1. Rahul Gandhi has come a long way since 2014. But is that enough for a national win, asks Rohit Pradhan in the Business Standard.
  2. 2018 was important for national politics. It set up the Congress as a worthy challenger to Narendra Modi, argues Shekhar Gupta in the Print.
  3. In Mint, Nisha Susan writes on the caste origins of vegetarianism in India.
  4. In the Indian Express, Tora Agarwala writes about the ordeal of Bimal Baidya, a carpenter falsely branded Bangladeshi by Assam’s Foreigner Tribunal.
  5. The Quad – a group that facilitates cooperation between Australia, India, Japan and the United States – should go beyond simply dealing with defence, writes Alyssa Ayres in War on the Rocks.
  6. Tulsi Gabbard is a rising star on the Left in the United States – and might even run for President one day. In the Intercept, Soumya Shankar traces her incongruous support for Hindu nationalism in India.
  7. India must be prepared for the potential consequences of withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, writes Suhasini Haidar in the Hindu.
  8. Two decades after his last deadly act of ecoterrorism, and with the rise of mass surveillance and global warming, Ted Kaczynksli’s warnings about a hyperindustrialised future is attracting new acolytes, writes John H Richardson in New York magazine.
  9. American philosopher, Elizabeth Anderson wants to redefine what an equal society means, writes Nathan Heller in the New Yorker: equality should deal with social relations not material benefits.
  10. The digital revolution started out by mapping of human meaning but now defines human meaning, and has begun to control, rather than simply catalogue or index, human thought, writes George Dyson in the Edge.
  11. In the New York Times, Micheal Pollan ponders the question: How does a writer put a drug trip into words?