Renuka Bisht In the pitched faceoff between the Vijay starrer Mersal and the BJP leadership of Tamil Nadu, it’s very cool how the state film industry has spoken up for their peers loud, united and bold. Threatening and threatened (photo by K Antony Xavier) Whe... More »
Renuka Bisht Last weekend the three day ASEAN-India Music Festival 2017 was in town. The venue was the Purana Qila grounds. While nobody can deny that the capital city is blessed with a magnificent heritage in monuments, many of these are not really a joy to v... More »
Renuka Bisht Sometimes victory has the bitter taste of defeat. Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein got fired this week, as an NYT investigative story into decades of his predatory behaviour unchained an escalating series of complaints of sexual harassment. Amo... More »
Renuka Bisht It’s an important advance for women. Well into the 21st century it’s also a reality check about equal rights – about how easy it remains to treat women as a subordinate species. From across the world congratulations are pouring in at how the clois... More »
Renuka Bisht It’s preposterous how BJP is trying to claim that the Manohar Lal Khattar government actually did a good job, in how it acted quickly and strongly to bring Dera unrest within control within hours. This is a classic case of alt-facts. As the Punjab... More »
Renuka Bisht After its long campaign for non-interference in Muslim personal law, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is in a quandary now. It will meet in Bhopal on September 10 to formalize future strategy, in response to the Supreme Court strik... More »
Renuka Bisht Today the Supreme Court of India found the practice of triple talaq, or talaq-e-biddat, violative of the fundamental right contained in Article 14 of the Constitution, which provides all persons equality before the law – prohibiting discrimination... More »
Renuka Bisht The horrifying scandals of government-aided gaushalas exposed in Chhattisgarh last week and in Rajasthan last year suggest that the elaborate sociopolitical architecture created around gau raksha since 2014 is essentially hypocritical. Unless beat... More »
Renuka Bisht Indian television news content is often criticized for being over the top. Moderators are criticized for their histrionics. The absence of reason is mourned, as is the resemblance of programming to government propaganda. But a new Xinhua video sug... More »
Renuka Bisht Even his strongest critics give this to Prime Minister Narendra Modi: he is a very strong communicator. His election campaign speeches can be warlike, his foreign policy speeches are praised for statesmanship, and his Independence Day speeches fro... More »
Renuka Bisht #70KiAzaadi is trending today – in Pakistan. It’s birthday is celebrated one day ahead of India’s. As on this side of the border, over there too it’s a time of stocktaking. Honest judgment there as here has got to be harsh. Jawad Iqbal, long-time ... More »
Renuka Bisht Inbound VP Venkaiah Naidu has disagreed with outbound VP Hamid Ansari over “a feeling of unease, a sense of insecurity” creeping in among the minorities in India. Naidu says this kind of talk is just political propaganda. He says “compared to the ... More »