News and Views

Language is anything but neutral. ‘Rape’, as the recent Gurugram moral policing incident shows, is a loaded word that cannot be used to mete out punishment as one sees fit. However, as we assess the incident — the woman’s alleged “you should be raped” comment, the recording of the video, how the six women approached the situation, the social media support and outrage, and finally the media coverag...

The Muslim Educational Society in Kerala has issued a circular banning niqab (veil covering the face) in all its educational institutions. The MES is one of the largest minority educational organisations with over 100 institutions to its name.  In the circular released by the organisation, president of the institution PA Fazal Gafoor says, “MES aims at the social and cultural progress of the Musli...

Doxxing involves looking up the details of people’s lives, usually by digging through their social media profiles, publicly available data, government records and even comments across old and defunct message boards. While snippets of this information might be irrelevant individually, put together,they can cause real harm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been seven months since Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and dissident, was brutally murdered inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul. His dismembered body has still not been found. The Saudi Royal Family remains the chief suspect. Yet, for globetrotting capitalists in search of opportunity in Riyadh, it’s back to business as usual. 'For more podcasts from The Quint, check out our Podca...

Masood Azhar was been blacklisted by the UNSC as a global terrorist, on 1 May. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the BJP which is campaigning for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election before the remaining phases which has some crucial constituencies in the Hindi heartland go to polls. On the other hand, there seem to be glaring differences among the parties in opposition about th...

The Indian electorate loves to throw up surprises in almost every election – whether in terms of throwing hung verdicts or giving decisive mandates. Something similar seems to be brewing in the politically significant state of Gujarat. During the 2014 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party smashed all opposition and rode to victory by sweeping Gujarat’s 26 parliamentary seats. The euphoria of seein...

There’s an 85% chance you’re listening to this podcast on a mobile phone. Listen up because this is for you. If you own a mobile phone or a computer, you’re likely to be one of the 2.3 billion who use Facebook or the 1.5 billion who use WhatsApp. Both Facebook and WhatsApp are going to go through a LOT of changes soon. So, to avoid any sudden, rude surprises, today we’ll tell you all the BIG chang...

The most important question that comes to mind after China has lifted its hold on Masood Azhar’s designation as a terrorist under UN rules is: Why now? Why plumb in the middle of the general elections? The simple answer would be: to oblige Narendra Modi, whose government has assiduously campaigned to have this done. But that would be too simplistic. This is a political bargain, plain and simple. ...

 पूर्वी यूपी की बात करें तो यहां कुछ ऐसे चेहरे भी हैं, जो स्टार तो नहीं लेकिन अपने इलाके में काफी दबदबा रखते हैं. ऐसे नेताओं को बाहुबली नेता कहा जाता है. आपराधिक छवि के बावजूद ये नेता लोगों में काफी पॉपुलर हैं Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The recent viral video of the lady saying that short dresses invite rape leads us to this:  Nothing. Absolutely nothing ‘deserves rape’. Because rape is not something one ‘earns’ on a karma scoreboard. One’s actions have no bearing, under any conceivable circumstances, on the act of rape. It is a heinous, blood-curdling crime punishable under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. Learn more about...

What has ‘Modinomics’ done for workers? If they were dreaming of achhe din, they’ve got a nightmare. The Modi government has not only failed on its promise to create more jobs, it has actually ended up reducing them. The government’s own leaked report, held back on grounds of being unsound, says that unemployment is at a 45-year high. Data from India’s most respected private economic intelligence...

David Warner of Sunrisers Hyderabad proved everybody wrong over the last five weeks of the 2019 Indian Premier League feels Sandeep Patil.  Warner's innings hasn't been only about power-hitting. It has been well-planned and a very well-executed batting display. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do Malayalam actors Fahadh Faasil and Mammootty have in common (apart from good looks and acting prowess)? Well, in a recent bizarre incident, both of them were asked to take a stand on Islamic terror, out of the blue, by one of BJP’s candidates in Kerala. Alappuzha’s BJP candidate KS Radhakrishnan, while condemning the terror attack on the church in Sri Lanka, asked actors Fahadh Fasil and M...

PepsiCo, the US-based food and beverages multinational, has sued nine farmers of Gujarat, some of them for Rs 1 crore each, for allegedly violating its intellectual property rights (IPR) in a registered potato variety. A court has given an injunction after finding that the samples were indeed PepsiCo’s variety, but the company might find it difficult to prove that the farmers obtained the seed ill...

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi asking him to clarify his nationality after BJP MP Subramanian Swamy alleged that Gandhi is a British national. The letter said that Gandhi had declared his nationality as British in an annual returns statement filed by a British company named Backops Ltd. The MHA has given Gandhi 14 days to file a response. And the trouble for the Congr...

The month of June is crucial for me as the TVS Media Racer Championship kicks off during the same time. Every second of track time I get plays a critical role in how I perform on race day. The 15 racers who qualified were invited to an off-road training program in Bengaluru as a part of the same programme. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gautam Gambhir first dabbled in electoral politics back in 2014, when he campaigned for BJP’s long-time strategist and first-time Lok Sabha candidate from Amritsar, Arun Jaitley. Painted as a ‘parachute candidate’ by his rival Captain Amarinder Singh, Jaitley was unable to shake the image of an outsider despite being a seasoned politician and eventually lost. In 2019, Gautam Gambhir finds himself...

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was one of the 40 or so heads of state and government present at the 2nd Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in Beijing last week. In his speeches and remarks, he strongly batted for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its star project, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Responding to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech at the opening ceremony of the BRF, Kh...

The Bharatiya Janata Party is said to have violated the mandatory 48-hour silence period leading to and during each of the four phases of polling thus far in the Lok Sabha Elections. The BJP, identical to its behaviour in the third phase, had 600 active Facebook ads running even as polling was underway in phase 4 on 29 April. All the ads were targeted at one or, in most cases, multiple states -- l...

“Chambal paar kartay hi Modi lehar khatm ho jaati hai," Manish Kumar, a barber in Madhya Pradesh's Morena says dramatically. The Chambal river marks the border between the south eastern districts of Rajasthan such as Dholpur, Karauli and Sawai Madhopur on one hand and the northern districts of Madhya Pradesh such as Morena and Sheopur on the other. The 28-kilometer journey between Dholpur and More...

Here’s a look at the permutations and combinations that might end up deciding the last two teams that qualify for the IPL 2019 play-offs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The election season is in full swing as we move on to the fourth phase. Hey guys, I’m Sonal and you’re listening to the My Vote 2019 Podcast, your one stop shop for daily election related developments. A total of 72 constituencies spread over nine states voted today in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. One of the most interesting battles of this phase is in Begusarai, where Union Minist...

Every upcoming phase of the 2019 elections is CRITICAL for the BJP. What does voter turnout from phase 4 reveal? Find out on another episode of the Chunav Tracker podcast. Among other news, Rahul Gandhi has run into legal trouble once more. A Bihar court has summoned the Congress president to appear on 20 May. Why? Well listen in to found out. Meanwhile, 72 seats across 9 states voted on 29 April,...

There are no permanent winners or losers in politics, to tweak a famous cliché. On the list of permanent losers seemed to be Raj Thackeray, with no role to play in state or even Mumbai politics. His Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, now 13 years of age, began with a bang seizing 13 seats in the state Assembly in 2009, and in subsequent years, went on to score handsomely in some of the municipal corporat...

In 2014, a phenomenal political performance by the then candidate Narendra Modi clinched Varanasi as his ‘karmabhoomi’. Expectations soared to unimaginable heights as to how he would transform Kashi to Kyoto. Since then, PM Modi has tried to deliver, by flooding the 2,500-year-old sacred city with projects worth thousands of crores. Almost every government department did their bit for the prime mi...