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Shashi Shekhar

Articles by Shashi Shekhar

India has done well to speak in one voice against Sikh separatism

The Congress and the BJP shed their ideological differences on the Khalistan issue during the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Sikh radical activists raise pro-Khalistan slogans on the 33rd anniversary of Operation Blue Star, Golden Temple, Amritsar, on June 6, 2017.(HT Photo)

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Updated on Feb 25, 2018 04:48 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

The making of a heartless nation

Why don’t we react to crime against women in public places or help accident victims?

Women protest against rape in a rally in New Delhi. India has one of the worst records in the world when it comes to women's safety in public transport.(Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

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Updated on Feb 19, 2018 12:08 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

From Akhlaq to Ankit: Why deception rules social media

All kinds of falsehoods have been propagated. Those getting aggressive on social media should keep in mind that the nuance between real and fake is being obliterated in this realm.

A candle light march to protest the murder of Ankit Saxena, Delhi, February 5(HT Photo)

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Updated on Feb 12, 2018 08:55 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Do we really need simultaneous elections?

The fault lies in the elected representatives, not in the method of choosing them

President Ram Nath Kovind mentioned simultaneous polls in his address to Parliament(PTI)

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Updated on Feb 05, 2018 10:56 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

The Padmaavat saga and the making of an impatient nation

In the name of law and order, certain chief ministers banned the film without even watching it

People protest outside a cinema hall against the release of Padmaavat in Mathura(PTI)

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Updated on Jan 29, 2018 07:45 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Why is VHP’s Pravin Togadia so angry?

Once a friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the VHP leader is today seen as a liability for the prime minister’s development agenda

There was a time when Pravin Togadia and Narendra Modi used to spend a lot of time with each other. Both were big advocates of hard Hindutva, but as soon as he took over as chief minister of Gujarat, Modi realised the need to rein in his outspoken friend(India Today Group/Getty Images)

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Updated on Jan 22, 2018 01:24 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Constant elections have begun to evoke boredom and fatigue

More than 5,00,000 people pressed the NOTA button during the Gujarat elections to send out a meaningful message

An extremely efficient electoral machinery has emerged in the form of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the last four years.(Deepak Sansta/Hindustan Times)

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Updated on Jan 15, 2018 10:52 AM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Maharashtra violence: Fanning caste fires can’t be justified

Even as violence gripped the state, our MPs were busy stoking the fires of hatred.

Dalit community protesters during the Maharashtra Bandh, January 3, 2017(Praful Gangurde/HT)

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Updated on Jan 08, 2018 07:33 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

A new year resolution for all Indians

Why can’t we make a common New Year resolution: Of not letting our country sink into a morass of rejection and negativity?

People participate in prayers at the Church of the Epiphany, Gurgaon, on December 25.(Parveen Kumar/HT)

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Updated on Dec 31, 2017 07:50 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Madan Mohan Malviya, the Mahamana, did not get the pride of place he deserved for his great achievements

Today is the birth anniversary of BHU founder Madan Mohan Malaviya, the man who commanded the respect of both Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi with Madan Mohan Malaviya, Varanasi, 1941.(Getty Images)

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Published on Dec 24, 2017 05:13 PM IST

Hindustan Times | ByShashi Shekhar

Let poll promises not remain just words once the elections are over

Ever since the first elections held after Independence our politicians talk about development and social strengthening, but they get busy preparing for the next election instead of implementing these lofty ideas on the ground

A woman covers her face as she leaves a polling booth after casting her vote during the first phase of state assembly election in Limbdi town of Surendranagar district in Gujarat.(Reuters Photo)

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Updated on Dec 17, 2017 04:44 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Juvenile crimes: This loss of innocence diminishes us

Children indulging in crime is a fact staring us in the face. The rot needs to be stemmed.

A candle-light vigil in New Delhi to protest against the juvenile accused in the December 16 gangrape case.(Hindustan Times)

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Updated on Dec 10, 2017 04:43 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Why can’t Ayodhya become a symbol of our coexistence

The survival instinct that most Indians display connects the Babri demolition with the death anniversary of Baba Saheb Ambedkar

Hindu fundamentalists celebrate the destruction of the 16th Century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, December 6, 1992. It sparked riots in which more than 2,000 people were killed.(AFP file photo)

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Updated on Dec 03, 2017 10:18 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Padmavati row: Let’s not play with India’s heritage

For petty gains our politicians are ready to change the names of cities, roads, playgrounds and memorials. And they are even prepared to fight over a film about a mythical queen

Demonstrators chant slogans as they protest against the release of the upcoming film Padmavati, Bengaluru, November 15

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Updated on Nov 26, 2017 04:42 PM IST

ByShashi Shekhar

Should we continue to live in gas chambers?

To my surprise, pollution is never an election issue in a country of nature-worshippers

Children cover their faces with pollution masks in the Capital, November 12.(Sonu Mehta/HT File Photo)

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Published on Nov 19, 2017 06:36 PM IST

ByShashi 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

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Shashi Shekhar

The Congress and the BJP shed their ideological differences on the Khalistan issue during the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Why don’t we react to crime against women in public places or help accident victims?

All kinds of falsehoods have been propagated. Those getting aggressive on social media should keep in mind that the nuance between real and fake is being obliterated in this realm.

The fault lies in the elected representatives, not in the method of choosing them

In the name of law and order, certain chief ministers banned the film without even watching it

Once a friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the VHP leader is today seen as a liability for the prime minister’s development agenda

More than 5,00,000 people pressed the NOTA button during the Gujarat elections to send out a meaningful message

Even as violence gripped the state, our MPs were busy stoking the fires of hatred.

Why can’t we make a common New Year resolution: Of not letting our country sink into a morass of rejection and negativity?

Today is the birth anniversary of BHU founder Madan Mohan Malaviya, the man who commanded the respect of both Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi

Ever since the first elections held after Independence our politicians talk about development and social strengthening, but they get busy preparing for the next election instead of implementing these lofty ideas on the ground

Children indulging in crime is a fact staring us in the face. The rot needs to be stemmed.

The survival instinct that most Indians display connects the Babri demolition with the death anniversary of Baba Saheb Ambedkar

For petty gains our politicians are ready to change the names of cities, roads, playgrounds and memorials. And they are even prepared to fight over a film about a mythical queen

To my surprise, pollution is never an election issue in a country of nature-worshippers

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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”?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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