By Sidharth Mishra

Its Puja time and it’s unfortunate that the celebrations should get mired into a controversy on when to immerse the idol of the Goddess. For us in Delhi, the matter may have got rested with the Kolkata High Court decree and the executive order of the Mamata Banerjee government which followed. But people’s sentiments on such matters of faith do not necessarily ebb and soar with court decrees and executive orders. They become part of the folklore and leave indelible mark on the local psyche.    To buttress my point, let me recall the 1989 Lok Sabha polls, which had come with an unusual dichotomy in the voters’ mood. While there was unanimity in their anger towards the Congress, led by Rajiv Gandhi, the reason for anger varied from region to region. By 1987-88, the mammoth mandate which Gandhi had received in December 1984 had started to erode, at least in public appreciation if not in the numbers inside Parliament. His Finance and later Defence Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh had walked out on the issue of probity in public life.

By Sidharth Mishra

Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) election results declared last week created some stiron the campus but not the way as it got projected in the media. Party spokespersons and analysts went to the extent of declaring it as a referendum on the performance of the Narendra Modi government and a signal for the return of the Congress to power. Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken expectedly gave credit to his leader Rahul Gandhi but overdid the act saying that Congress vice-president’s speech at University of Columbia, Berkley changed situation overnight.A veteran Delhi Congress worker justified the “courtier’s quote” saying what else could made Congress jump from nowhere (it figured below the NOTA votes in the JNUSU polls a few days earlier) to clinching top two positions in DUSU. First JNU and DUSU are very different, while former largely has the post-graduates and research scholars participating in the polls, DUSU is more about under-graduates participating in a more brusque process.

By Sidharth Mishra

The murder of Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru earlier this week and the scavenging by the political parties over her death is one of the saddest events that I have witnessed in quarter of a century as a reporter. Early in my career, I had felt very peeved covering the funeral of Indian Air Force helicopter pilots killed during the Kargil conflict at Sarsawa air base. The cause for feeling peeved was not the war but the way a colleague from television had forced the toddler of the dead soldier pose with his father’s coffin. A thought had then occurred to me, will those in the business of news prey on the dead. The advent of social media has made it worse; the death of a newsperson is being preyed on.What is not being discussed is the sensational manner in which Gauri was gunned down but what is being addressed is what she spoke before her death, and what others spoke after her death. Having started my career as a crime reporter, I have in the past three days yearned to read a report on the crime scene description; what I have got in bargain is clatter of the war-mongers on the twitter. 

By Sidharth Mishra

When news the broke out last week about Chapra MP Rajiv Pratap Rudi being asked to resign from the Union Cabinet, memory of a similar exercise came rushing back. In 1986, then all powerful Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had undertaken a similar application – carrying out a reshuffle and asking his non-performing ministers to quit.Though Rajiv Gandhi commanded much larger a majority in Parliament (support of over 400 Lok Sabha members), but he wasn’t as tough, or should we say wise, a politician as present Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rajiv Gandhi had his hatchet man Arun Nehru ready for the job, the kind of role which Amit Shah plays. But there was difference, Shah holds position of party head and thus can summon a party Minister. Nehru was designated just a Minister of State, not even a Cabinet rank. 

By Sidharth Mishra

Let me start with a disclaimer that this article doesn’t purport to be in the defence of such acts indulged into by cult leaders which demands judicial and social reprimand. With Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of DeraSachaSauda sentenced to 20 years in jail, the narrative on the television in the 48 hours shifted to the to more ‘juicy’ tales of who would succeed Baba and inherit the financial and spiritual legacy. The incident in Panckula last Friday, which left several dead in police action stood as an evidence of the faith people had in their ‘Baba’, which raised queries in the urban drawing rooms, what made people get drawn to him in the first place.The hesitation and inhibition which ManoharLalKhattar government showed in using the iron hand against, whom some called marauders must not have been without merit and not just the simple concern for a vote bank.

By Sidharth Mishra

Last week Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attended a “Saanjhi Virasat Bachao” meet convened by almost ousted Janata Dal (United) leader SharadYadav. At the meet, if one were to believe Rahul acolytes, their leader came out with flying colours matching NarendraModi, “word-for-word”. Rahul Gandhi famously said, for that brief moment of glory, “Modiji says he wants to create a ‘Swachch Bharat’ but we want a ‘Sach Bharat’.”Now does Mr Gandhi’s presence at the said convention of “16 political parties”, most of them having innocuous role in country’s politics, add to the discomfort of his rivals? Gandhi, who urgently needs to save “Congress Ki Virasat”, with his style of theatrical politics rather adds to the comfort of his rivals.

By Sidharth Mishra

Given the narrative which is dominating the media currently, the headline of this article may sound like sacrilege. Given the shoot and scoot journalism, which runs for ratings than the truth; and seldom for solutions; an effort to understand the catastrophe which made its annual visit to Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital (BRDMCH) would be asking for too much. Another problem with the Gorakhpur tragedy story is the personality of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. His saffron robes, the thick ear-ring of monkhood which he wears, and the plain speak on the agenda of minority appeasement which he does, make him a figure which the Left of the Centre media just loves to hate. In their hatred for the personality, they have overlooked the fact that it’s Yogi who kept rising in Parliament to raise the issue of the infant deaths due to the killer encephalitis. Adityanath was the youngest member of the 12th LokSabha at 26. He has been elected to the Parliament from Gorakhpur for five consecutive terms (in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections).

By Sidharth Mishra

The conflict in Kashmir is of hybrid kind. It’s neither a full-scale war nor a low intensity conflict. It’s a battle, where, at least as evident in the past three years, the Government is pushing for the endgame. On the other hand, the endgame would threaten the existing social, political and economic status quo, even if it has bled the Valley for past seven decades in particular and the nation in general. This hybrid conflict has shown an ironical character. Theoretically it’s being fought to defend Kashmiriyat from the shadow Indian sovereignty. However, the battle has saving Kashmiriyat has devoured its own child and ideology. Today it’s the Indian Sovereign which has fighting tooth and nail to save Kashmiriyat from the claws of Islamisation and radicalization of Kashmiri society, which followed the liberal Sufi strand of Islam.