News and Views

The BJP’s constitutional amendment providing 10 percent reservation to economically weaker sections within non-reserved categories may have sailed through both Houses of the Parliament, but what does young India think of it?

In search of the answer, The Quint spoke to a bunch of students in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to sense the pulse of those who this move directly impacts.

There is a tumult in the media. As different political combinations take shape, our studio warriors are a lot worried.

If Rahul Gandhi meets N Chandrababu Naidu, or if 22 political parties share a platform, or Tejashwi Yadav touches Mayawati’s feet, the resultant earthquake in our studios cannot be measured on the Richter scale.

I must say, I envy the kind of freedom anchors and reporters have these days to proudly voice their political leanings on air and on their social media platforms. “It is Modi vs All”, shout some of our anchors.

The anger with which some of them are pushing this faulty narrative only reflects the desperation of the ruling regime and its ecosystem.

The success of the united Opposition’s rally in Kolkata on 19 January afternoon has reinstated a sense of hope and belief in the mahagathbandhan’s strength, to checkmate the Narendra Modi-led NDA regime.

Now, Prime Minister Modi needs something more than wordplay and mere rhetoric to counter the coming together of a “rainbow” coalition.

Speaking to a crowd in Silvassa, Dadar Nagar Haveli, Modi nade a jibe at the proposed 'mahagathbandhan’, terming it as being not just against him, but against the entire nation.

This strategy may not suffice. Prime Minister Modi’s reliance on “main hoon na” and personal charisma is not something that can gloss over the double anti-incumbency factor in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and 18 other BJP-ruled states.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is reeling under a slew of criticism around the world. No doubt some of this is geopolitical envy, but some of it should have Beijing rethinking its grand global scheme. But whether or not it presents opportunities for India, is another matter.

According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials offered to help bail out the beleaguered Malaysian 1MDB state fund, in exchange for stakes in the Belt and Road railway and pipeline projects in Malaysia in 2016.

The AIADMK leadership, which meekly surrendered to the BJP after Jayalalithaa’s demise, is playing a hard bargain, and has even threatened to refuse an alliance with the saffron party, that is the BJP.

Over the last two years, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu has been perceived as the ‘B’ team of the Bharatiya Janata Party. With no leader of stature to succeed Jayalalithaa (who passed away in December 2016), the AIADMK held on to power in the state, largely because of support from the central government.

Before picking up my bunch of newspapers this morning, I chose to open the iPad. The intention was to first check how Kolkata's The Telegraph depicted the 'United India Rally'.

The newspaper has created waves, secured kudos, raised eyebrows and collected heckles in ample measure over several years for blunt headlines critical of the Narendra Modi regime and its emblematic leaders.

Sure enough, the headline did not make it necessary to read the story, for it made the slant obvious.

Picture this. You’re standing in a long queue, waiting to place an order. When you reach the counter, you say, “I’d like a pair of wings, please.” No, you aren’t at KFC, you are in the near future, at your local genome editing station, holding a pig.

Because who hasn’t been promised something “when pigs fly”?

The time to cash in on those promises may come sooner than you think, thanks to something called CRISPR, the newest kid on the genetic engineering block.

Only a couple of months ago, a scientist in China claimed that the first CRISPR edited babies had been born in the form of healthy twin baby girls. That the twins are CRISPR babies, was confirmed to be true on 21 January 2019.

If you were the point of contact for an alien civilisation, what's the first thing you would say? I would probably tell the aliens about coffee, and then have them try some. That would surely, and perhaps literally, warm them up to us. I ask this because I’m a complete sci-fi romantic, and some recent astronomical news has left me daydreaming like Cinderella before she met Prince Charming. Full disclosure: no, we have not found evidence of an alien civilisation.

In fact, my starting off the way I did was probably misleading. However, the detection of repeating fast radio bursts – only the second of its kind to ever be discovered – is significant. Let me tell you why.

After the Canadian government arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer and daughter of the founder of Huawei, a Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer, upon an extradition request by the United States, relations between China and Canada have taken a nosedive.

In barely concealed retaliation, China arrested two Canadians over the past month, and then summarily re-sentenced a third, a convicted drug smuggler to death. The official rhetoric from Beijing has become increasingly strident, like what we saw during the Doklam stand-off. Beijing has taken off its gloves and is baring its teeth.

Such political aggression is part of President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy, and the Chinese establishment might well justify the impatient, aggressive, gangster-like diplomacy as befitting a great power of its stature.

If you are looking for judgement on the film –‘Uri: the Surgical Strike’, then it is good to commence this film review by being upfront.  I can do this by unequivocally stating that the Ronnie Screwvala film is a highly-entertaining film – well-acted, story-lined and well-directed.

However, if you are going to watch it for the sake of gaining some insight into how military operations at the LoC are conducted, then forget it. As a former Commander of the Uri Brigade, I can say that realism is not the strongest part of the film, but then again, I did not expect it from the film.