Dhrubo Jyoti

Qandeel Baloch: The model who outraged and titillated Pakistan

Qandeel Baloch: The model who outraged and titillated Pakistan

Before she was killed by her brother to protect “family honour”, 25-year-old Qandeel Baloch had become somewhat of an icon in Pakistan, inspiring and shocking the conservative nation in equal measure.

Sultan is a hit: Sound and fury over Salman comment signifies nothing

People seem to have lost their fire for women’s rights and are back at the theatres cheering the same man they professed to hate.

Strong state, weak will: India’s deafening silence on UN resolution on LGBT

Silence on UN resolution suggests the government views the violation of LGBT people’s rights as not an important-enough issue.

Grieve for Orlando, Mr Prime Minister, but don’t forget LGBT Indians

If you’re sincere about your prayers for the Orlando victims, maybe you will tweet a message of support for the millions of similar LGBT people back home.

These Dalit students are challenging how caste is viewed

Dalit Bahujan students are questioning our heroes, festivals, cultural icons, writers, and challenging the way caste is viewed using alternative readings of culture.

Why censor Udta Punjab? Everyone will end up watching it anyway

The controversy surrounding Udta Punjab has dominated headlines since it was first leaked that the censor board was seeking multiple cuts in the film that revolves around the northern state’s drug problem.

Mamata’s massive Bengal victory is the death of the gentleman in Kolkata

After Thursday’s election results, Mamata Banerjee has replaced the bhadralok -- scholars and bureaucrats and bright doctoral students who would congregate and talk about the world around themselves -- as Bengal’s biggest cultural export.

Kerala student rape: Stop comparisons and start working against caste

But a disproportionate amount of attention has been fixed on the gory details of the case: The student was brutally gang-raped, she had 30 injuries on her body, her intestines were ripped out. Newspapers and social media are calling her #Nirbhaya2, a reference to the 2012 gang rape of a medical student in Delhi that triggered massive protests in the Capital and inspired changes in India’s rape law.

Why govt sprung into action at NIT Srinagar but ignored Hyd stand-off

At NIT, the outpouring of support and empathy comes because the students targeted were ‘Indian’, ‘non-Kashmiris’ who were shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai and waving the Tricolour in the face of alleged ‘anti-national’ slogans by Kashmiri pupils.

RSS flip-flop over homosexuality shows only its uniform has changed

The RSS has shown once again that all it is interested in is a cosmetic change, not the true freedom and liberation of people.

Stop the selfies: PM Modi, walk the talk on women empowerment

India’s goal should not be to have a day when women parliamentarians speak but to have so many female MPs that women can speak every day. The proof of Modi’s commitment to women’s empowerment is in the pudding of greater substantive effort, not selfies.

Sorry Smriti Irani but scholar Rohith Vemula was a hero, not a child

This is a ploy, a careful and calculated one, to strip one of the most politically-charged events of our times of its power.

I have been like this only: Why India cannot afford an OP Sharma

Delhi BJP legislator Om Prakash Sharma has a short riposte to anyone accusing him of thrashing lawyers, teachers and students out of a local court: He thought they were anti-national.

No matter what SC decides, India’s on its way to embracing LGBT rights

Tuesday’s hearing showed that whatever the court decides in the months to come, the world outside had decisively changed, for a more inclusive, welcoming and less-discriminatory society. The LGBT movement has grown far beyond the case, and the grip of the law grows weaker every day.

Death as a Dalit: What Rohith Vemula’s suicide tells about India

Most of us think of caste oppression through the lens of the “outdated” practice of untouchability, violent caste clashes in the distant countryside and in lavish biopics on the silver screen. But caste is alive in our homes and streets.

This outrage is convenient: Let December 16 juvenile go free

Parliament is expected to take up amendments to the juvenile justice bill on Tuesday, a rare political response to public anger over the case, but the outrage has helped mask two crucial aspects of the case.

This law has to go: It’s time to walk the talk on Section 377

Law being abused by the police and unscrupulous elements to harass LGBT community but political class is in no mood to scrap it.

Delhi Queer Pride makes a statement on ‘muzzling’ of individual rights

This year’s Queer Pride was not only about the LGBT -- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender -- community and the freedom they seek but also a march in solidarity to demand a whole range of freedoms that are under threat.

Drunk man’s logic: Bihar’s alcohol ban won’t really empower women

The short-lived prohibition in the United States birthed the mafia and in India, death due to consumption of spurious liquor is by the hundreds.

Aamir Khan row shows the BJP hasn’t learnt from Bihar

Three sentences from Aamir Khan over the “growing intolerance” in the country have now made BJP forget its hard-learnt lesson from the defeat in Bihar, writes Dhrubo Jyoti

No Dussehra celebrations, students protest outside UGC office

As the rest of Delhi decked up for Dussehra celebrations, over a hundred students were protesting outside the offices of the University Grants Commission in the heart of the Capital, enraged by the government’s decision to scrap a crucial fellowship.

When poll frenzy dims homecoming of goddess Durga

It may be the Bengalis’ biggest festival but the election frenzy in Patna has dimmed the glitz of Durga Puja at dozens of pandals.

Caste divide runs deep in Dalit massacre hub of Laxmanpur Bathe

A massacre 18 years ago makes the backward south Bihar village of Laxmanpur Bathe an epicenter of the state’s simmering caste cauldron, where wounds are still raw and despondent Dalits kept their poll cards close to the chest ahead of Friday’s voting for the 2nd phase of Bihar assembly elections.

Bihar bridges gap but road to progress still bumpy

A new bridge on the Sone has bridged an age-old gap and changed the life of former daily wage earner Ahmed and his ilk, whose earnings used to ebb and flow like the river in this investment-starved Bihar district.

Stop sharing images of the Dhankaur Dalits’ plight

The outrage and outpouring of sympathy has been triggered by thousands of people on social media sharing the photographs of the family, stripped and on the streets – with evocative captions and exhortations of shame.

Dear cow, I love you but you’re not my mother

All this makes my heart swell with joy, but have you heard about the man who was lynched by a mob, which was apparently enraged by some beef rumours but possibly had done little to make your life comfortable or think about your welfare?

Food bans are about appeasing majoritarian sentiments

Things often come a full circle in history and politics but rarely as deliciously as the raging meat ban controversy. The BJP is behaving like the Congress, the Shiv Sena like the BJP -- and the Congress isn’t to be seen anywhere at all -- as the banning infection spreads across the country, from Mumbai to Rajasthan and Kashmir.

On the topic of Sunny Leone, an open letter to the Left

CPI leader Atul Kumar Anjan has stoked a controversy by saying that a condom advertisement featuring former porn star Sunny Leone will destroy people’s sensibility and lead to more rapes in India. Here is an open letter to the Left.

Revenge is sweet: How Bengalis made rosogolla their own

Move over Kohinoor. Twitter was taken over by thousands of Odias on Thursday fighting for a much more prized possession: the rosogolla.