Politics News Updates

Over the last few days, there has been plenty of speculation, primarily driven by media reports, about a new developing axis between Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee. But is such an axis really on the works? If it is, is it part of the nationwide move to form […]

By Sandeep Sahu On the day of his death anniversary, there is one thing that can be said about Biju Patnaik without any fear of ever being proved wrong: there will never be anyone like him. He is unique because he is impossible to slot. How does one describe him? A politician? That would be […]

By Sandeep Sahu Amid the hullabaloo over the two-day national executive meet of the BJP beginning Saturday , a piece of news that would have certainly created a flutter at any other time has not received the kind of attention it deserved. After all, it is not every day that six senior IAS officers, among […]

By Sandeep Sahu Disturbing visuals of a woman being thrashed by a mob, mostly consisting of women, in Ambajoda village in Mayurbhanj earlier this week proved two things. First, the Jatland in north India does not have a monopoly on khap panchayats; our very own Odisha is not too far behind. Second, when it comes […]

By Sandeep Sahu When the BJP said it, it was easy to dismiss it as the ranting of a party desperate to come to power in the state. But now that veteran BJD leader and the local MP Arjun Sethy has said the same thing, we can no more ignore the charge that a small […]

The fight has now begun in right earnest. Ahead of the BJP national executive meet in Bhubaneswar on April 15 & 16, the battle of attrition between the saffron party and the ruling BJD has sent the political temperature soaring in the state. With both sides determined not to give an inch, things can be […]

By Sandeep Sahu Only this morning, DGP KB Singh was assuring the state that all is well in Bhadrak. “Some people had tried to disturb peace last evening. But now things are under complete control,” the DGP said without batting an eyelid. By evening, he was on his way to the trouble-torn town in the […]

By Sandeep Sahu Years ago, while on a trip together to Manoharpur in Keonjhar district to report on the gruesome killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, an Australian journalist had asked this columnist a question that was as hard to answer then as it is now. “Why are you Indians so […]

Suddenly, one sees a marked change in everything about Naveen Patnaik: his demeanour, his body language, his working style .. you name it. Gone is the reticence before the media, the haughtiness in his public interactions and the tendency to ensconce himself on a pedestal. In its place, there is now an air of self-assuredness […]

By Sandeep Sahu The best and the brightest have done it. Among those who have been accused of plagiarism in the recent past are such illustrious names as Farid Zakaria, celebrity host of CNN’s flagship foreign affairs show ‘Farid Zakaria GPS’ and our very own Aroon Purie, the editor-in-chief of the India Today group. So […]

By Sandeep Sahu It has been just two days since the Supreme Court imposed a ban on liquor shops within 500 meters of national highways and we have already got a taste of the kind of problems the decision may lead to. There certainly is a lesson for the government in what happened in Nuapada […]

By Sandeep Sahu Ever since BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik asked Bishnu Das to resign from the Rajya Sabha, the name of Gita Mehta, his elder sister, has been doing the rounds in political circles as a possible replacement for the Jagatsinghpur leader. In the last few days, the talk has veered to the possibility of […]

By Sandeep Sahu The surest sign that all is not well in a political party is when leaders of the party talk to each other – or rather talk at each other – or air their grievances through the media, both traditional and social. By this reckoning, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) looks genuinely ailing. […]

By Sandeep Sahu It is obvious now. After its stupendous victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and commendable show in Manipur, the BJP is now convinced that Odisha is a ripe fruit waiting to be plucked. The decision to hold the party’s national executive here in Bhubaneswar in mid April, announced by the Union Petroleum […]

By Sandeep Sahu The ugly incident at the New Delhi airport in which Shiv Sena MP from Osmanabad (Maharashtra) Ravindra Gaekwad thrashed a senior Air India (AI) official with his sandals in full view of the crew has had at least one good fall-out. It has revived the call for a ‘no fly’ list of […]