Ramesh Ponnuru (; born August 16, 1974) is a Washington, D.C.-based Indian American columnist and a senior editor for National Review magazine. He is also a contributor to TIME magazine and WashingtonPost.com. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsday, the New York Post, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, The New Republic, and First Things.
A conservative pundit, Ponnuru has appeared in many public affairs and news interview programs. He is perhaps best known for his 2006 book, The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, published by Regnery Publishing. In response to questions about and criticism of the provocative title, Ponnuru has explained in interviews that the term is intended to define a political movement that has taken over control of the Democratic Party through abortion and other death-related issues. Ramesh Ponnuru on The Party of Death on National Review Online
Ponnuru was raised in Prairie Village, Kansas. He attended Briarwood Elementary School and Mission Valley Middle School in Johnson County, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. He skipped the 8th grade and directly entered high school. After graduating from Shawnee Mission East High School at the age of 15, he went to Princeton University, where he earned a B.A. in history and graduated summa cum laude. He is of Asian Indian descent and has converted to Roman Catholicism. On Point : The Party of Death - The Party of Death He is married to April Ponnuru.
On September 13, 2006, speaking of the 2006 election, Ponnuru wrote in The New York Times that "a straight loss...would make the Republican hungrier and sharpen their wits."
Ponnuru has had an ongoing disagreement with blogger Andrew Sullivan, with Sullivan accusing him, among other things, of not speaking out on what he believes to be Bush Administration human rights abuse, being a "Christianist", The Daily Dish hyperbolic attacks on the Democratic Party, and abandoning conservative principles. The Daily Dish The two have also debated the state and nature of contemporary conservatism. The Corner on National Review Online
Ponnuru has also had disagreements with fellow National Review columnist John Derbyshire. Derbyshire panned Ponnuru's book Party of Death in a review written for the New England Review in 2006, in an article titled "A Frigid and Pitiless Dogma".