News and Views

Another day. Another skeleton out of the closet. More specifically, from MJ Akbar’s closet.

National Public Radio journalist Pallavi Gogoi revealed in an article in the Washington Post on Friday, 2 November, how she, in the 1990s, was emotionally and verbally abused – and raped by Akbar (over a period of time) – while working under him at the The Asian Age newspaper.

‘Constitutional crises’ are what characterise Sri Lanka now, after President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe from office last week. The fact that the President removed a sitting prime minister from office, who enjoyed parliamentary majority, in “exercise of powers”, proves anomalous.

President Sirisena himself, when he first took office, had moved a motion to amend the statute book, which was then passed by Parliament. According to this amendment, the President no longer has powers to terminate the Prime Minister – the move to sack Wickremesinghe, then, appears to be in violation of the law.

That NT Rama Rao (NTR) would be tossing in his grave seeing son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu joining hands with the Congress party, is what you are likely to hear on the streets of Andhra Pradesh.

In 1982, NTR had launched the Telugu Desam on the plank of Telugu atmagauravam (self-respect) and dislodged the Congress within eight months. Anti-Congressism has been the TDP's principal plank over the years and pretty much its political identity.

It’s the age of crowd-funding, and political parties too are taking it up in election season, because... elections cost money.

Back in 2013, as the assembly elections in Delhi approached, the word on ground was that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was set to challenge the traditional Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Congress duopoly in the state.

Every year, in the last week of October, Kashmiris living outside the South Asian region get together to observe a day that is largely forgotten by the world. They remember what happened on 22 October 1947, and call it a black day.

A vital decision recently taken by the Supreme Court has the potential to be a game-changer for the long-term health of our republic. The Supreme Court ruled that a writ petition seeking the establishment of a formal committee-based process for selection and appointment of the chief election commissioner and the election commissioners would be heard by a constitution bench comprising five Supreme Court judges.

The Asian strategic triangle that includes the complex and often contradictory relationship between the three major powers viz China, Japan and India will witness considerable summit-level engagement over the next few weeks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Tokyo (28-29 October) for a third visit to meet with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and it is expected that major infrastructure and defence logistic agreements will be concluded.

The targeting of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and even Madhya Pradesh as proxies for the man who allegedly raped an infant girl almost a fortnight ago in Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat, has unfortunately been given a political tinge although this should have been seen as symptomatic of the flaw in the so-called Gujarat model.

This is not a #MeToo piece. I am merely strolling down memory lane.

Just after my graduation in 1982, I headed to The Telegraph office in Calcutta. The paper had been launched that very year. The Editor MJ Akbar was the superstar of journalism, after a successful tenure at Sunday, the magazine he had been editing for six years before The Telegraph was born.

The death of over 62 people in the train accident near Amritsar has sent shock-waves across the country. The Prime Minister issued a statement on Twitter as per the usual; the countless injured are being treated at hospitals, while ex gratia compensations have been announced for families of the deceased. But – what next?