Gujarat

My recent trip to Gujarat was largely uneventful except for all the fafdas (some crazy shaped puffs made of gram flour) that I had during my road journey to Surat from Ahmedabad. Every time I would tell my driver Ratanbhai that I wanted to have tea and a little bite - he would park the car at the nearest fafda place. I wanted to have an omelette and told him so, but I could not have committed a bigger blasphemy in his eyes. He made a dirty face and told me that it was not available on this highway and its consumption was generally not encouraged!

The Azadi Kooch that culminated in Una on August 15 was an event of immense proportions, but, in an act of omission characteristic of the Indian media, got no mileage from our news channels
Sukumar Muralidharan Delhi 

In an interview with Hardnews, Anand Teltumbde talks about the demolition of the Ambedkar Bhavan, the incident in Una, dual standards of the ruling party, the blatant discrimination against Dalits and how the caste system needs to be consigned to history’s dustbin
Hardnews Bureau Delhi

I was excited to be in Baroda. This was my first visit to Gujarat. While there, I wanted to check out everything I had heard about Gujarat. Better roads, better markets...well, I’m not so sure. Roads as good as those in Baroda exist in other parts of the country as well. The same goes for markets. What does stand out starkly in comparison to cities in Uttar Pradesh, for example, is the lesser number of people in public places. In Baroda it does feel far from the madding crowds of north Indian cities.

A youth without the academic ability to secure even qualifying marks ignites Gujarat over the issue of reservation for a community that is anything but backward
Vijay Sanghvi Delhi

Hardik Patel’s agitation is a result of the damage done to the state by crony capitalism
Himanshu Upadhyaya Bengaluru