The Left-Congress alliance in West Bengal poses a new political headache for Mamata Banerjee
Hardnews Bureau Kolkata
APRIL 2016
APRIL 2016
Cover Story and Featured Stories
There is no wave in Assam. It is a close contest. Win or lose, it all depends on how elections are ‘managed’
Ravishankar Ravi Guwahati
With one top ULFA leader reportedly in China, the peace talks with the other faction are trapped in a stalemate
Chandrani Banerjee Delhi
Himachal Pradesh is a place one returns to, again and again, with the same delight and astonishment as the first time
Ratna Raman Yol
Hardnews enters the second biggest refugee camp in the world where 80,000 Syrians are hopeful of a better future despite the trauma of the past
Sanjay Kapoor Za’atari (Jordan)
These elections could see Tamil Nadu voters opting for a non-Dravidian alternative
Nikhil Thiyyar Delhi
An in-depth discussion on the road ahead for tiger conservation
Special Feature
Curiously, the polls in ‘politicised Kerala’ have become apolitical this time
Hardnews Bureau Thiruvananthapuram
More Stories from this Issue
With Apple taking a tough stance, and the FBI adamant, the massacre at San Bernardino in California has yet again re-opened the debate on national security and the right to privacy
Abeer Kapoor Delhi
The resilient Afghan team has won many hearts in the T-20 World Cup by its big-hearted victories against all odds
Sandeep Kumar Delhi
“When you see the Jordan river don’t go too close to it or do anything outrageous that provokes the Israeli soldiers,” cautioned our guide, Salaheddin Abunaffaa, as we headed towards the site where John the Baptist baptised Jesus into the Christian faith.
I don’t know about those in Brussels and Paris but many of the refugees I met in Vienna last December long to be back in their country. They might be grateful to be alive and away from the horrors of a civil war raging in their respective countries but they agree that there is no home like one’s place of birth.
Stop the world – I want to get off now! It appears to be taking a sharp turn to the ugly right, with bigots, fascists, fundamentalists, dictators and other mad people in charge. Parts of the Middle East and Africa are worse off than before, what with the nasty ISIS, Boko Haram and other terrorist organisations on a murdering, raping rampage. China and Russia are more or less as dictatorial as before. Turkey is on a slow roast with Erdogan bossing it around and as for India, sigh – I’ll get to that later.
Seasons arrive and leave like music. They leave soundlessly, like mother’s footsteps and the sound of her bangles, like music. An ode to joy, sometimes – Beethoven’s unheard symphony. Sometimes, an ode to the hard labour of the poorest and the peasants, celebrating, with Salil Chaudhary. And yet, there is an ache in some part of the body and soul. Perhaps in the inner-most recesses of the skin. Eyes. Fingers. Eyelashes. I grow old, I grow old. I wear my trousers rolled, as TS Eliot would say.
The move to make the quaint old green town of Dehradun a smart city can ravage its sensitive ecology
Rakesh Agrawal Dehradun