Anand Patwardhan’s paean to Dalits, that took 14 years to compose, probes even as it praises, says Saroj Giri THERE IS an entrenched tendency to represent Dalits fighting for rights and reservations as just (another) competitive bloc vying for self-interest and power. It leads to a pernicious inversion: ‘Dalit rights’ dividing the nation along caste lines. Victim as perpetrator! Anand Patwardhan’s film Jai Bhim Comrade takes us beyond the grid of...

There has been a veritable deluge of criticism of Mamata and the Trinamool on the arrest of a Jadavpur professor for circulating through email a gentle spoof on Mamata's sacking of the Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.   From life imitating cartoons to Mamata suffering from certifiable paranoia – this has been the refrain in the Mass Media. By this single act, Mamata and her regime have subjected themselves to far greater ridicule...

-The Indian Express   'Paid news' syndrome is a menace capable of eating into the vitals of a free and fair media and rooting it out is essential for the health of democracy, Union Minister Ambika Soni has said.   Inaugurating the 125th year celebrations of Malayalam daily 'Deepika' here last evening, the Information and Broadcasting minister noted that the Press Council of India and Election Commission are seized of the matter and are...

Paribartan, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's rallying cry for change during last year's landmark assembly polls, seems to represent the disillusionment among her supporters more than the way the state is being governed.  Several of her newfound supporters, including former Left icons who helped her acquire a certain legitimacy against the ideology-driven Communist parties, have turned critical of her government. The tide seems be turning faster since the arrest of...

Before being a cartoonist/graphic novelist, I am a citizen first. A citizen with the freedom to have feelings — if not the freedom of free speech. Now, the former is far easier than the latter. I have the freedom to have feelings and the freedom to deal with those who hurt my feelings. And on that note, I want Sarojini Naidu arrested. Posthumously, but so be it. In an All India...