Garga Chatterjee
Narendra Modi govt's stand on jallikattu re-establishes bias towards Tamil interests
Whether Jallikattu is right or wrong, should it be discontinued or continued or continued with modifications, is an out and out Tamil affair. That the Animal Welfare Board of India, which doesn’t exactly reflect Tamil opinion, gets to decide on this shows how Tamils are infantilised as being incapable of deciding their own affairs
Giriraj Singh's nasbandi theory: A clever ploy for BJP to increase Hindu vote bank
Contrary to what Bharatiya Janata Party leader Giriraj Singh recently said, high population growth is not a national problem. It's centred to six states in India — Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the BJP won 60 percent of its total seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha election
Does Jayalalithaa's death signal the fall of federalism in Indian democracy?
The death of J Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and supremo of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), calls for an assessment of her and the party’s political role in her times.
For many Africans, Cuban leader Fidel Castro was a hero who battled white supremacy
Africa knows it is still a white man’s world. Hence it remembers Fidel Castro’s role in Africa. So should we.
GST stalemate: Why Centre can’t expect cooperation after concealing data from states
Arun Jaitley is finding it difficult to defend the Union’s claims on a tax base that he earlier took for granted, given the allegedly misleading information that was fed by the Union government officials to the state finance ministers
Demonetisation: New currency notes are all about Narendra Modi, Hindi and New Delhi
The difference between the old design and the new seem to be centered on three things: Hindi, Delhi and Narendra Modi.
Citizenship Act: BJP's religion-based amendment threatens the secular fabric of India
BJP's move to mark out illegal migrants of specific religions for citizenship was opposed by many factions of society, as it threatens India's secularity.
Manipur University protests: Centre's reservation norms will deny tribal students their rights
To Indians, Delhi’s problems are India’s problem while Manipur’s problems are Manipur’s problem, except when people of Manipur say that.
Who speaks for Muslims? Self-appointed elites on wrong side of social divide shouldn't
But who speaks for Muslims? It can't be left to self-appointed elites who fall on the wrong side of representation on the axis of caste, language and gender.
Durga puja is hardly a national festival but it unites Bengalis from all over the world
Thus, many Bengali Hindus would claim in an off-hand manner that Durga Puja, who is Shakti incarnate, as Bengal’s biggest festival.
Two years of Swachh Bharat: As South Asia goes on open defecation free drive, personal choices can make the difference
As the whole of South Asia goes on a commendable open defecation free drive with the People’s Republic of Bangladesh leading the way, I am left wondering what kind of thoughts and sensitivities will determine the choice of latrine in the millions of new entrants to “closed” defecation spaces.
Delhi's worsening crime rates: Why children, elderly, girls are unsafe in the national capital
The 2015 NCRB data shows that there were 927 incidents of child rapes reported in Delhi. That’s three children being raped per day! What is it about the national capital that attracts perverts and sexual offenders from all over to consider it their 'ideal' place.
Dry days in West Bengal reduced: Mamata Banerjee govt puts fiscal realities ahead of divisive politics
In a move that has been more celebrated than denounced in West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee-led state government has decided to drastically decrease the number of dry days in West Bengal from 12 to 4.5
Air India's hidden subsidy shows that the govt uses the company merely as a political tool
In spite of having the most bloated personnel structure in the industry, Air India continues to provide the worst service in the skies.
Zakir Naik's 'Peace TV' ban in Dhaka raises the question of what is actually Indian
While calls for the defence of freedom of expression have been curiously muted in the context of Zakir Naik and the pre-existing ban on his Peace TV in the Indian Union, the ban in Bangladesh has been relatively easy, in the context of the recent murderous Islamist attacks in Dhaka.
GST Bill is aimed at achieving corporate control over democratic mechanisms
GST bill is aimed at corporate control of one of the most important democratic mechanisms of people's control over revenue and resources.
When money for other states is given to Delhi, it resembles the imperial seat of an empire
The Urban Development Ministry has been spending money, extracted as tax and revenue from other Indian states, disproportionately for projects in Delhi
Mamata Banerjee, the biggest winner of Assembly polls, sets the stage for 2019
Politicking has already started for the Lok Sabha 2019. Mamata Banerjee, the biggest winner of the assembly polls, made that very clear.
Stateless Indians in West Bengal: Artificial notions of nation and nationhood evident at macabre extremes
An unfortunate vestige of the most recent partition of Bengal in 1947, the enclaves are bits of land of a nation-state that are surrounded on all sides by land of another nation-state.
If CPM-Congress alliance is successful in Bengal, it will last till 2019 LS elections
What is shaping up as the 2016 Battle for Bengal will have far-reaching consequences with regards to the parliamentary elections of 2019