Left, Right & Centre

As the nation bids farewell to DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi tonight, we examine his political legacy, and what happens now to politics in Tamil Nadu.

DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, who died in a hospital on Tuesday evening, cannot be laid to rest at the Marina beach in Chennai, the ruling AIADMK government has said, turning down requests from the DMK for permission to bury him next to the grave of his mentor and DMK founder, CN Annadurai at Chennai's "Anna Square" memorial. Chief Ministers CN Annadurai, MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa have been laid to rest along the Marina Beach, counted among the world's longest beaches. The DMK has moved the Madras High Court acting Chief Justice against the government's decision. Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh has agreed to hear the petition at 10.30 pm. (Video Courtesy: DMK IT WING)

After Bihar, another horror story emerges from a shelter, this time from UP. In both cases, the ruling parties insist they've acted quickly but is that enough? Is there a complete lack of political accountability?

Every year, 56 lakh Indians die hoping and praying to receive a live organ but sadly organ donors are almost impossible to find. There is nothing more noble than to give to others a part of you when you have died. Tonight on Left Right and Centre as part of the Fortis-NDTV More to Give Campaign, we discuss how we can all give a gift of life to someone and ask if India is ready for law on organ donation.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was joined by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal at his dharna at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar against the rapes at a shelter in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. Leaders from Trinamool Congress, CPM also joined the protest which turned into a massive show of unity for the opposition against the BJP-led NDA in Bihar and centre. While the Muzaffarpur horror is a national shame and calls for exemplary punishment are sorely needed, tonight on Left, Right and Centre, we ask: Have these protests become less about the horrific rapes themselves and more about the politics?

Tonight, we're talking about the media. This week in an extraordinary development two senior anchors at ABP news TV, one of the leading Hindi news channels, were suddenly taken off air. One of them, Punya Prasun Bajpai, has now resigned. The channel's managing editor also stepped down abruptly. This turmoil at ABP news isn't just an internal matter of the channel. The issue came to the floor of parliament where the opposition accused the government of having the journalists removed for questioning the Modi government. The government has strongly denied this saying these journalists had to go because of poor TRPs, but there is disquiet in newsrooms across India today because sources in ABP claim there was a lot of government pressure on the channel after they did a story which made the government angry. Here is how it all unfolded.

It is an actual showdown at the Silchar airport in Assam between Trinamool lawmakers and the police as the controversy over the citizens list snowballs. It is now spilling into other states - Meghlaya for instance, where those coming in from Assam are being questioned on their citizenship status. Are genuine citizens getting harassed in the process?

In a massive U-turn, Imran Khan's party has now said it is not sending invites for his swearing in even to foreign players and actors. Yesterday, the party spokesman had said invites would go to Kapil Dev, Navjot Sidhu, Sunil Gavaskar and Aamir Khan. Today, the party has said they've decided the event should be 'austere" and that "only a few close friends of Imran Khan will be invited".

Mamata Banerjee takes centrestage in the opposition's fight against the BJP over the controversial citizens list in Assam. Has Mamta Banerjee become the defacto leader of this battle? And is this the big political showdown ahead of the general elections?

The home of horrors - how a Bihar shelter got away with the rampant abuse of young girls and the powerful man who ran the NGO now has a new case registered against him. How did he get away with it for so long? Does the Nitish Kumar government have a lot of explaining to do?