Suchitra Karthikeyan

Principal Staff Writer @the_hindu , ex @republic RTs/follows not endorsements. Views are my own. My books:

[Satbir Singh @thesatbir]

The hottest country on the planet, chopping trees by the millions. Pouring concrete on every available square inch.

[Suchitra Karthikeyan @Such_InkPen]

With CJIs like these, why shouldn't the judiciary come under public scrutiny?

[Live Law @LiveLawIndia]

CJI Surya Kant says there are "parasites" attacking the system.

"There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don't get any employment and don't have any place in the profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, some of them become RTI activists, some of them become other activists, and they start attacking everyone." - CJI.

[Arun Pandiyan @ArunPandiyanMJ]

Governor to TVK:

[Suchitra Karthikeyan @Such_InkPen]

Tamil Nadu has elected someone with the popularity of Pawan Kalyan and the disruption of Jagan Mohan Reddy.... Another Andhra in the making? @TVKVijayHQ

[Suchitra Karthikeyan @Such_InkPen]

@the_hindu When all parties in a state are on your side, Prisoner reform can work even if convicted of the gravest crime...

[Anisha Dutta @A2D2_]

Here’s the entire list of the “trouble makers” ECI secretly shared ahead of polls, apart from mostly TMC politicians, an overwhelming majority names mentioned are Muslims, along with ECI’s memo, published in @thewire_in.

Read my story here: https://t.co/lpWZ8r0gja

[Chaitanya Marpakwar चैतन्य मारपकवार @chaitanya_pm]

The latest round of budgetary allocations for BMC corporators has thrown up sharp variations in ward committee work fund distribution within the ruling party in the BMC: BJP, even as opposition members received a comparatively raw deal.

[Explosive Media @ExplosiveMediaa]

Khamenei Again!

"You thought you took him out,
thought the fire was dead...
But another Khamenei is standing ahead."

Another Iranian Lego animation
Produced by "Explosive News" Team 🔥

#Legostyleanimation

[Explosive Media @ExplosiveMediaa]

Maybe we’ll use “Cheeto Donnie” in the next video.

[Raghav Wadhwa @raghavwadhwa]

A Gmail ID was used to impersonate a Central PSU. Nobody questioned it. And ₹20,000 crore in govt tenders got rigged.

Let me tell you the story of India's most absurd corruption case.

Jal Jeevan Mission, PM Modi's flagship scheme to give tap water to every rural home. Rajasthan alone got ₹10,180 crore from the Centre in FY22 and ₹13,328 crore in FY23. Almost 23% of the entire national JJM budget went to one state.

Two tubewell companies wanted these tenders. Problem? They had zero experience. Solution? They forged experience certificates of IRCON, a Railways PSU. Fake letterheads, fictitious officer names. And for verification, they created a Gmail ID pretending to be IRCON officials.

A Central govt PSU under Ministry of Railways. Replying from @ gmail. com. Not .gov.in. Not .nic.in. Gmail. And nobody in the entire PHED department found this suspicious. Not one officer. Combined, these two firms filed 230+ tenders using these forged documents.

But the real Bollywood moment? PHED sent an engineer to Kerala to "physically verify" IRCON's work. The contractors and a forger reached Kochi ONE DAY before him. Checked into Hotel Woodlark. The forger was introduced to the engineer as "Vijay Shankar, CEO, IRCON International." Random photos of pumphouses were submitted as proof. The contractor left his personal phone in Jaipur and used an employee's SIM card to avoid GPS tracking. The engineer came back and submitted a "positive verification report."

Now here's the part that makes your blood boil.

In June 2023, IRCON's own Vigilance Department wrote DIRECTLY to the Addl Chief Secretary Subodh Agarwal — "These certificates are fake and fabricated." What happened? The warning emails were deleted. Compliant engineers were handpicked to give false positive reports. Three separate legal notices were sent to the department. All ignored.

But the scam wasn't just about fake certificates. That was just ₹960 crore. The bigger game was ₹20,000 crore.

Agarwal introduced a rule — "Site Visit Certificates" mandatory for tenders above ₹50 crore. Sounds like transparency, right? It actually exposed which companies were bidding BEFORE tender opening. Once everyone knows who else is bidding, you form cartels. You fix prices. Tender premiums were inflated 30-40% across the board.

The numbers:

₹20,000 crore in tenders rigged 30-40% inflated premiums, 4% bribery formula ₹47 crore seized by ED so far — 0.2% of the scam

The fraud ran from 2021 to 2023 under the Congress govt in Rajasthan. IRCON warned in 2023. CBI filed an FIR in 2024. ED arrested the minister in 2025. Agarwal was finally caught this week — after being on the run for 2 months, evading 40+ ACB teams across 100 locations in 21 cities.

JJM 2.0 just got approved. Budget: ₹8.69 lakh crore. The real question — has the system that enabled this actually changed? Or are we just funding the next scam on a bigger scale

[Uncommon Sense @Uncommonsince76]

Anyway, back to the Epstein files…

[Suchitra Karthikeyan @Such_InkPen]

Someone finally said it..... Was so disappointed with his attempt to whitewash a mercurial character like Raavan.... Thinking he can improve Valmiki's creation is bizarre!

[Lone Wolf Ratnakar @SadaaShree]

Unpopular opinion , Amish Tripathi started this trend of dumbing down our Puranas to appeal to "current generation".

His Meluha series was decent, but the Ramayana one was unbearable. I mean making Shabari a war strategist, Pushpak Vimana making whoomp whoomp sounds, it was just so juvenile.

On top of it he adds a whole lot of pseudo science in his novels making it even worse.

And his "intellectual" takes are cringe worthy max. Ashwin Sanghi is any day a better writer than him.

He may appeal to those who never had much of a serious reading habit, but if you have been a regular reader, can straight away make out most of his novels are just plain mediocre.

[Ritika Chopra @RitikaChopra__]

Stories like this one don't come from press conferences or official statements.

They come from a reporter spending five days at railway stations, talking to workers nobody else thought to ask.

If that kind of journalism matters to you, subscribe to @IndianExpress 👇
https://t.co/gSi2UBhKGY

[i,jana ♟️ @kfcrui]

being trans and being intersex. and somehow this isn’t everywhere? people aren’t really talking about it??
please pay attention. spread awareness. this is not something you can ignore.
#RejectTransBill2026
#RejectBill79
#TransRightsAreHumanRights

[United News of India @uniindianews]

The sealing of the office of United News of India (UNI), one of the country’s oldest and most respected news agencies, has raised serious concerns over press freedom.

📌 Staff members were forcibly evicted, with several not allowed to retrieve their personal belongings.

📌 Female journalists were manhandled by teams of Delhi Police.

📌 Some Delhi Police personnel were intoxicated while on duty.

📌 Two lawyers and Delhi Police personnel abused several individuals.

@PMOIndia | @HMOIndia | @AmitShah | @DelhiPolice | @CMODelhi | @gupta_rekha | #UnitedNewsOfIndia | #UNI | #PressFreedom |
#JournalismUnderThreat | #MediaFreedom | #FreePress | #UNIUnderAttack

[Saket Gokhale @SaketGokhale]

The new Transgender Persons Amendment Bill, 2026 introduced in Parliament is REGRESSIVE & is a calculated step by the Modi to snatch away the rights of transgender persons who are subjected to oppression in every facet of life.

This pathetic Bill MUST be withdrawn!

A comprehensive explainer from @the_hindu today 👇

[🌻 @naanbiological]

Had Arjun agreed silently with Krishna, there would be no Gita.

Questioning is the essence of spirituality.

[Suchitra Karthikeyan @Such_InkPen]

Have never seen this many diplomatic details emergency within hours.... Two men @realDonaldTrump and @netanyahu destroyed 45 years of diplomatic and brought war to west Asia

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart.

We had a very good month.

Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace.

By mid-February, we had something.

Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green.

That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma.

Here is what they said, in the order they said it.

February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday.

February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive.

I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach.

February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses.

February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters.

Not happy with the pace.

We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway.

Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years.

Not happy with the pace.

February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens.

I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses.

February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications.

February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump.

Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production."

Rejected.

Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman.

The President said they rejected it.

I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed.

February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment.

February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school.

I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that.

February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold.

The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning.

February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse.

February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement.

The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."

[Suchitra Karthikeyan @Such_InkPen]

@narendramodi Yuddh ke pehle Gita Padhye Gaye the kya Arjun ko? 😔😔

[Suchitra Karthikeyan @Such_InkPen]

Calling it bullying by Centre or reform, India's DISCOMs are entering a 'profit' era.. I explain how....

https://t.co/XO1aes1kpN

@the_hindu @THexplains