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Shashi Shekhar

Articles by Shashi Shekhar

Beware travellers! VVIPs are on the flight

Misbehaviour by airline employees is just one of the many problems afflicting our airports

Bad weather, air congestion and ‘VIP movement’ at Delhi airport forced the diversion of 13 flights on a single day last week.(Reuters File Photo)

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Updated on Nov 12, 2017 04:20 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Blaming the govt for attacks on foreign tourists won’t do

It’s a question of India and the Indian ethos. A little alertness and foresight on our part can save a foreigner from a potentially life-threatening crisis. That’s the least that we can do as Indians.

The Swiss couple was attacked by a group of men in Fatehpur Sikri , Uttar Pradesh, October 22, 2017(ANI)

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Updated on Nov 05, 2017 05:15 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Indira and Patel: Linked by destiny and history

This October 31, let’s recall the legacy of the Iron Lady and the architect of modern India

Former prime minister Indira Gandhi with her sons Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi.(Getty Images)

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Updated on Oct 29, 2017 05:07 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

From bursting crackers to polluting rivers, Indians are busy twisting the laws of nature

From bursting crackers to polluting rivers, we are busy twisting the eternal laws of nature

Smog envelops a boy in Delhi after bursting crackers during Diwali, October 19.(Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Oct 23, 2017 09:14 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

If the dead could speak, Aarushi Talwar would ask some tough questions

Questions are bound to be raised about what the Talwars were punished for? If the dead could speak the teenager is likely to ask the Indian judiciary some tough questions.

Nupur and Rajesh Talwar were on Thursday acquitted by the Allahabad High Court in the twin murder case of her daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj. (File photo)(PTI)

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Updated on Oct 16, 2017 02:22 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Terror attacks have the West paranoid, and India could follow suit

Terror attacks and massacres such as the one in Las Vegas last week have pushed people in Europe and the United States to the edge. And social media is only fuelling this fire

People light candles during a vigil in Newtown, Connecticut, remembering the 58 people killed in Sunday's shooting in Las Vegas on October 1.(AFP)

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Updated on Oct 08, 2017 05:23 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByShashi Shekhar

A cleaner India would be a real tribute to Mahatma Gandhi

In the run-up to Gandhi Jayanti, what made people adopt PM Modi’s motto of Swachhta Hi Seva and take the pledge: “Ma kasam, Hindustan swachh rakhenge hum”?

People throng Hindustan’s ‘Ma kasam, Hindustan swachh rakhenge hum’ programme to take the cleanliness pledge at Agra’s ADA Park(Hindustan)

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Updated on Oct 01, 2017 09:18 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Setting the record straight on the Rohingyas

The Myanmar migrants’ issue, which has split the country wide open, is more complex than it appears

A Rohingya Muslim at the Leda refugee camp near the Bangladesh district of Teknaf. Aung San Suu Kyi has said she does not fear global scrutiny over the Rohingya crisis, pledging to hold rights violators to account but refusing to blame the military for violence that has driven some 421,000 of the Muslim minority out of her country.(AFP)

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Updated on Sep 25, 2017 10:00 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Small town journalists are more vulnerable to violence

Those discussing Gauri Lankesh’s murder in TV studios are oblivious to the enormous challenges that journalists in small towns face

People attend a protest in New Delhi against the killing of Gauri Lankesh, a senior Indian journalist who, according to police, was shot dead outside her home on Tuesday by unidentified assailants in the southern city of Bengaluru, India, September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton(REUTERS)

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Updated on Sep 17, 2017 05:51 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

The rise of Indian languages on Internet will further unite India

As India prepares to celebrate Hindi Diwas on September 14, it is time we focused on the development of all Indian languages and discovering common linkages between them

On September 14 India is preparing to celebrate Hindi Diwas. Although it is true that Hindi has the status of being India’s official language and is the common heritage of a large geography of the country, but each and every citizen of the nation is still not at ease understanding or speaking the language(Mujeeb Faruqui/HT)

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Published on Sep 10, 2017 06:54 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

India is learning to behave like a superpower

Before sending out troops on the border, successful governments explore all possibilities on the diplomatic front. That’s what New Delhi did.

A file photo from 2008 shows a Chinese soldier (L) gesturing next to an Indian soldier at the Nathu La border crossing between India and China in Sikkim. India said August 28, 2017 that troops were disengaging from a months-long stand-off with the Chinese military on a strategically important area of disputed territory in the Himalayas.(AFP)

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Published on Sep 03, 2017 02:46 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Women like Shayara Bano deserve the nation’s applause

Indian women are demonstrating that they are capable of paving the way for social reforms on their own steam. Now their juggernaut will be unstoppable

Shayara Bano has emerged as a beacon of hope for tormented women who have been given instant triple divorce by their husbands(Hindustan Times)

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Updated on Aug 27, 2017 03:27 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Don’t turn India into a republic of noise

This is a time where the merchants of sorrow are out to make a killing. But one must not lose hope in an evolving democracy

Congress workers protesting the death of children at the Gorakhpur medical college hospital, Lucknow, August 14 (Representative Photo)(PTI)

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Updated on Aug 20, 2017 05:21 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

India at 70: We have a number of reasons to be happy as a nation

No woman has become an American president till date, but India can proudly say that everybody from a Dalit president to a woman prime minister is a possibility in our democracy

By the time of the 2011 Census, our literacy had crossed the 74% mark. Similarly life expectancy has risen from 32 years to 69 years(Praful Gangurde/ Hindustan Times)

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Published on Aug 13, 2017 08:24 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

How battle-ready is India for a war against China or Pakistan?

The report that the country’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has submitted to the Parliament about the Indian army has some significantly disturbing findings. Despite all its bravery, our army is battling with a drastic shortfall of necessary ammunition.

File photo of Indian artillery men firing 155mm Bofors guns at enemy positions on the Srinagar to Kargil road, June 1999. At the end of Operation Vijay, the shoulders of the Indian nation-state were drooping with the burden of 537 martyrs. Even during this war the shortfall of essential ammunition had been revealed.(John Macdougall/AFP)

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Updated on Aug 06, 2017 11:56 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Mayawati needs good captains, not loyal lieutenants

After her resignation from the Rajya Sabha, Mayawati is now in the epicentre of Dalit politics.

BSP chief Mayawati addressing the media in New Delhi, July 18.(PTI)

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Updated on Jul 24, 2017 12:08 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Hindustaniyat will triumph over imported terror in Kashmir

The recent attack on Amarnath pilgrims and the barbaric developments in Kashmir pose the question whether it is a holy war (jihad) or terrorism foisted upon us in the name of jihad?

A protester at a rally in Thane, Mumbai, July 12, against the attack on civilians on a pilgrimage to Amarnath(Praful Gangurde/HT)

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Updated on Jul 16, 2017 09:08 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Gadgets have snatched away our peace of mind. It’s time we went back to nature

The gadgets in their hands have snatched away people’s sleep and peace of mind. No wonder we live among so many restless and unsatisfied people

Children enjoy pre-monsoon rain in New Delhi, June 28(Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Jul 10, 2017 07:24 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

The fire of violence could singe us all

We are passing through an extraordinary phase when murders are becoming the favourite pursuit of the mobocracy

Junaid, 16, was murdered while returning home after Eid shopping. Knife stabs were discovered on half of his body. This happens only when the killer is seething with obsessive rage.(Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Jul 02, 2017 10:59 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByShashi Shekhar

If he becomes president, Kovind must speak up for the dispossessed

For the first time, two extremely qualified Dalit candidates are pitted against each other for the President’s post

Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, June 19. His background, his views and his personality make him suitable for the President’s post(PTI)

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Updated on Jun 26, 2017 11:57 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Indian Muslims don’t need a certificate from terrorists

The government, civil society and the media should felicitate youngsters who’ve returned to the mainstream and unmasked non-State actors. Their stories will always prove useful to prevent youngsters from getting misled.

A militant, identified as Danish Ahmed, who was seen during the funeral procession of Hizbul commander Sabzar Bhat, has surrendered.(Waseem Andrabi/HT)

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Updated on Jun 18, 2017 10:51 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Farmers’ agitation: We don’t need more Mandsaurs

Fires of dissatisfaction are raging in different parts of the country. This is because every government since 1947 has treated farmers only as a vote bank.

Farmers protest at the Indore-Bhopal highway.(PTI File)

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Updated on Jun 12, 2017 08:17 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Crimes against women: A disturbing kind of violence is on the rise

Gang rapes, hackings and disrespecting the dignity of the dead were not what the people of this country were known for

Relatives of Shakeel who shot dead by armed assailants at Jewar, in Greater Noida. A few people from Jevar were compelled to venture out late at night since they were tending to a lady relative who had been hospitalised. On the way, goons robbed them and dragged the women from the family into the fields and gang raped them. The male relative, Shakeel, who resisted was shot dead..(Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on Jun 19, 2017 07:33 AM IST

Hindustan Times | ByShashi Shekhar

It is all too easy to shoot the messenger

The responsibility of telling the truth to make a living is carried out by vernacular journalists on their own. They have to work in terrain and circumstances that are often labelled as ‘jungle raj’ by their urban brethren.

The English media is relatively luckier than its vernacular counterparts because English is still the language of cities(Hindustan Times)

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Updated on May 28, 2017 09:08 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByShashi Shekhar

50 years of Naxalbari: Fighting for the right cause in the wrong way

Owing to their opposition to development, the Naxalite movement is losing its way. Apart from disrupting government projects, they consider roads their greatest enemy. The soldiers attacked in Sukma were overseeing road construction.

Jawans giving a gun salute to CRPF personnel at Patna airport . Twenty five CRPF personnel were killed in a Naxalite attack in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on April 24.(PTI)

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Updated on May 21, 2017 09:50 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByShashi Shekhar

Three years after becoming PM, the pradhan sevak has not lost his magic touch

The people’s verdict can be interpreted as a report card for most politicians. Three years after he took over as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has done well on this parameter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, March 12. The Opposition was expecting that the shadows of unfulfilled promises will take some sheen off Modi’s magic. But the results of the five assembly elections have dashed the Opposition’s hopes.(Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

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Updated on May 14, 2017 10:14 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

UP petrol pump scam: Consumers continue to be short-changed on every platform

Not just ATM and credit card frauds — the revelations in the Uttar Pradesh petrol pump scam have proved that the rights of the consumer are not safe anywhere

Police officers checking a petrol pump machine in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, May 1. The way technology was being used to pilfer petrol and diesel in the state makes it clear that the rights of the average consumer are not safe anywhere.(PTI)

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Updated on May 08, 2017 07:14 AM IST

Hindustan Times | ByShashi Shekhar

In the eyes of his voters, Kejriwal is still a hope for the future

The MCD elections have proved that the wheels are coming off the brand of politics that Arvind Kejriwal had promised and used to win an unprecedented mandate

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal with deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and minister Satyendra Jain. In his impatience to win, Kajriwal kept compromising on the very principles he was flaunting to enter the electoral fray. That’s why many of his party’s ministers and MLAs with criminal links had to go to jail(Hindustan Times)

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Updated on Apr 30, 2017 09:56 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

The sanctity of our democratic institutions is under threat

The Election Commission must ensure complete implementation of all parameters of the electoral process. Those officers violating this should be given the strictest punishment.

Ghaziabad , India - March 14 A group of protesters on Tuesday held a demonstration at district headquarters and demanded an inquiry into the EVM machines used in recent UP assembly elections . in Ghaziabad,India, on Tuesday, March 14, 2016. (Photo by Sakib Ali /Hindustan Times)

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Updated on Apr 24, 2017 01:23 AM IST

Hindustan Times | ByShashi Shekhar

Kulbhushan Jadhav case: India cannot let Pakistan get away with this

Will the collective rage for our parliamentarians and ministers be enough to save Jadhav’s life? Will he manage to return unscathed to Mumbai to his family?

File photo of former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of 'espionage'.(PTI)

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Updated on Apr 16, 2017 06:45 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

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