Left, Right & Centre

The Yogi Adityanath government wants to spend 330 crores of corporate social responsibility funds or CSR funds to build a statue of Ram in Ayodhya. Are these stunningly misplaced priorities?

Over the last couple of years, Ram Navami processions in Bengal have acquired a new colour. With the BJP trying to make inroads, there are now sword wielding, trident holding Sangh Parivar supporters who take part in these marches, with their muscular brand of Hindutva on display. This week, it has taken a rather ugly turn, with communal clashes that have killed three people. The state government has refused central forces. The BJP says Mamata Banerjee's appeasement politics is to blame for the flare-up, that the Trinamool Congress is provoking the violence. But Mamata Banerjee hit back saying Ram didn't ask anyone to carry weapons, calling them goons. The tension isn't just in parts of Bengal, it has also spread to Bihar where over 200 people have been arrested. Is this the politics of polarisation at play?

After the chilling murder of journalists this week in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, the Editors Guild demands action, says it is concerned that journalists who expose wrongdoing and the criminal connections of the mafia with the government are being targeted. Are journalists in fact soft targets?

Every year, lakhs of students around the country literally put in their blood, sweat and tears for the board exams. So much depends on these exams for both parents and students, it is a certifiable nightmare. Today, in an absolute shocker, the CBSE announced that two exam papers had in fact been leaked and that a retest was being ordered. Ironically, a senior CBSE official had first denied any leak after reports had emerged earlier of the same. So who will be held accountable for this mess? The education minister was busy holding a press conference on West Bengal before he moved to this subject. Why isn't this a bigger priority? Should students be punished and made to take a retest for the Board's incompetence?

Ram Navami celebrations in Jodhpur included a tableau that glorified the man who murdered a Muslim last December and filmed it before giving a speech on "love jihad". Has the state emboldened communal groups in Rajasthan? Who will answer for this?

The Karnataka election dates are out. It is a single phase poll on May 12, counting is on the 15th. This isn't just another assembly election, it is a poll that will have a significant national impact ahead of the 2019 general elections. A win for the BJP will boost the party after a string of by-poll defeats; it will weaken Rahul Gandhi and perhaps rally other opposition parties to a non-BJP, non-Congress front for the Lok Sabha. But a win for the Congress will be a big jolt to PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. It will boost Rahul Gandhi's standing and widen the race for 2019. It is a hotly contested election and with so much at stake, Amit Shah is putting in everything he has, but he's also facing a tough opponent in chief minister Siddaramaiah. Can the Congress ride over the BJP tsunami?

Is your personal data safe? That's the question that has dogged citizens, first with Aadhaar and then since the Facebook data scandal emerged recently. In the case of Facebook, the data of 50 million people -- their personal information, contacts, etc -- was illegally obtained by a company called Cambridge Analytica. The data was then allegedly used to influence voters in election campaigns of leaders like US President Donald Trump and even in India. The data debate has now exploded. Both the Congress and the BJP have spent most of the last 24 hours accusing each other of illegally mining the data of people who downloaded their official apps. It began with the criticism Prime Minister Narendra Modi's app, and a report that 13 lakh National Cadet Corps members have been asked to download the PM Modi app. It turns out the app was sending data to a third-party domain in the US. But it turns out the Congress's official app was also sending data to a server in Singapore. This is not the first time India is debating privacy. The Aadhaar debate is a huge part of it. The bigger question is: does India take data privacy too lightly?

From brain fade to big mistake, Steve Smith has done it again. Hours after the Australian captain admitted to ball tampering in the Cape Town Test, he has been fined 100% of his match fees and suspended from the next Test in Johannesburg. Cameron Bancroft, who was caught on camera using sandpaper to rough up the ball has also been fined 75% of his match fee and will get 3 demerit points. We ask tonight, is this enough from the ICC in response to the biggest cricket controversy of the year? And should Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner be allowed to play in IPL 2018, or lead their respective sides Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad?

We are 8 days away from when you can start filing your H-1B visa application process. The window for submitting applications begins on April 2 after the spring break in the US. Days before that, the Donald Trump administration has decided to suspend the H-1B visa's premium processing temporarily. What does this mean for Indian IT firms ?

A huge victory for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and a huge strike against the Election Commission - 20 Aam Admi Party lawmakers in Delhi were reinstated by the Delhi High Court today. They had been declared disqualified in January by the Election Commission after they were accused of holding offices of profit - which means they broke the rules by holding positions with the Delhi government that allowed them perks. However, the court said the notification disqualifying the AAP MLAs was bad in law and sent their plea back to the Election Commission which will hear it afresh. It also said that there was violation of natural justice and no oral hearing was given to the MLAs before disqualifying them. This is the first time in two decades that an Election Commission decision to disqualify a legislator has been struck down.