Tag: Scandeep

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 […]

Violence has been an inseparable part of elections in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal since as long as one can remember. Killings, rigging and booth capturing marked elections in many parts of the country in the pre-EVM era. Odisha, in contrast, was an island of peace in those days. Maoist violence was […]

How seriously should we take senior BJD leader Surya Narayan Patro’s “Naveen for PM” call? Did he speak out of turn? Or did he have the sanction of the party supremo before going public with it? Having watched how things work in the ruling party since its inception, this columnist would tend to go with […]

[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 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 […]

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 […]