead. Please remember that public patience is wearing thin and your leadership is increasingly becoming the subject of ridicule. Do not allow indecision to diminish your stature. Lead with clarity and firmness, as Vijay did. You must also remember that it was precisely such indecision within the Congress that once enabled the BJP to form a government in Goa despite lacking the moral mandate. History does not forgive leaders who hesitate at decisive moments; it quietly replaces them with those who do not. Yours etc ajphilip@gmail.com

India's foreign policy has rested on the assumption that the United States would remain adversarial toward China - whoever occupied the White House. If the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing turns accommodative, India's strategic premium would diminish. My column southasiamonitor.org/indo-pacific-c…

As of May 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has undertaken 99 international trips, visiting 79 countries since taking office in May 2014. Yesterday, he discouraged Indians from undertaking foreign trips to save on foreign exchange. Let's hail the wisdom, bhakt log!

I hope some cartoonist will take this up with Modi flying off to some exotic country after delivering this message to his prajas. @PonnappaCartoon @satishacharya @MANJULtoons @CartoonistSan

Why does so much Indian TV news sound permanently out of breath/breathless? Every debate feels like a national emergency, every headline like a battlefield dispatch. Anchors speak in rising crescendos, panels shout over one another, graphics often flash like alarm systems. The Iran war for instance is depicted on screen framed in flames and “mahayudh” screaming all over it. We are unique in this pitch of constant crescendo. It is not merely a broadcasting style. It reflects something deeper about us. Our television news evolved in the age of ratings wars, political spectacle and 24/7 competition for attention. Calmness came to be mistaken for dullness. Excitement became a business model. Nationalism, grievance, triumphalism, insecurity, outrage, aspiration, wounded pride, civilisational assertion, all coexist simultaneously. The result is a media register that sounds permanently adrenalised. But older Indian broadcasting was very different. Listen to archival Doordarshan clips from the 1970s or 80s. The tone was measured, restrained, even austere. News was delivered as information, not performance. Television producers have learned that perpetual urgency creates emotional addiction. If everything is historic, explosive, shocking, decisive, existential, viewers remain physiologically engaged. The problem, of course, is exhaustion. Nations cannot permanently exist at emotional fever pitch without consequences for public discourse. Today we often sound perpetually excited, perpetually mobilised, perpetually “on”. Perhaps television has become the mirror of a society itself in emotional overdrive: restless, aspirational, anxious, performative, seeking validation every minute. The irony is that true authority rarely needs to shout. Confidence usually speaks in a quieter voice. So the raised pitch is not just acoustics. Today the country is increasingly performing itself to itself. And yes, I know I am about to be eaten alive for saying this, on Indian television and social media alike. That is perfectly fine. But perhaps it is time we introspected a little on what we have become, and why we now seem unable simply to speak to one another in a normal tone. Much of our television news increasingly resembles coloratura without pause: high-pitched, breathless, emotionally over-ornamented, forever climbing toward some impossible crescendo. Every night, the nation seems to be singing at full volume. But societies cannot live permanently at operatic pitch. At some point, we must learn again the power of modulation, silence, restraint, and calm.

With the recent rout of LDF in the Kerala elections Communists have disappeared from India's governance map for the first time in nearly 50 years. The Indian Left's future will now depend on whether it still has a compelling story to tell, writes @ShashiTharoor

I had the privilege of launching the Alumni Placement Project of St. Thomas College, Pala, my alma mater, as part of Nostalgia@75, a gathering of English Literature alumni of the college.

Smooth @emirates flight from Oslo to Dubai...