Tag: Scandeep

By Sandeep Sahu What Albert Einstein had said about Mahatma Gandhi could well be said – and equally befittingly – about Nabakrushna Choudhury, an illustrious disciple of the Father of the Nation. “Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” But in […]

By Sandeep Sahu Midway into his five-year term, Narendra Damodardas Modi‘s record as Prime Minister has been a mixed bag. He has notched up some notable successes and some equally notable failures. On the positive side are a series of initiatives to put some life back into the moribund economy, the mainstreaming of cleanliness as […]

By Sandeep Sahu It is no secret that politicians are held in extremely low esteem by most people in the country. And Monday provided yet another instance – if one was needed at all – why they are such a despised lot. The occasion was Union Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s visit to Malkangiri, which has […]

By Sandeep Sahu Indians are nothing if not ingenious. Trust them to turn adversity into a business opportunity. One just has to look at the innovative ways some people have devised to work around the ban on Rs 500 & 1000 notes that came as a bolt from the blue for the nation on November […]

By Sandeep Sahu To give or not to give? How many times have you been confronted with this dilemma when you see a prematurely ageing woman in tattered clothes holding a baby or a haggard looking man all wrapped up in bandages making a desperate plea for some alms at a traffic junction or outside […]

By Sandeep Sahu It is so easy to criticize the government. It can be blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong – from the rain gods playing truant to a bus falling off a bridge. That perhaps is the price of power. But there are times when one does wish not to be in […]

By Sandeep Sahu I seriously doubt if Sunita (name changed) has ever made a call on her mobile phone. Every time she makes a call, it’s a ‘missed call’, the Great Indian Innovation. For some reason which I am yet to figure out, her particular brand of missed call would be so brief that bat […]

It’s a classic case of cutting the nose to spite the face. With its lukewarm response to the Centre’s missive asking for the list of small and marginal farmers in the state for their inclusion in the Prime Minister’s Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana, the Naveen Patnaik government has made it amply clear that it […]

When a layman says something like this, it is at least understandable, if not condonable. But when a person holding the exalted post of Governor, who is sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution, does the same, it has serious implications for democracy and the Idea of India. Meghalya Governor Tathagata Roy has disgraced not […]

How naive and gullible some Indians can be! I was more amused than angry after witnessing the concerted effort by a section of our intellgentsia to hail Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as a ‘statesman’ after his announcement about releasing wing commander Abhinandan, who was in the custody of the Pakistanis, as a ‘peace gesture.””Are […]

It is a pathetic attempt at falsification of history. Health minister Pratap Jena’s claim that the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was founded on the ‘ideals’ of Biju Patnaik and the BJP had nothing to do with its formation must have made the legendary leader squirm in his grave. Unfortunately for Jena, there are plenty of […]

As soon as it was announced, commentators were quick to hail it as a ‘game changer’. But nearly a week down the line, it is increasingly becoming clear that the 33% reservation of Lok Sabha seats for women by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo in Kendrapara, the first time any party in India has done […]

It is a house on fire right now. The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which has emerged the clear front-runner in most pre-election surveys, is currently busy firefighting after the announcement of the first list of party candidates for the simultaneous Lok Sabha polls in Odisha last Wednesday. The rate at which BJD leaders are […]

It has been the subject of street corner gossip for as long as one can remember. But on Sunday, BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik lent authenticity to what had so far remained only in the realm of speculation. Normally, it is extremely difficult to pin Naveen down to the numbers game, who restricts […]

The ongoing simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha and Assembly in Odisha will certainly go down in history as an election of several firsts; some welcome, others not so welcome. Perhaps fittingly enough, the credit for the first of the many firsts goes to the man around whom politics in the state has revolved over the […]