News and Views

Uddhav Thackeray, steering the course of the 52-year-old Shiv Sena and setting its compass for the next decade, is not a great fan of Shakespeare’s work. Yet, the classic dilemma from Hamlet – “To be, or not to be...” – best describes his political predicament of the last four years. And underscores his Dussehra speech at Mumbai’s famed Shivaji Park.

Caught in the dilemma of whether to be an ally or adversary to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Thackeray dialed back to the Sena’s agenda of the 1980s – belligerent and confrontational Hindutva.

A fighter pilot and a war veteran, Air Commodore (retd.) Ravish Malhotra nearly became the first Indian in space. But fate, rather the authorities in Delhi where Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister, had other plans.

Ravish Malhotra was picked as the two finalists who trained in USSR for India’s first mission to space. Listen to his story on how he trained alongside Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma and ultimately lost out on making history, to him.

'We Have Been Framed': Accused's Father-In-Law on the Bribery Case Involving Asthana

Brother Priests, Sisters allege foul play in the death of Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, a crucial witness against Bishop Franco Mulakkal in the Kerala nun rape case. Father Kuriakose, who had testified against rape accused Bishop Mulakkal, was found dead in Jalandhar on Monday, 22 October.

Brother Priests, Sisters allege foul play in the death of Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, a crucial witness against Bishop Franco Mulakkal in the Kerala nun rape case. Father Kuriakose, who had testified against rape accused Bishop Mulakkal, was found dead in Jalandhar on Monday, 22 October.

This was in the early 1990s in the newsroom of India’s most happening newspaper, a publication I was thrilled to be working for as a young reporter. Our chief reporter and I decided to step out for lunch together as we were to carry on a discussion about one of my stories.

Two colleagues were to join us for the meal at a then-famous Udupi place in south Bombay, a few blocks away from our office.

A prominent visual media channel has revealed through a video story that almost 14 incursions by the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have occurred recently in the Ladakh sector in just two weeks, with four additional incursions across the Indo-Tibet border in Uttarakhand.

The Indian Army calls these ‘transgressions’ because there cannot be ‘incursions’ across an undefined line which is what the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is, with perceptions being different, and even claims being hazy.

The Delhi High Court on 1 October set aside the transit remand order, and subsequent detention under house arrest, of activist Gautam Navlakha.

Navlakha had been arrested by the Maharashtra Police as an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case , on 29 August.

On 4 October, the Maharashtra government moved the Supreme Court against Navlakha’s release. The case will in all probability come up before the newly appointed Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

Any one reporting in the 90s in Delhi would remember the unguarded government mansion at 3 Krishna Menon Marg that hosted Arakans, Chins, Karens, Burmese, artists, journalists, children and women. This was the address of India’s Defence Minister George Fernandes, who himself occupied just one room of the house . The Burmese resistance movement was literally being played out from the Indian Defence Minister’s living quarters. Former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral once remarked, with a touch of amusement, that Fernandes had always been a fighter for lost causes.

Of the five states going to polls in November-December, Madhya Pradesh may well prove to be a bellwether of the BJP’s fortunes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Although assembly results are not always accurate indicators of the national mood, the MP campaign seems to have become a testing ground for the big battle ahead, making it the most keenly-watched of all the state contests.