Tag: Scandeep

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 […]

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 I have often wondered how many denizens of ‘Smart City No. 1’ have bothered to have a look at the electronic boards displaying the temperature and something called ‘AQI’ at a few important junctions in the city like Rabindra Mandap square or the now defunct one at the Power House square? Of […]

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 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 […]

By Sandeep Sahu There is such a deluge of ‘shocking’ news these days that we have stopped being shocked by most such news. But this one is in a category all its own. Forced by his elder sister against his will to go to school, a Class IX student in Mayurbhanj district shut himself up […]

By Sandeep Sahu “A rose”, Shakespeare had said, “by any other name would smell as sweet.” To paraphrase the bard, “A rotten egg by any other name would smell as foul.” So what exactly is expected to change after the renaming of Sachivalaya Marg as Lok Seva Marg? Will the traffic cops along the way […]

By Sandeep Sahu Did he mean it? Or was he just being disingenuous? It was, of course, magnanimous of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik to claim, while addressing the 22nd foundation day celebrations of the BJD on Thursday, that the party was not ‘dependent’ on him for its survival and growth. But was […]

By Sandeep Sahu Pradeep Majhi is the last person you would expect to say the kind of things for which he has been at the centre of media attention for over 36 hours now. He is even more unlikely to stubbornly defend what he was caught saying on camera during the 12-hour Nabarangpur bandh organized […]

By Sandeep Sahu As the world prepares to usher in the New Year, I am steeling myself to say, with a heavy heart, goodbye to the BBC Hindi service radio. By the time this piece reaches you, the iconic service on 25 and 41 meter band of short wave radio that had kept millions of […]

By Sandeep Sahu The visuals say it all! A bag of onion falls off a truck carrying the stuff from Nasik to Sambalpur near Debahal in Bargarh district and there is a stampede of sorts!! People stop their cars bang in the middle of the road and start picking up as much of the onion […]

By Sandeep Sahu It’s not over yet. Before we exult that “Justice has finally been done to Nirbhaya’, let us not forget that the four beasts who brutalized the 22-year old paramedic on a cold evening in Delhi seven long years ago still have the option of filing a curative petition against their death sentences. […]

By Sandeep Sahu The man looked mighty agitated. “By all means, impose means for all other traffic violations: registration, insurance, pollution and everything else. But for heaven’s sake, spare those lacking driving licenses (DLs)? How can you fine people when they have been waiting for their DLs for over a month and half after having […]