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Panchayat season 4 might drop before July, makers urge viewers to vote for early release. Watch

Panchayat season 4 might drop before July, makers urge viewers to vote for early release. Watch

Panchayat is without a doubt one of the most popular shows in the Indian OTT space and one of Amazon Prime Video and TVF's most successful properties in the country. Fans have been diligently waiting for the fourth season of the show, which was initially supposed to release on July 2. But a recent development has changed that timetable, as the makers of the series have come up with their own way of interacting with their audience and have opened the polling booths to fans for them to decide when the next season will come out.
In a video released by Prime Video, Pradhan ji and Rinki can be seen in conversation with Vikas about the upcoming election between Manju Devi and Kranti Devi. The three are plotting about what the next step should be in this election campaign when Rinki comes with a scorcher of a plan and says, 'Our party should have an official theme song.' As you must have guessed, the cast then breaks out in a song about Manju Devi's political prowess and how she was going to completely change the infrastructure of the village with better roads, airbags for cycles and better electric connectivity.
ALSO READ | The Traitors trailer: Karan Johar's reality show turns savage as Uorfi Javed, Raj Kundra, Apoorva Mukhija play dirty. Watch
The opposing party and its members aren't too far off behind, as Bhushan and Binod discover the track and decide to make one for Kranti. They sing about how they are going to do everything Manju Devi is promising but better. The two singing troops run into each other and start trying to chant and sing louder than each other. This is when Mr Secretary, or Sachiv himself, intervenes and asks them about the audience of the show and whether they have any plans for them. Both candidates then come up to the plate and ask the audience to vote for them. Manju Devi promises to release the next season prior to its release date provided she wins, whereas Kranti Devi promises to do the same thing but in an even shorter span of time.
The makers might have given the promotions for the show just the right amount of push it required before its release. Fans can now vote at https://panchayatvoting.com.
Created by Chandan Kumar and Deepak Kumar Mishra, the cast of Panchayat includes Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Sanvikaa, Durgesh Kumar, Sunita Rajwar, and Pankaj Jha.

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Patriotism vs posturing: The real battle for Bihar has begun
Patriotism vs posturing: The real battle for Bihar has begun

Hans India

time36 minutes ago

  • Hans India

Patriotism vs posturing: The real battle for Bihar has begun

Operation Sindoor has upended Bihar's political terrain, transforming a routine electoral fight into a high-stakes clash between unapologetic patriotism and political posturing. Prime Minister Modi's fiery rhetoric and nationalistic messaging have struck a deep chord in a state where voters rever military might and national pride. As Nitish Kumar fades and Chirag Paswan eyes the future, the NDA's internal unity remains its biggest challenge—and greatest opportunity. The INDIA bloc, still fumbling with mixed messages and confused alliances, risks alienating key constituencies, especially in rural and border areas. With women voters, youth, and even sections of Muslims responding to nationalism, old caste calculations are no longer enough. Populist promises from Tejaswi Yadav may grab headlines, but it is the emotion unleashed by Sindoor that could sway ballots. The 2025 Bihar election isn't just about power—it's a referendum on identity, vision, and the nation's soul Operation Sindoor has redrawn the political battlefield of Bihar. What was once a predictable clash of caste-based alliances is now being recast as a confrontation between nationalism and perceived political opportunism. The upcoming assembly elections are no longer just about governance—they're about identity, pride, and clarity of purpose. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Chun Chun ke Marenge' declaration from Bihar and his recent references to how the Sindoor of Indian women turned into a missile against Pakistan have reignited patriotic fervour. For the NDA, this surge of nationalism is a potential game-changer. In a state where voters respond powerfully to military heroism and national security, the INDIA bloc's hesitation, silence, or criticism of Operation Sindoor may be seen as a betrayal, especially in rural and semi-urban constituencies. But sentiment alone won't win an election. The NDA still has a complicated internal equation to manage. The BJP's prospects depend significantly on maintaining unity and clarity of leadership. Nitish Kumar, once a towering figure in Bihar's politics, now finds himself on the back foot. His popularity has dropped to around 18%, his public appearances are rare, and his gaffes have only fuelled speculation about his fitness to continue. The opposition mocks him as the 'Bimar CM of a BIMARU state.' This vacuum creates an opportunity for a new generation of leadership. Bihar's youth, increasingly politically aware and aspirational, particularly those eyeing defence and government jobs, are inclined towards parties with a strong nationalistic and development-oriented image. This makes the BJP's potential promotion of Chirag Paswan a tantalising prospect. Paswan has declared his intent to shift focus from national to state politics, hinting at a possible leadership transition post-election. But declaring a CM face now could create tensions with Nitish's JD(U), so BJP may play the waiting game. Meanwhile, Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, the INDIA bloc's youth mascot, is gearing up with populist promises like the Mai Bahini Maan Yojana (Rs 2500 monthly to women), subsidised LPG, and free electricity. Whether these freebies can match the emotional and nationalistic connect forged by Operation Sindoor remains to be seen. Over the last two decades, women voters have emerged as a decisive force in Bihar politics. Since 2010, their turnout has consistently outstripped that of men. Recognising this, the NDA has doubled down on gender-targeted welfare and infrastructure. Mahila Haats, pink toilets, women-only buses, subsidies for e-rickshaws, rental assistance for female cops, and reservations in BSRTC jobs are ongoing schemes. Educational schemes like free cycles, uniforms, and reserved seats in medical and engineering colleges further aim to consolidate the female vote bank. Still, Tejaswi's targeted cash handouts could lure some segments of this electorate, particularly in economically vulnerable zones. The battle for women's votes may end up being the election's hidden decider. Bihar's political DNA has long been dominated by caste arithmetic. Traditionally, JD(U) leaned on Kurmi-Koeri (upper backward classes) support, RJD on Yadav-Muslim votes, and BJP on upper castes and urban voters. But these boundaries are blurring. Operation Sindoor, and the strong reaction it evoked across demographics, may shift traditional loyalties. Even Yadav and Pasmanda (deprived and downtrodden) Muslim voters in border areas may reconsider their stance if they perceive the INDIA bloc's stance as undermining national pride. Added to that a deeper fatigue is also settling in among sections of the Muslim electorate, weary of being used as mere vote banks. Modi's push to reach out to Pasmanda Muslims and the nationalist tone of Operation Sindoor could further erode the INDIA bloc's Muslim consolidation. Several smaller but significant players are poised to split votes and inject volatility into the election. AIMIM, led by Asaduddin Owaisi, is riding a wave of popularity among young Muslims following his fiery support for Operation Sindoor and denunciation of Pakistan's misadventures. While the party has sent a lukewarm proposal to RJD for alliance, insiders see this as more about optics than intent. From its current tally of five seats, AIMIM could double its count—largely at the INDIA bloc's expense. Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraj, contesting all 243 seats, is running a campaign unlike any other. He doesn't ask for votes; instead, he offers solutions. 'Even I might betray you if I win—so don't believe anyone blindly,' he tells voters. His emphasis on governance and local problem-solving may not win him power, but it may cut into the anti-incumbency vote, hurting INDIA bloc more than the NDA. Left parties continue to fade into irrelevance, with their vote share shrinking rapidly. Bihar is not a monolith. Regional nuances will heavily influence the outcome: North Bihar, especially Seemanchal and Mithila, is fluid and unpredictable, with AIMIM, RJD, and BJP all vying for dominance. Central Bihar could become the swing zone. If the NDA remains united, it holds the edge. Border districts—affected most by Pakistan's misadventures—may swing towards the NDA due to patriotic sentiment and the emotional aftershocks of Operation Sindoor. Early speculation suggests the NDA could bag between 125 and 150 seats in the 243-member Assembly. The INDIA bloc may secure around 70, while the remainder would be split among AIMIM, Jan Suraj, independents, and possibly the Left. A party or alliance needs 122 seats for a simple majority. Should the NDA cross the threshold comfortably, the post-poll narrative could shift to leadership. Chirag Paswan, youthful and ambitious, is a natural contender. With Nitish Kumar fading, the BJP could spring a surprise, especially if it helps maintain unity within the alliance while projecting a fresh face for Bihar's future. Rahul Gandhi has made Bihar a key focus, visiting the state more than any other in recent months. But his continued jibes against the army and mocking tone toward the Prime Minister have cost him dearly in the hyper-nationalist mood post-Sindoor. The Congress, far from rejuvenated, is dragging the INDIA bloc into confusion and controversy. His rhetoric—blaming Modi for surrendering to Trump, downplaying Operation Sindoor as a 'chutput war,' and alleging massive Indian casualties—risks alienating patriotic voters and playing directly into the BJP's hands. Poll analysts estimate that around 35 per cent of Bihar's electorate is committedly anti-BJP. This gives the INDIA bloc a base—but not an edge. With Modi's personal popularity, the emotional impact of Operation Sindoor, a robust women-centric agenda, and a fragmented opposition, the NDA holds a visible advantage. But Bihar is a land of last-minute swings and layered loyalties. The real battle will be decided by how effectively the NDA manages its internal dynamics, and how smartly the INDIA bloc reinvents its narrative—if at all. In 2025, Bihar won't just vote for governance. It will vote for identity, vision, and direction. Operation Sindoor didn't just change military dynamics—it may well have changed the political future of one of India's most complex states. (The author is former Chief Editor of The Hans India)

Pakistan writes 4 letters to India, urging them to reconsider decision to suspend Indus Waters Treaty
Pakistan writes 4 letters to India, urging them to reconsider decision to suspend Indus Waters Treaty

Mint

time41 minutes ago

  • Mint

Pakistan writes 4 letters to India, urging them to reconsider decision to suspend Indus Waters Treaty

Pakistani authorities reportedly wrote letters to their Indian counterparts several times since April to reconsider the decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, sources said on Friday. India had announced its decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) of 1960 with Pakistan on April 23 — a day after at least 26 people were killed in the Pahalgam terror attack. The Ministry of External Affairs had then said that the Indus Waters Treaty will be held in "abeyance" until Pakistan irreversibly ends its support for cross-border terrorism. Over a month later, the Hindustan Times reported that Pakistan's water resources secretary Syed Ali Murtaza sent four letters to India's Jal Shakti ministry since then, urging a review of the decision to suspend the treaty. It wasn't immediately clear when the letters were sent, but a person aware of the matter said that three of the letters were written after Operation Sindoor, the report added. Sources told the Hindustan Times that the Pakistani side continued to claim that the treaty cannot be unilaterally suspended by India and that the suspension violates the pact's provisions. The letters were said to be a response to a formal notification on April 24 from India's water resources secretary Debashree Mukherjee to her Pakistani counterpart about the decision to keep the treaty in abeyance. Mukherjee had reportedly written: 'The obligation to honour a treaty in good faith is fundamental to a treaty. However, what we have seen instead is sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.' There has been no response by India to Pakistan's letters so far. Sources, however, claimed that India 'remains firm on its decision.' External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reiterated on April 29 that the country would not engage in talks with Pakistan until the neighbour 'credibly and irrevocably abjures cross-border terrorism.' According to the report, the Indian side has stopped sharing all data related to the flows of the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab – that were allocated to Pakistan under the 1960 treaty. Pakistani leaders said earlier any reduction of water flows allowed under the Indus Waters Treaty will be seen as an 'act of war.' The Indus Waters Treaty has survived four wars between India and Pakistan since its signing in 1960, making this the first time the pact has been suspended.

Scaachi Koul: 'Every writer should be in therapy'
Scaachi Koul: 'Every writer should be in therapy'

Hindustan Times

timean hour ago

  • Hindustan Times

Scaachi Koul: 'Every writer should be in therapy'

After your first book of personal essays [One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter (2017)] was published, you married your long-term boyfriend, moved to New York, became aware of your husband's affair, spent the early pandemic months anxious as your parents were stuck in Jammu during India's lockdown, got divorced, lost your job at Buzzfeed, and your mom was diagnosed with cancer. You signed the book deal seven years ago, before the two major events it's about — your divorce and mom's cancer — unfolded. What was the book you were intending to write originally? When did you finally start working on the first draft of Sucker Punch? It was supposed to be an essay collection about the utility and futility of conflict, so I was still trying to mine this thing. You're already laughing because you can imagine me banging my head against a wall like, 'Why can't I write this book about fighting?' And meanwhile, my marriage is on fire. I entered this relationship clearly without the facts, not knowing what was going on and not knowing what would happen. I think a lot of people felt that way — you marry someone, and then the pandemic happens, and you're like, 'Hey, who the hell is this?' I even felt that in watching how my parents handled the issues of where they were. My mom has health issues, so she's really concerned about her access to things. They're not Indian citizens, so I was thinking about what government would take care of them. They were in Jammu, which is also tricky — getting in and out of there was kind of challenging. Dad, meanwhile, was having a scotch, having a laugh. And so, I was trying to write this conflict book, and I just couldn't do it because everything was hard, and I was struggling to see the value of conflict. I had always felt like a protest worked. And then you watch Trump steamroll, the first time, through the American government. I was just disillusioned. I would send my book editor passages and she'd be like, 'This is bad. No.' I was lucky that I had someone who's really honest with me. But it wasn't really until my ex and I separated, and I was in my own apartment, I started filing things and I was being told, 'Yes, this is good.' I'd say, the day he and I broke up, I was like, 'OH. Oh, I see.' It really was like a cloud lifted over me. I didn't know what I needed to say, but it was very clear that this was going to be a book about the collapse of what I thought was a fundamental truth. While reading your book, I thought I understood all the reasons for your divorce: different fighting styles, the pandemic, too many years together... you'd analysed the relationship, his faults, your faults, the small things, all things. So, I was startled when I got to the part about his affair. Less than a year into your marriage, you discovered that he had been cheating on you for five years. Why did you decide to withhold it until much later in the book? I felt like if I told the audience, at the very beginning of the book, my white ex-husband cheated on me with a white woman — no one was going to be able to read anything after that! I'm trying to tell you all these other things that were genuinely, to me, more structurally damaging to my relationship than that. Like the funny thing about where it's placed: I don't leave. I find out [about the affair] and I think, 'Here's another thing for me to try to figure out how is my fault, and then I'll reverse engineer it.' The earlier drafts were much kinder, and information like this was parceled out slowly and sparingly. Even still, I'm pretty careful about how much I'm saying, because I don't really care. It's not important to me, but it was important to the narrative. And when I've explained to you that I had hidden from myself so effectively, I have to tell you how and why. I was hiding from myself within the relationship. Then I felt like I was being hidden through this strange relationship with this woman. Even her confronting me about it and telling me the information felt like a way to kind of obfuscate my existence in it. I really resent non-fiction books that don't tell you what happened... I promised you a story. I'm also not embarrassed by any of this. I didn't do it. I'm a passenger on a lot of this. You deleted most of your Instagram posts and later some tweets. You cringed re-reading your first book. Tell me about the act of writing this very vulnerable memoir while also experiencing this need for erasure or distance from the past. I'm okay with the decision about how public I am. I'm good at it. If I was bad at it, if the work was bad, then for sure, send me away. But if I'm going to do it, then I have to be really honest. So, I'm slower. I take longer, I think a little harder about it... The funny thing is, the criticism the second book gets is 'Oh, this is mundane. Everybody's had stuff like this happen.' And, yeah, you're right. You're totally right. Sexual assault is incredibly common. Divorce is sooo boring. Cancer? Oh my god. My mom got one of the most common forms of breast cancer. ABSOLUTELY, you're right. And still, nobody's saying anything. Shutting my mouth and dealing with the consternation privately just doesn't work for me. But also, Sucker Punch is 25 percent of what happened. It's only my version, and then it's maybe half of what I want to tell you. There's lots in there that isn't in there... because I don't really want to do if I don't need to do it. Maybe one day I will. I've also gotten more comfortable with the fact that the work will feel outdated eventually. It should. I want it to feel outdated. If I read One Day We'll All Be Dead Again today and was like, yeah, I still feel like this. Oh my god, kill me! I don't want to be 34 and relate to work that I wrote at 22. No, no, no, no, no, NO. In 10 years, I hope I read Sucker Punch, and I'm like, what a stupid little girl. You write that you'd rather 'punch my cat in the face, eat a leech... allow someone to watch me try to pluck an ingrown hair from the most tender part of my groin…' in public than 'write about my body and, specifically, my struggle for self-esteem.' But you do write about it. How did you let go of your body to write about your body? I think it's a daily decision. Every day you wake up and it's really like, am I going to obsess over this today, or can I just be a person? Can I get through the day? The first thing I had to get over was the idea that I was hiding, because I wasn't. Everybody could tell that I was tugging at myself and feeling uncomfortable. If you're stuck, even hiding that you're not happy about something, that's its own fight and everybody can tell. I also think the worsening political environment has made it easier for me to not think so much about my body. It feels hard to me to wake up and be like, 'Ooh, my abs, I don't have any' when many people got murdered in a drone strike while you were sleeping. But it was when my mom got sick, I started to not think about my body at all. It was very forgotten. Caretaking will do that. She's had, in the last three years, three major surgeries. And because I've been with her in some of these, I've seen that the body is remarkable; it really bounces back. That's not a great lesson: to caretake for someone you love, and then you will appreciate your body. What a morose way to go through life... My relationship with food changed a lot, too, because when my mom got radiation, she lost her appetite. That's really what I'm still trying to get back for her. All of these things are, to me, remarkable privileges. And I hope I can hold on to that feeling as long as possible. How does therapy help the writing process — do you have to be able to process something before you write about it or is writing itself therapeutic? No. Oh, my god. People who are like, 'I don't go to therapy. I just do X.' NO, YOU DON'T. Every writer should be in therapy. I do not trust, I do not trust, an essayist who does not go to therapy. I don't care what they're doing instead. No, I went so much. I just did my taxes yesterday — and I pay [for therapy] out of pocket because I love my therapist, so I won't put her through my awful insurance — and I wrote down how much I paid her. I'm like, damn it, this woman, she must be buying boats with what I'm spending. The funny thing about divorce — any breakup, too — is that it f*cks with your sense of reality, and you need someone who's going to be able to tell you what happened. It's hard to trust your friends sometimes because they hated him. If I trust my mother, then I would move home and that's a different path too that isn't quite right. But I needed somebody who could be like, 'Let's figure out what our version of it is, and I'll help.' It was so necessary. Everybody should be in therapy. It opens with your memories of visiting the mandir, growing up in Canada. And your metaphors are quite strongly rooted in the stories of Hindu goddesses, starting with Parvati and ending with Kali. What made you use Hindu mythology as a framework for the book? That framework was the last thing I put in the book, which is funny to think about because it feels, to me, important. But I had written all of the essays and they just weren't speaking to each other, and I couldn't figure out what I needed to do to make them talk to each other. The thing that I kept thinking about is that in all of my guilt around the divorce was my earliest memory of being at the mandir and this old auntie yelling at me for spilling a glass of water. The embarrassment that I used to feel at the temple felt so similar to how embarrassed I felt after my divorce. And so, the rebellion of the divorce felt religious. It felt like I was committing an affront to a god. I'm not an expert on any of this. These are the stories I was told. And it felt like if I'm untangling stuff that I think is true about my life, then I have to start with these fundamental ones from the very beginning of my life: that this is how women behave, they behave this way in kind of a religious context, we're taught to follow that spirit. But what if I think about it differently? And why haven't I heard about Kali? Nobody talks to me about the fun ones! The divorce didn't drive me to God that much because I still viewed it as a temporal event. When my mom got sick, I was like, am I being punished for something? And that's really when I felt that this is all I have. The original title of your book was going to be I Hope Lightning Falls on You — a translation of 'Paye thraat,' a Kashmiri curse phrase your mother casually hurled at you whenever exasperated — and I thought it would've been quite apt because this is maybe your most Indian writing. How did it become Sucker Punch? I know, I know. I really had so many conversations with myself and with my editors about it. I think the reason why I changed it ultimately was that 'I hope lightning falls on you' to me, is such a tender phrase, so associated with my mom and with my family. When I thought about this book, which is full of really a lot of cruel stuff and stuff that does not have to do with my mother (she doesn't really come in full until after the divorce), it just felt too tender for what the content was. I was talking to my book editor about it and her husband was in the room, and he was like, what about Sucker Punch? I was so mad, I cannot believe a man has figured it out. But it just made more sense. But yeah, something will come, and it will be called I Hope Lightning Falls on You, for sure. Saudamini Jain is an independent journalist. She lives in New Delhi.

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