Truth vs Hype

As the Gujarat government battles the charges of subjecting a young woman and an IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to intense surveillance in 2009, the BJP says they were honouring the wishes of her father, who wanted protection for the woman, from Sharma, who has since been suspended on multiple charges of corruption. Now for the first time, on NDTV, Pradeep Sharma breaks his silence revealing the inside story of the sequence of events which led to the Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, at the behest of a "Saheb", keeping watch on two citizens.

As election day approaches, opinion polls suggest that the Aam Aadmi Party will be a force to reckon with in Delhi. This week, an on the ground, in depth report on the exciting and bewildering AAP phenomenon: are they rewriting the rules of elections, or are they already becoming trapped in the compromises of conventional politics? Will they simply be a spoiler, or emerge as serious contenders in the battle for Delhi?

Since May this year, the world's attention is fixed on South Africa, where the giant of its anti-apartheid struggle, Nelson Mandela, battles for his life. Information on his health has been extremely sketchy. But through the lens of Nobel prize winner Desmond Tutu, his fellow traveller in the battle against apartheid, and who was in India this week, we are offered a remarkable insight into the Mandela story, which is as much the story of these two individuals, who sometimes in conflict, sometimes in partnership played a key role in one of the most fascinating political journeys of our time.

Narendra Modi's plans to construct a massive statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat is the latest attempt by the BJP to appropriate the mantle of one of the giants of the independence movement. This has triggered considerable panic in the Congress, which is making a late attempt to reclaim the Patel legacy. With ground reports from Bharuch, Ahmedabad and New Delhi, we report on how India's Iron man was far too complex a figure to allow for easy appropriation either by Hindutvavaadis or by the Congress of today.

The CBI's latest FIR in the coal allotment scam against a whistleblowing former Coal Secretary and a highly regarded industrialist has raised questions about the quality of their evidence. The CBI insists it's a conspiracy, the PMO claims it was above board. This week, we sift through the facts to find a more nuanced reality: the PMO's defence of the Hindalco is full of anomalies, but in themselves that may not amount to corruption. But even if the CBI is on a weak wicket on Hindalco, it doesn't mean that in other cases, wrongful allotments didn't take place at all, and money didn't change hands. So the more germane question to ask is why has the CBI not been able to unearth the higher levels of political conspiracy underlying coal allotments?

The conviction of Lalu Prasad in the fodder scam is being seen as a watershed moment in the politics of Bihar. But the focus on the political aftermath has deflected attention from the specific charges against Lalu. This week, from Ranchi, Patna and New Delhi we retrace the trail of corruption, bringing onto the camera key investigators, activists, accused and politicians, some for the first time. Was Lalu - as the CBI claims - the focal point of a sprawling nexus of corruption, where politicians, officials and contractors colluded to siphon off crores from an impoverished state, or as Lalu claims, was he simply unaware of the systematic loot taking place under his nose?

On the cusp of talks between the heads of India and Pakistan, three terrorists managed to slip inside India's borders in Jammu. Eight hours of mayhem and killings ensued, as they attacked multiple targets. Their goal appears to be to strain already tense diplomatic equations between both countries, but along the way they also exposed multiple flaws in a security establishment unprepared for what appears to be a new season of violence.

The cycle of violence and retaliation in Muzaffarnagar has slowed down for now. This week, we travel through a calm but tense countryside to understand what are the forces which divided two communities that have no history of animosity: how much of it is based on genuine grievance, and how much on divisive politics?

The simmering communal tension in Uttar Pradesh came to a boil in Muzaffarnagar, where lives have been lost, homes burnt to the ground, people turned into refugees. This week, in a special one hour edition of Truth vs Hype we trace how a combination of dangerous political opportunism and criminal negligence by the state government converted an isolated instance of violence into a major riot.

Yasin Bhatkal, accused of being part of the Indian Mujahideen, is now in custody, but does the group face an uncertain future, or does it still hold lethal potential?