CATEGORIES

In the Mood for a Desi Robin Hood

Modi’s demonetisation gambit has paid off and opened the door to bolder reforms.

At The Mainland's Stolid Defence

Cruelly barred from joining cricket’s mainstream for long, Northeastern states have decided on a final fling of the ball

'The Uttarakhand Mafia Has Gone Into Hiding'

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has inherited huge challen­ges—corruption, exodus from border villa­ges, under-development and more. In an interview with Bula Devi, he spells out the measures he has taken to overcome these challenges and put the state on the road to progress. Excerpts:

The Tamil Gag Raj

A cartoonist’s recent arrest is no exception, leaders in Tamil Nadu have always pounded the press.

The Munsif's Mother Tongue

Reform of the lower judiciary is imperative, but a national service will run roughshod over the federal principle, social justice and linguistic rights.

Super Toil Across Years Begets Power

India, still a ‘balancing power’, is central to Trump’s NSS. To reap its benefits, we need long work on core interests.

Nationalism Made In USA

Defence cooperation is part of India’s increasing subordination to US geostrategy

‘The Congress Didn't Respect My Dad After His Death'

Less than three years after its founding, the YSR Congress fell short of power in Andhra Pradesh by just 2 per cent of the votes in 2014 . Its leader Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, in the middle of a padayatra ahead of the 2019 election, speaks to Outlook about the circumstances of his dramatic departure from the Congress, the problems facing the state today and what he intends to do. 

The Glue Of Contradiction

Both the BJP and the PDP know it’s best to carry on together despite pulling J&K in opposite directions

Mutter Needs More Courage

Angela Merkel’s smaller victory means sterner challenges. Then there’s the AfD threat.

The Crooked Public Schools Road

Unrecognised and illegal, budget schools run by slumlords fleece and fool working-class parents

Only-For-Profit Schools

How private schools work around the bar on profiteering and rake in the moolah

'Police Chased Us Even Into Our Hostel Rooms. We Want An Apology From The V-C'

BANARAS Hindu University’s campus is one of the largest in Uttar Pradesh. It is accessible through several gates, the most renowned and biggest of which overlooks Lanka, a locality in Varanasi. It is at this gate that hundreds of students of BHU, mostly women scholars, were protesting since 6 am on September 21. It is from this historic site that they were lathicharged by police and chased into their hostels. Videos of the all-woman crowd being beaten by police have since gone viral, sending shockwaves through the country.The women students had come out in protest after an incident of sexual harassment on the campus, for which the BHU administration blamed the victim. She was the first to step out to protest against the unequal treatment of women in the university and the lack of basic safety norms there. She was soon joined by other hostel residents, and as she shaved her head in protest, became a symbol of all BHU women students’ demands.

A Novel Catches The Bus To Wagah

Indian publishers are fertile ground for most ­Pakistani writers who have few options back home.

Oedipus Backwards

Thin on patient detail and emotional heft, Pamuk’s hero rushes from scene to scene. Major questions are asked, but they don’t illuminate our readerly selves.

Ripples Turn Into Waves

Changed public sentiment puts Dhaka in a cleft stick on hasty repatriation of Myanmar refugees

Nero Plays A Veena Called Saraswati

A sudden spurt in Haryana’s crime points to an administration that lacks in political will and is pressured by caste politics. The CM, though, will ‘remain’.

Panth And A Foreign Hand

A new real threat of Khalistani ­terror, fuelled and funded by foreign gurudwaras patronised by liberal white politicians, has revived memories of a blood-drenched era of Punjab’s history

Punjaap Tripped On A Fuse

An ambitious AAP flirted with the wrong ­sentiment in Punjab last year—separatism

Modicare: Insurance Policy 2019

Jaitley promises succour, belatedly, to aggrieved sectors. But is it too thin a supply of oxygen for India’s distressed?

Modi Still BJP's Trump Card

After the tough Gujarat polls and ­Rajasthan drubbing, in the duo’s last mile dash, Modicare, MSP, even DeMo will all be ammunition to snipe at the Congress’s scam skeletons. But BJP insiders agree it is not an easy task.

Modi-Yogi Bhakts Aplenty, But Jobs?

Besides Muslims, Dalits are the only vocal section that has turned against the BJP in UP

Where Party Has Withered Away

A tie-up with Congress would have yielded zilch, given the total absence of CPI(M) cadres in the Bengal countryside

I Would Love To Carry The Bequest Of My Dida, But With My Own Persona

In a freewheeling interview, Raima Sen looks back at her journey as an actress, her memorable roles in Hindi and Bengali cinema, sibling rivalry at home with Riya Sen, her mother’s foray into politics and, above all, her legendary grandmother’s decision to turn a recluse at the height of her fame.

Festoon Of Schemes Dangling

Siddaramaiah is sure about retaining power, banking on an array of welfare projects

Keep It Simple, Stupid

Focussing on citizens’ behaviour and segregation at source brings results

Not Exactly Virgin Soil To Plough

BSY is Karnataka BJP’s face in the battle for power. The party doesn’t want signs of its past mistake to re-emerge.

Service, Then Jubilation

Young Indians are plucking gold at the CWG at will. Tougher challenges await them at August’s Asiad.

The Beneficial Distributaries

Cauvery may have been the stated cause but DMK has a more mundane agenda: increase its Delta votes

Vachana Versus Vachana

Theology and politics? Questions of self-definition roil Lin gayat country ahead of polls.