A scuffle at the Sangam reveals how Uttar Pradesh’s politics struggles to manage mass devotion without turning it into a contest of power. Uttar Pradesh The Magh Mela, a part rival to the Kumbh, once again tested Uttar Pradesh’s ability to choreograph belief on a civilisational scale. As more than 4.5 crore devotees recently converged on the Sangam for Mauni Amavasya, an exercise in logistical endurance turned into a political flashpoint after a prominent seer was stopped by

A Sikh martyrdom fair in Muktsar has become the unlikely battleground for Punjab’s next political realignment. Punjab The Maghi Mela at Sri Muktsar Sahib has never been a quiet affair. Every January, tens of thousands of Sikhs gather on the sacred ground where the Forty ‘Muktas,’ or warriors who returned to fight and die for Guru Gobind Singh in 1705, won spiritual liberation through sacrifice. The mela has always been heavily steeped in politics. For decades it has served as

Vijay’s swansong film has become a proxy war in Tamil Nadu’s fiercely-contested election. Tamil Nadu With barley four months before Tamil Nadu goes to the polls, a film has managed to unsettle both the state’s entrenched rulers and the central government in Delhi. Jana Nayagan (“People’s Hero”), the final outing of the superstar-turned-politician Vijay, was meant to be a curtain call to a 30-year film career. It has instead turned into a full-blown constitutional melodrama, r

Delhi An anti-encroachment drive should ideally be a modest municipal exercise. Instead, the one near Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan has become another case study in how routine governance is repeatedly converted into controversy. Acting on a Delhi High Court order, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi began removing unauthorised structures adjoining the Syed Faiz Elahi mosque and a nearby graveyard at Turkman Gate. Following frenzied speculation that the mosque was about to be demolis

Tamil Nadu’s opposition must find a common voice if it hopes to dislodge a tired but still-preponderant DMK. Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu’s Opposition has begun campaigning for the crucial Assembly election this year by contradicting itself. When Amit Shah declared recently at a rally in Pudukottai that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would form the next government in the State, Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS), leader of the AIADMK and the BJP’s principal ally, responded within

Kerala’s biennale outrage exposes how artistic freedom is invoked selectively and cloaked in liberal sophistry. Kerala Good art provokes. Bad arguments excuse. The controversy around artist Tom Vattakuzhy’s reappearance at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale where he reworked the iconic  Last Supper  painting to replace Christ with a half-naked dancer flanked by nuns has produced both. The artist and the defenders of his painting have reached reflexively for the vocabulary of modern p

Indore’s carefully polished image as ‘India’s cleanest city’ has been punctured by a lethal incident of contaminated water killing its residents. Madhya Pradesh For years, Indore has been paraded as an urban success story. It has topped the Swachh Survekshan rankings with numbing regularity while its cleanliness has been showcased primarily as a matter of sweeping streets and polishing reputations. Yet in Bhagirathpura this week, beneath the bunting of civic pride, at least s

West Bengal’s voter-roll clean-up has exposed a government that treats electoral integrity not as a civic duty but as a political inconvenience. West Bengal A democracy’s health can often be measured not by how loudly its leaders invoke the ballot, but by how scrupulously they guard the machinery behind it. In West Bengal, that machinery is now grinding audibly. The Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has become a stress test of

The revocation of the land pooling scheme in Ujjain lays bare the limits of political authority. Madhya Pradesh Few spectacles test the Indian state quite like the Kumbh Mela. It blends faith, logistics and politics on a civilisational scale. Yet in Ujjain, where the Simhastha Kumbh is due in 2028, the Madhya Pradesh government has discovered that even the most sanctified ambitions can founder on the stubborn realities of land, livelihood and consent. This week the government

Sheer neglect of procedure and muddled leadership have done more harm to IFFK than any act of censorship. Kerala The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) has long prided itself on being India’s most politically alert cinephile gathering and a place where serious cinema, global causes and robust debate intersect. This year, however, the 30th edition of the IFFK turned into a cautionary tale about how administrative laxity, dressed up as ideological resistance, can corr

Between Siddaramaiah’s grip on power and Shivakumar’s restless ambition, the Karnataka Congress is trapped in a succession spiral. Karnataka Karnataka today has two chief ministers - one by office, the other by expectation. The power tussle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, has slipped so completely into the open that the Congress’s ritual denials sound like political farce. A whispered ‘understanding’ after the 2023 victory that each would get the CM’s po

The Masala Bond gamble that helped fuel Kerala’s infrastructure boom now lays bare the Left’s uneasy marriage with the markets. Kerala For a party that built its moral brand on austerity, probity and suspicion of global finance, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has developed a striking fondness for financial alchemy. Kerala’s celebrated experiment with rupee-denominated ‘Masala Bonds’ was meant to signal modern, market-savvy governance under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vija

Delhi’s winter smog is the symptom of a chronic governance failure. Delhi Even with farm fires at a multi-year low, Delhi-NCR’s winter air remains suffocating. For most of October and November, pollution levels oscillated between “very poor” and “severe,” fuelled not by distant fields but by a rising cocktail of PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide from vehicles, industry, waste burning and domestic fuel. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, 22 monitori

Born of bureaucratic logic in Delhi, the Chandigarh proposal has collided headlong with history and federal nerves in Punjab. Punjab The Centre’s recent aborted attempt to pull Chandigarh under Article 240 has turned incendiary. The proposal on November 21 “to amend the Constitution to bring Chandigarh under Article 240” detonated like a depth charge beneath Punjab’s already choppy waters. The reaction in Punjab was immediate and furious. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann accused

The killing of Madvi Hidma suggests the long-running Maoist insurgency in Andhra Pradesh and central India is entering its terminal phase. Andhra Pradesh The recent killing of Madvi Hidma, one of the most feared commanders of the banned CPI (Maoist), signals yet another decisive turn in a conflict that has shaped the political and security landscape of India’s heartland for half a century. Hidma, who was Central Committee member, head of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army

M.K. Stalin’s cynical campaign against the Election Commission reeks of political theatre, not principle. Tamil Nadu In Chennai’s political theatre, few performers relish the spotlight as much as M.K. Stalin. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, scion of the Dravidian dynasty that has ruled the state for much of the past half-century, now casts himself as democracy’s last defender. His latest move was to summon a grand all-party meeting railing against the Election Commission’s Spe

Priyank Kharge’s gaffe over semiconductor investments exposes not just Congress’s tone-deafness, but its failure to grasp India’s new industrial geography. Assam India’s race to join the global semiconductor club was never going to be easy. Building chip fabs requires billions in investment and, above all, political will. Yet, amid this high-stakes competition, the Congress party has managed to turn a debate about national industrial policy into an episode of regional insult.

The Trinamool Congress’s cynical politics of appeasement has corroded the moral and administrative foundations of West Bengal. West Bengal In Kakdwip, a quiet coastal town better known for its fishing boats and pilgrim traffic to Sagar Island, something far more sinister surfaced this week. The decapitated idols of Goddess Kali and Lord Shiva, found lying in a puja pandal, have set off a political and moral conflagration. The discovery of the vandalised idols, swiftly followe

Karnataka Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his Congress-led government recently turned a welfare milestone into a global embarrassment. By flaunting two ‘world records’ certified by a dissolved British firm, the Congress regime there has revealed its craving for validation at any cost. On October 16, the Chief Minister triumphantly announced that Karnataka had “entered the global stage” with the Shakti Scheme and the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC)

West Bengal’s chief minister has turned Durga Puja into a theatre of appeasement, where faith is subordinated to the survival instincts...