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Shashi Shekhar

Articles by Shashi Shekhar

Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad grounded: Why do netas fly high on privilege?

Subjected to the slightest of personal discomfort, these people’s representatives resort to violence. Why can’t they raise their voice for the welfare of the average traveller?

Air India not just barred Ravindra Gaikwad, a Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra, who had assaulted a staffer, from its flights, it even cancelled his return ticket to Pune .(HT Photo)

columns

Updated on Apr 02, 2017 07:49 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

With eyes on 2019, the BJP is working on many fronts at the same time

The elections that were held between May 2014 and March 2017 have given many indicators that could prove to be warning signals for Opposition parties.

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah at the party headquarters.(PTI File Photo)

columns

Updated on Mar 27, 2017 07:27 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Asha Bhosle’s voice is the sound of music, it has a timeless quality

There is a timeless quality about listening to the diva of Bollywood music and the advancing years have not diminished her magic

Listening to anecdotes from the life and times of Asha Bhosle ensured that the evening went by like a breeze(Prodip Guha/HT Photo)

columns

Updated on Mar 19, 2017 09:33 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Yogi Adityanath as UP CM: How BJP played the biggest gamble picking the Hindutva leader

So does Yogi Adityanath’s coronation as CM mean that BJP is showing how significant Hindu saints are for the party? This, despite 19.6 % of UP’s 20 crore population comprises of Muslims. Will the move win the trust of Muslims for the party?

Yogi Adityanath (L) elected leader of the BJP legislature party; he will be sworn in as chief minister on Sunday. Deputy CM-designate Dinesh Sharma (R), Keshav Prasad Maurya (L) in Lucknow and Union minister Venkaiah Naidu can also be seen.(Ashok Dutta / Hindustan Times)

elections

Updated on Mar 20, 2017 07:02 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Assembly elections 2017: Only one name matters and that is Narendra Modi

The BJP has scored such an incredible victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand that even its leaders could not have imagined.

Youth BJP supporters carrying PM Modi's masks during Holi celebrations in Jammu on Sunday.(PTI Photo)

columns

Updated on Mar 13, 2017 11:27 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Assembly election results: Only one name matters and that is of Narendra Modi

The BJP has scored such an incredible victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand that even its leaders could not have imagined.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to people during a road show in Varanasi.(Adarsh Gupta/HT Photo)

elections

Updated on Mar 12, 2017 12:36 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

All that is rotten in our democracy is visible in these elections

Dynastic politics, caste and a political mud-slinging have cast a shadow on these assembly elections

Voters queue up to cast votes at a polling station in Ayodhya, February 27.(Arun Sharma/HT PHOTO)

editorials

Updated on Mar 06, 2017 07:22 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Assembly election results: Only one name matters and that is of Narendra Modi

The BJP has scored such an incredible victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand that even its leaders could not have imagined.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to people during a road show in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Modi’s BJP secured impressive wins in UP and Uttarakhand.(Adarsh Gupta/HT Photo)

elections

Updated on Mar 12, 2017 12:31 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Thanks to leaders, lack of drinking water is not an issue in these elections

Lack of drinking water across the 50 districts of Uttar Pradesh should have been an issue in these assembly elections. But our politicians are always too busy muddying the waters

A priest carrying water on his makeshift cart about 50 km from Orchha in drought-hit Bundelkhand, March 17, 2016. As many as 308 districts in the country are grappling with the shortage of drinking water.(Mujeeb Faruqui/HT Photo)

opinion

Updated on Feb 26, 2017 08:46 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Will the assembly polls help in increasing the representation of women?

In many villages of Uttar Pradesh, where women are village panchayat chiefs, their husbands introduce themselves as ‘pradhan pati’ (husband of the panchayat chief). These are people who could not contest on their own owing to women’s reservations, but they fielded their wives instead. They still want to confine women within the walls of their homes. Can there be a bigger betrayal of democracy than this?

Irom Sharmila is living proof of the perversities of our society. She went on a hunger strike for 16 years, demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa). As long as she was on hunger strike, her family and the people she considered ‘her own’ kept praising her. It helped boost their prestige. People said Irom came from ‘this’ family and stayed in ‘that’ neighbourhood. In the process, they became victims of the ‘VIP syndrome.’(AP)

columns

Updated on Feb 20, 2017 01:28 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

UP election: SP’s Akhilesh Yadav faces a tough fight on home turf

SP followers believe, whatever the differences, the family will close ranks again, though Shivpal Yadav loyalists argue that what happened was not good and the sordid episode would be reflected in the results.

elections

Updated on Feb 14, 2017 12:56 AM IST

Hindustan Times, Etawah | ByShashi Shekhar

Uttar Pradesh’s Muslim vote-bank: A myth or reality?

What is clear is that many are not happy in the way their problems have been addressed over the decades

Displaced victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots show their voter cards and unique IDs in Manawwar Hasan Colony of Kairana, Uttar Pardesh.(HT File Photo)

columns

Updated on Feb 13, 2017 12:57 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

From the heartland: Firozabad, hope and typhoid in UP’s city of bangles

Ahead of Uttar Pradesh election, Shashi Shekhar takes you to Firozabad, the town famed for its colourful bangles, now another victim of unfulfilled poll promises.

Voters stand in queues to cast their votes at a polling station during the fifth phase of UP assembly polls in Firozabad .(PTI Photo)

elections

Updated on Feb 28, 2017 10:53 AM IST

Firozabad, Hindustan | ByShashi Shekhar

From the heartland: Caste, religion and Muzaffarnagar model of politics in UP

Probing the minds of people at a tea shop in western Uttar Pradesh, finding out litany of their sufferings.

Students hold up badges urging people to cast their votes, during an election awareness campaign in Uttar Pradesh. Elections in northern Uttar Pradesh begin on February 11.(AP)

india news

Updated on Feb 07, 2017 08:21 PM IST

Muzaffarnagar/Meerut, Hindustan | ByShashi Shekhar

Who says smaller states don’t face all-round injustice in the country?

Clearly Delhi doesn’t bother about smaller states because they don’t send too many MPs to the Parliament. The apathy of governments forces our soldiers to shed their blood from Manipur to Kashmir.

In Uttarakhand, the Congress and the BJP were in power one after the other but the faces of chief ministers (photo: Harish Rawat) kept changing as if party the high commands were shuffling a pack of cards(PTI)

columns

Updated on Feb 05, 2017 10:46 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

The idea of Gandhi is universal and immortal

Even after so many years, the Mahatma manages elicit a mix of curiosity and respect that too in alien lands

Mahatma Gandhi and some of his followers on their way to the shore at Dandi to break the salt laws. Gandhi’s biggest strength are his detractors. The more they resist him, the more his ideas will keep inspiring people.(Bettmann Archive)

opinion

Updated on Jan 30, 2017 09:03 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Election 2017: Development off radar in the political theatre of Uttar Pradesh

Political conspiracies are being hatched at a fever pitch in the Hindi heartland. In the blind race for power, issues essential to Uttar Pradesh’s development are being pushed out of the discourse

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (left) with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. The coming together of the SP and the Congress will help unify the traditional voter as well as consolidate Muslim votes on its own.(Raj K Raj / HT File Photo)

columns

Updated on Jan 31, 2017 12:23 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

A trial by fire for Akhilesh Yadav in the upcoming UP polls

By moving away from his feuding family, Akhilesh Yadav pursued a development agenda and created a new vote bank for the Samajwadi Party. But 2017 may prove to be his sternest test yet.

columns

Updated on Jan 15, 2017 11:31 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

2017 assembly polls will be a harbinger for the emergence of younger leaders

How active can Mulayam Singh, Parkash Singh Badal, Harish Rawat and other such elder leaders stay till the next assembly elections?

columns

Updated on Jan 08, 2017 09:39 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

With assembly polls due this year, will the penny drop for Modi in 2017?

Apart from a verdict on the incumbent governments , these assembly elections will also be a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “bold” demonetisation decision

People stand in a long queue to withdraw money from an ATM in Allahabad. PM Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move triggered a nationwide cash crunch.(PTI)

columns

Updated on Jan 02, 2017 07:40 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

There’s more to Vajpayee’s political career than just victory and defeat

December 25 marked 92 years of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s momentous life journey.When to exude fire and when to stay cool as ice, is an art one should learn from the former prime minister

A file photo of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He practised the politics of agreement, not resistance. Even his opponents didn’t hesitate to knock at his door.(PTI)

columns

Updated on Dec 25, 2016 07:02 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Modern families: Let’s keep our loved ones together

Divorce rates are rising in many states of the country. In broken homes, in the absence of parental guidance, thousands of youngsters go down the wrong path and take to crime.

In the absence of family guidance, thousands of youngsters go down the wrong path. It is one of the worst fallouts of the breakdown of our family system.(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

columns

Updated on Dec 18, 2016 11:40 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

India is ready to face the challenges the Ayodhya issue throws up

In those tumultuous times communal riots flared up in many parts of the country. More than 2,000 people lost their lives in these riots. It appeared we had been split wide open forever. India would never be the same after the morning of December 6, 1992

The Ayodhya issue has not been resolved, and there are regular attempts to draw the genie out of the bottle(HT File Photo)

columns

Updated on Dec 11, 2016 11:45 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Delhi’s Traffic Queen is a beacon of hope in times of despair

Let us salute the indomitable spirit of traffic management activist Dorris Francis.

Dorris Francis controlling traffic at NH-24 Khoda.(HT Photot)

analysis

Updated on Dec 06, 2016 07:12 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

It’s time we cracked down on crackers. Even the SC agrees

Are we waiting for the world to turn into a gas chamber before we stop bursting fire-crackers?

It wasn’t just the national capital region that was bearing the brunt of pollution. Many places in north India were surrounded by a deadly layer of smog(Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

editorials

Updated on Nov 27, 2016 10:27 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

One hopes the centenary year does greater justice to Indira Gandhi

In a country where close to 60% of people have been born after her death, why does Indira Gandhi return to be a part of people’s discussions 32 years after her assassination?

British prime minister Margaret Thatcher (left) with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, outside 10 Downing Street, March 22, 1982(Getty Images)

columns

Updated on Nov 20, 2016 10:33 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

With one deft stroke, PM Modi has broken the back of black money

His actual work has just begun. History is looking at him with eager eyes. It has a bad habit of recording both the success and failure of politicians with equal ruthlessness.

It is a fact that Modi has broken the back of black money by banning larger currency notes but it is also true that small businessmen and the man on the street are tremendously inconvenienced.(HT Photo)

columns

Updated on Nov 13, 2016 08:34 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Like the Taliban, separatists in Kashmir don’t want children to go to schools

They want to foist illiteracy, poverty and callousness on people so that the flames of dissatisfaction can be stoked conveniently

In the last few months, around 30 schools have been set afire in the Valley. This is a tried-and-tested tactic for separatists.(AFP)

columns

Updated on Nov 06, 2016 10:52 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

It is our responsibility to fight the indifference and darkness around us

It is not enough if we clean our homes and surroundings; we should be more responsible citizens who fight the evils around us. Fighting society’s indifference and darkness is the responsibility of every individual. That, in essence, is the essence of Diwali .

In a land where helping the helpless is considered a religious duty, a woman is stabbed more than 30 times at a Metro station in Gurgaon.(Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

columns

Updated on Oct 31, 2016 07:18 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

To secure its border forever, India must bridge the gulf of economic inequality

I wouldn’t have written on this piece had I not read about India’s dismal record in the fight against hunger. According to the Global Hunger Index, our country is worse off than Nepal, Bangladesh, Senegal and Rwanda.

The International Food Policy Research Institute’s global hunger index says India is worse off than Nepal, Bangladesh, Senegal and Rwanda(Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

columns

Updated on Oct 24, 2016 12:20 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

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