Tag: Scandeep

Yet another Utkal Dibasa is upon us. Like previous years, elaborate plans have been drawn up to celebrate the occasion. Most cities and town in Odisha are already wearing a festive look with colourful ‘Chinesse’ lights illuminating all government buildings and institutions. Social and cultural outfits too are organizing a host of events to mark […]

The much needed – and much delayed – second bridge on River Brahmani in Rourkela is fast turning out to be a joke played on the people of the Steel City on All Fools Day three years ago by no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. April 1, 2018, as ruefully pointed out by Rourkela […]

It is a sad day for cricket. And for the millions of fans spread across the world who love the beautiful game. There could well be people in cricket playing countries, especially those that have received a thrashing at the hands of the Kanagaroos over the years, who would be gloating over this moment of […]

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 […]