Dr R. Balashankar is a political analyst, activist and academic. He has been extensively writing on the new phase in Indian polity. He is a former Editor of Organiser weekly and former National Convenor of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Intellectual Cell. He was advisor to Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, the Union Minister for HRD and Science and Technology, in the Vajpayee Government from 1998-2004. He is a regular columnist for NDTV, Outlook, DailyO and many other publications.