Tag: Sandeep Sahu

[A disclaimer is perhaps in order at the very outset. This columnist has never taken Exit Polls or their findings seriously and has always believed in waiting for the actual results to roll out before trying to make sense of the ‘verdict’. Hence, he would hold his breath till May 23 before drawing any conclusion. […]

By Sandeep Sahu There are two kinds of Odias. The first, clearly in a majority, think he is the best thing that has happened to Odisha since independence. That he is the ‘outsider’ who has made Odisha his home and has done what none of the ‘insiders’ who preceded him could; he is honest to […]

By Sandeep Sahu When Naveen Patnaik announced Pramila Bisoyi’s name as the BJD candidate from the Aska Lok Sabha constituency, I remember having wondered, like many others, “Pramila Who?” But after a few quick enquiries with those who knew her, I was convinced that this was an inspired – and inspiring – choice by the […]

By Sandeep Sahu Suddenly, ‘Bol Bom’ bashing has become fashionable among a section of the people in our state. As in most other cases, the opposition is voiced by those who never had the experience of being part of it. Do they even know what it takes to complete a ‘Bol Bom’ trip, the toll […]

By Sandeep Sahu Weeks before the 2004 elections, I happened to be Kalahandi. After completing the day’s work, I happened to meet a few people who had just returned from the Gram Sabha earlier in the day where consent was wrested for setting up of the 1 million ton per annum (MTPA) capacity bauxite refinery […]

By Sandeep Sahu Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck all the right notes in his address to the nation, explaining at length the circumstances that persuaded the government and to all but abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, which has been the basis of the relationship of Jammu & Kashmir with the Indian Union since 1950, […]

By Sandeep Sahu Like most controversies of our highly toxic times, this one too had its origins in social media. At the centre of the controversy was a video, first uploaded on YouTube and later shared on Facebook (both deleted now), showing the burning of ‘Madhu Barnabodha’, the grammar primer for Odia language. What lent […]

By Sandeep Sahu A fortnight after the demolition drive inside a 75-meter radius around the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri began, no one knows what the government proposes to do with the land thus cleared. Will it be a No Man’s Land with only a passage left for devotees to enter the temple? Will part […]

I feared the worst when the phone rang at 1.38 am. It was good friend and senior journalist Ashok Mohapatra. Late night calls, as all of us know, have a habit of bringing dreadful news. And what could have been more dreadful news than the death of dear friend Dilip Satpathy, widely and justifiably acknowledged […]

By Sandeep Sahu Ahead of the launch of the ‘Mo Sarkar’ initiative on October 2, the Naveen Patnaik government has already started a ‘dry run’ with DGP Bijay Kumar Sharma and Twin City commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi calling up visitors to police stations and asking them about the quality and efficiency of the service provided and […]

By Sandeep Sahu It’s an extraordinary situation for sure and I seriously doubt if the judicial system in India has seen anything like this before. Just imagine a High Court, no less, as one of the ‘parties’ in a case! It had to the unenviable task of appointing a counsel to ‘represent’ it in the […]

By Sandeep Sahu The Indian women’s fascination for – even obsession with – gold has long been the subject of much mirth, ridicule and unflattering jokes among men. But what has gone under the radar – perhaps because it’s the men who dominate public discourse – is that Indian men are not far behind their […]

By Sandeep Sahu Who drove the Rairangpur lady lecturer to suicide? It was certainly not Soumya Ranjan Sahoo, the man who allegedly raped her and was arrested for it – but only after her death. Had that been the case, she would have committed suicide nearly a month back, soon after she was raped by […]

By Sandeep Sahu So, the ‘game changer’ has turned into a ‘game spoiler’! Of course, it was too good to last and had to unravel at some stage. After all, the outgo from the state exchequer on account of just the first six monthly installment of Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) alone […]

By Sandeep Sahu Such jubilation on the streets is seen only when Team India wins a major world cricket tournament like the World Cup. Sweets were exchanged, crackers burst and “Hyderabad police Zindabaad’ slogans rent the air across the country. In Hyderabad, scenes of people showering flowers on city police personnel were reminiscent of lawyers […]