The Wire
Watch The Wire’s Zeeshan Kaskar in conversation with cotton farmers on crop rates, the struggles they face and their shrinking spending capacity.
Watch The Wire’s Zeeshan Kaskar in conversation with cotton farmers on crop rates, the struggles they face and their shrinking spending capacity.
Haokip said that neither he nor the other six BJP Kuki MLAs would vote in support of the Biren Singh government if a vote of confidence is required
In an astonishingly outspoken and defiant interview, one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’S) prominent Kuki MLAs from Manipur, Paolienlal Haokip, has called chief minister Biren Singh “a mad man, marauder, a liar and a narcissist”, adding that he’s “long lost his faith in Singh’s sincerity as an administrator.”
Haokip said that neither he nor the other six BJP Kuki MLAs would vote in support of the Biren Singh government if a vote of confidence is required. He also said that Tushar Mehta, the solicitor general, had “lied” to the Supreme Court when he claimed that Singh has been talking to Kuki MLAs about resolving the situation.
In a 34-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Haokip also questioned why Union home minister Amit Shah is protecting Singh and went on to suggest that it was for reasons that cannot be discussed in public on television.
The Wire spoke to the people of Baramati and found that this assembly election presents a divided scenario.
The Maharashtra assembly elections have brought Baramati into the spotlight, with the entire state’s focus on this key battleground.
This time, the contest in Baramati pits the experienced Ajit Pawar (NCP) against Yugendra Pawar (NCP-SP). However, this election isn’t confined to Baramati alone; it has become a direct show of strength for Ajit Pawar and his uncle, Sharad Pawar.
It is for this reason that these polls are set to significantly reshape Maharashtra’s political landscape, especially in the western region.
After the split in 2022, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) under Ajit Pawar aligned with the BJP and joined the government. Ajit has been elected MLA from Baramati seven times, but the decision did not appear to make too many of the traditional voters of Baramati happy. The Lok Sabha elections that followed did not see Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction do well.
In contrast, Sharad Pawar’s faction secured eight out of 10 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. In Baramati, the first-ever “Pawar versus Pawar” battle unfolded, where Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, defeated Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar.
In Western Maharashtra, voter support and sympathy seem to lean slightly towards Sharad Pawar. Districts like Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, and Pune, known for their sugarcane production, have been Sharad Pawar’s strongholds since he founded his party.
The Wire spoke to the people of Baramati and found that this assembly election presents a divided scenario. Voters in the urban areas of Baramati seem to favour Ajit, while those in the rural areas lean towards Sharad Pawar.
In what is a “too-close-to-call” contest, the NDA and INDIA bloc fight it out to secure the swinging OBC voters.
What did The Wire find in the electoral ground of Jharkhand? Is the BJP’s “Bangladeshi infiltrators” issue working, or it is the Hemant Soren government’s welfare schemes which are attracting the crowds. In what is a “too-close-to-call” contest, the NDA and INDIA bloc fight it out to secure the swinging OBC voters who are too crucial to ignore.
Party leaders are switching sides overnight, leaving voters struggling to keep track of the rapid political changes.
As voters head to the November 20 polls, Maharashtra’s political future hangs in the balance. The state’s political landscape has been reshaped over the past five years by shifting alliances and defections. Since the 2019 elections, parties have disintegrated, with separate factions emerging from both the Shiv Sena and NCP. Party leaders are switching sides overnight, leaving voters struggling to keep track of the rapid political changes. With rising economic concerns, communal rhetoric, and the emergence of Raj Thackeray’s MNS as a potential disruptor, the election promises to be a critical turning point for the state’s governance and political direction.
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the executive director, Centre for Policy Alternatives, analyses the parliamentary mandate Sri Lanka’s president has received.
In an interview to assess the enormous parliamentary mandate President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power coalition has won and how he is likely to use his sweeping powers, one of the foremost political analysts in Sri Lanka says president Dissanayake will be one of the island’s most powerful and popular presidents but adds that he is a pragmatist and not, as much of the Western press has described him, a straightforward marxist.
Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the executive director, Centre for Policy Alternatives, in a 25-minute interview, analyses the parliamentary mandate Sri Lanka’s president has received with 159 seats, which is more than two-thirds, and nearly 62% of the vote. This is the first time Sri Lanka’s proportional representation system has produced a two-thirds majority.
More importantly, president Dissanayake’s NPP, whose largest component is the JVP, a Sinhala majority party, has won the majority of votes in the North, which is dominated by Tamils, in the East, where there is a large Muslim population, and in the hill country, where there is also a large Tamil population. This clearly indicates the extent to which the perception of the JVP has transformed since the 1980s, when it was widely viewed as anti-Tamil and Sinhala racist.
Watch justice Nagarathna talk about bulldozer judgment at justice S. Natarajan’s centenary celebrations.
Justice B.V. Nagarathna while speaking at justice S. Natarajan’s centenary celebrations in Chennai on Saturday (November 16) referred to the recent Supreme Court judgement on extrajudicial bulldozer demolitions rampant in some parts of the country.
Quoting from the judgement authored by Justice B.R. Gavai along with Justice K.V. Viswanathan, she said, “If a citizen’s house is demolished merely because he is an accused, or even for that matter a convict, that too without following the due process as prescribed by law, in our considered view it will be totally unconstitutional for more than one reason. Firstly, the executive cannot declare a person guilty as this process is the fundamental aspect of judicial review. Only on the basis of accusations, if the executive demolishes the properties or property of such an accused person without following the due process of law, it would strike at the basic principles of rule of law and is not permissible under the Constitution. The executive cannot become a judge and decide that a person accused is guilty, and therefore punish him even before the court could convict him by demolishing his residential or commercial properties. Such an act of the executive would be transgressing its limits.
The Supreme Court went on to say, ‘the chilling sight of a bulldozer demolishing a building when authorities have failed to follow the basic principles of natural justice and have acted without adhering to the principles of due process reminds one of a lawless state of affairs where might was right. In our Constitution, which rests on the foundation of the rule of law, such high- handed and arbitrary actions have no place. Such excesses at the hands of the executive will have to be dealt with the heavy hand of the law. Our constitutional ethos and values would not permit any such abuse of power and such misadventures cannot be tolerated by the court of law.”
In a no-holds barred discussion with host Kapil Sibal, Justice Katju reflects on a wide variety of issues.
In a no-holds barred discussion with host Kapil Sibal, retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Markanday Katju reflects on a wide variety of issues including Modi’s 10-year governance record, the state of India, Maharashtra and much more.
Pradip Phanjoubam identified two reasons why even after 18 months the crisis in Manipur has not been brought under control.
Pradip Phanjoubam, a senior journalist, columnist and author, tells Karan Thapar that it’s time for a new chief minister or president’s rule in Manipur.
Phanjoubam says the Union government has allowed the crisis in Manipur to become a frozen conflict. But this has not led to peace instead we have, from time to time, the absence of violence but periodically, as happened recently in Jiribam, violence, deaths and abduction erupt.
Phanjoubam identified two reasons why even after 18 months the crisis in Manipur has not been brought under control. The first is that the Union and state government have shied away from forceful action. There has not been the required show of state power.
The second reason is that because the BJP controls both the Union and state government in Manipur, Delhi is reluctant to act in any way that would taint the BJP government in Manipur.
‘Who is responsible for Baramati’s development — Sharad or Ajit Pawar?’
In this interview with The Wire, Yugendra Pawar discusses his strategy and goals for contesting the Baramati assembly elections against Ajit Pawar.
Can Yugendra, contesting from Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction, defeat the experienced Ajit, who has been elected as an MLA from Baramati seven times and currently serves as Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister?
Yugendra also tackles an important question – “Who is responsible for Baramati’s development — Sharad or Ajit Pawar?”
