Politics & Society
Paranjoy Guhathakurta

An Oildrop, the Ocean, Corruption and Yes, Inflation

Arvind Kejriwal put it rather bluntly when he asked rhetorically: Who’s running the country, Manmohan Singh or Mukesh Ambani? After a long time, the question was posed in a manner that laid bare the ugly nexus between politics and business

Politics & Society
Saswat Pattanayak

Why is Hurricane Sandy a political issue?

President Obama and his administration have been exchanging high-fives and posing for stock images to bring home the point that Sandy’s aftermath is being dealt with successfully. Reassuring this to the rest of the world, the president then visits his

Politics & Society
Majid Maqbool

The State is Afraid Of…

The state is afraid of internet in Kashmir. The state is afraid of social networking sites. The state is afraid of peoples’ thoughts. The state is afraid of peoples’ access to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. The state is afraid of status updates;

Politics & Society
Saswat Pattanayak

Tales from Cola Land

Democracy is a system of oppression run by popular consent; its enabler, the electoral politics, is a spectator sport; the select audience for the rituals is retained through appeals, and the voting is an exercise of Hobson’s Choice.   And

Politics & Society
Poornima Joshi

The Idea of Illicit Love: Tales of Power, Politics and Patriarchy

The childlike scrawl, diligent correction of spelling errors and the tentative title ‘suicide note’ are more poignant in expression than Geetika Sharma’s delicate profile in the one picture that accompanies the various stories about why this beautiful young woman decided

Politics & Society
Poornima Joshi

The Emperors’ New Clothes

End of the affair Loot was largely presumed to be the catalyst in crystallizing the ruling coalition’s credibility deficit till FDI and diesel inflamed the firebrand from Bengal. It is certainly to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s credit that

Politics & Society
Sayan Bhattacharya

Robert Vadra ki Haseen Duniya

Prologue: Raw materials: Scenes from the Satyajit Ray classic Shatranj Ke Khilari (based on the Premchand text),Rapunzel’s never ending hair-like facebook status updates, sundry newspaper reports- from disparaging to the glowing, the ongoing track of a popular daily soap and a six pack.

Politics & Society
Paranjoy Guhathakurta

The Black Story

“For some, coal means diamonds and gold. For others, the coal signifies bread. They go underground not to take out coal but to sustain their life. They put their lives at risk. They are ready to face death at any

Politics & Society
Nitasha Kaul

Who Are You?

At the heart of every ‘I’ lies an infinity of longing. The questions about identity can be posed in a thousand ways. We all know the nuances of ‘Where are you from?’ when it is accompanied by searching looks, or

Politics & Society
Sayan Bhattacharya

Caveat Lector

Disclaimer: What follows below is a concoction of truths, half truths, measly doses of imagination and generous doses of malice. Read at your own risk! Prologue: The petite beauty was preening at her new nose while adjusting her hair extensions, when