Straight Bat

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Rahul Gandhi sentenced for two years in a criminal defamation case by a surat court. His critics are rejoicing saying Rahul has got his just desserts for making reckless statements.. his supporters are anguished saying this is a deliberate attempt to intimidate him into silence. We live in such polarized times that it seems impossible to have a rational debate on most political issues.

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We have been witnessing what I call the ‘Usain Bolt’ style of parliament politics. What do I mean? Well, like the great Jamaican sprinter, India’s parliament also seems to be in a race to adjourn every morning in the fastest possible time without conducting any business.

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Few nights ago I tweeted the following: I sometimes wonder if Rahul Gandhi didn’t exist, he would have to be invented to keep the political pot boiling and distract from the real issues of our times. What did I really mean by this seemingly cryptic tweet asked many followers? Well, my friends.. this tweet comes against the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi’s recent visit to the United Kingdom where he’s addressed gatherings at Cambridge and London.

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The first big election verdict of 2023 has been delivered and here are my twelve takeaways.

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Thackeray mukt Shiv Sena.. as the title of this week’s video blog suggests, one of the country’s most enduring regional forces is facing a major existential crisis. The party set up by Bal Thackersy in 1966 now faces the real prospect of existing without its first family at the helm. Government gone, party gone, now symbol gone. So far the focus has been on the battle between Uddhav Thackeray and family on one side and Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis on the other . But these are all pawns in this political chess game: the real grandmaster is Amit Shah.. that’s right, this entire attempt to finish the Thackerays is the brainchild of the Union home minister.

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A few days ago when I heard the BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia attack the BBC as a ‘Bhrasht, Bakwas Corporation’ I was a bit taken aback. Not because I expected any better from Mr Bhatia: he is after all a rough talking spokesperson of a political party which is at ‘war’ with the BBC and all is fair in war and politics. And yet, for many in my generation, the BBC was and is the original gold standard of journalism.

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Long before Gautam Adani, there was Dhirubhai Ambani. The Reliance Industries founder was targeted for building his business empire courtesy his alleged proximity to the Congress government in the 1980s. Leading the anti-Reliance charge was former prime minister VP Singh who didn’t hide his disdain for big business. In 1990, in the midst of this high stakes Singh versus Ambani battle, south Mumbai Congress MP, Murli Deora organized a private dinner for Dhirubhai with a few journalists and Mumbai’s movers and shakers. “I don’t know what my party will say but I will stand by my friend Dhirubhai through good times and bad,” he told the elite gathering. Deora and Ambani had worked in the yarn trading business together and their friendship was built around a long-standing mutual trust.

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one name has dominated the headlines.. this time for all the wrong reasons. Gautam Adani, who till only a few days ago, was India’s richest businessman and the world’s third richest, has not only found his share value wealth dip dramatically.. but suddenly finds himself at the heart of a political tangle that is echoing in parliament and beyond. Ever since a report from the US investment research firm, Hindenburg Research, accused the Adani group of several financial wrongdoings from stock manipulation to fake accounting to money laundering through shell companies, the Adanis are struggling to cope with the fallout.

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A number of people have asked me a question: what is your view on the recent BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat violence. As someone who spent days, weeks, months, years, tracking the violence and its aftermath, I honestly have been reluctant to give typical soundbite casual throwaway opinion. Gujarat 2002 is a multi-layered story, the BBC documentary only un-peels one part of that complex story , leaving much unspoken and unsaid.

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Indias’s top Olympian wrestlers, many of them from India’s sporting cradle of Haryana, hitting the street protesting against the wrestling federation chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a six time BJP MP, accusing him of sexual harassment and worse. Now, we have often been fed on stories of sports federation bosses behaving in an autocratic manner but very rarely have the athletes chosen to go public in such a dramatic manner. That they have put their careers on the line as a result should make us realize the enormity of what they have done: rebelling in any form against officials in Indian sport is fraught with risk and it takes courage to speak up.