Tag: Sandeep Sahu

At a time when the Congress is showing definite signs of a revival of sorts after being in the doldrums since the crushing defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the party unit in Odisha paradoxically appears to be possessed by a death wish. The debilitating defeat in Bijepur, a seat won by the party […]

If Bijepur deflated the balloon, North East has pumped in fresh air. Just three days after the BJP was brought down to earth by the stunning defeat in the most high profile by-election in the state in recent memory, the commendable performance in four north eastern states, especially the stupendous victory in the Left bastion […]

With the high-voltage, bitterly fought Bijepur by-election over, the focus now shifts to the Rajya Sabha elections on March 23 in which three seats from Odisha would be up for grabs. Given the composition of the state Assembly, it is a foregone conclusion that all three who would replace Messrs AU Singhdeo, Dillip Tirkey and […]

It was my first ‘scoop’ as a journalist. Sometime in the summer of 1988, an acquaintance who was then a student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), desperately sought me out. What he told me was startling. Question papers of the Plus Two examination, he claimed, were being sold openly in Khurda town. I asked […]

It has been two days since the BJD formally lodged a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) accusing leading Odia TV channel OTV of peddling ‘paid news’ designed to favour the BJP and work against the ruling party in the run up to the Bijepur by-election. Over the last two days, I have been […]

My sympathies have always been with teachers of the state, who have spent more time protesting on the streets than teaching in the classes in the last few years as a callous and apathetic state government has repeatedly turned a deaf ear to their legitimate demands. Even in the ongoing round of confrontation, I am […]

Mercifully, it has now been taken down. But that does not diminish the gravity of the situation. That a Facebook group calling itself ‘Hindutva Varta’ has the audacity to publish a list of 102 girls who, according to it, are either ‘victims of love jihad or are in the process of becoming so’ and openly […]

Political prediction is always fraught with risks. Even seasoned commentators have ended up with egg on their faces after crystal gazing into the future. But ‘Scandeep’ will still stick its neck out and predict that Bijoy Mohapatra, the enfant terrible of Odisha politics, is set to return to the party he co-founded before the next […]

A couple of weeks ago, my wife had an attack of cold while on a trip to Baripada. What followed was a particularly severe and seemingly endless bout of dry cough. As usual, I rushed to the neighbourhood chemist who, as usual, gave three medicines to be taken for the next three days and asked, […]

These days, the term ‘paid media’ is used in abandon – and more often than not by people who know nothing about the working or economics of the media business. Fake, motivated reports, pictures and videos from dubious sources are shared liberally on social media by people with the mandatory comment “Paid media will never […]

Arvind Kejriwal has come a long way since he burst into public consciousness with his pioneering work on the Right to Information (RTI), which won him the coveted Raman Magsaysay award, and then ignited the whole country as the chosen lieutenant of Anna Hazare during the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement in 2010-11. Today, his […]

There are two ways to look at the Gujarat election results. You can either say it was a tremendous achievement on the part of the BJP to have beaten the anti-incumbency of five consecutive terms in office to retain power. You can also see it as the first sign of the shrinking support for the […]

The headline was hard to miss – and too salacious to skip the story. Here, in nutshell, goes the story that appeared in a leading Odia daily under the catchy title “Angel Priya bhabi asithile; dekhile Sukuti Sahu” (“Came in search of Angel Priya, Found Sukuti Sahu instead”) today. Attracted by the beautiful profile picture […]

The organisers must have been pleasantly surprised. With rains lashing the city almost all day on Friday, empty stands at the Kalinga Stadium, the venue for the ongoing Hockey World League (HWL), would have been entirely along expected lines notwithstanding the fact that it was the semi-final of the marquee event. Instead, it was a […]

One of the key attributes of a successful politician is the ability to say something in public while meaning something entirely different. Thus, when BJD President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says on the eve of the winter session of the Assembly “We are ready to discuss any issue that the Opposition may raise,” what […]