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The Hindu
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Watch: Bollywood Calling again? Nagesh Kukunoor on The Hunt
In this exclusive episode of Inside Man, filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor opens up about his bold new series The Hunt, based on the aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and the art of staging the greatest anticlimax in Indian political history. He shares what drew him to this explosive material, how he works with actors, and reflects on his evolution from indie gems like Hyderabad Blues to the powerful Teen Deewarein, where he began to balance arthouse with mainstream storytelling. We talk about his relentless pursuit to make a film in every genre — from the hard-hitting Lakshmi on sex trafficking, to the heartwarming Dhanak, his darkest unreleased film Maya, and then adapting to the OTT space with City of Dreams. Despite the shift to digital, Kukunoor remains an independent filmmaker at heart — always mixing it up, always telling stories on his own terms.
Indian Express
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
July 24, 1985, Forty Years Ago: Rajiv-Longowal Meet
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Akali Dal chief, Harchand Singh Longowal, met for over half an hour in an effort to solve the Punjab problem. It was followed by another meeting between two aides of Longowal and the members of the political affairs committee of the cabinet. According to informed sources, the trend was hopeful. Optimism In Punjab There was general optimism in Punjab over the talks between the Centre and the Akali Dal leaders in New Delhi with various political parties including the Congress-I, the BJP and the CPI(M) welcoming the fresh initiative. The only notes of dissent came from the merged Akali Dal of Joginder Singh and the All-India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF). More Die In Gujarat At least six persons were killed, three in bomb blasts and three in stabbings, in different incidents in Ahmedabad city, taking the toll in violence to 45 since the withdrawal of the Army. The police fired a dozen rounds in the Kach-ni-Masjid locality in the Jamalpur area to disperse a mob pelting police pickets with stones. In another incident in the Jamalpur area, an SRP jawan fired one round in the air to scare away two pedestrians who were attacking an autorickshaw driver. Two people were arrested in connection with the incident. Rent Control The Delhi Metropolitan Council passed some amendments watering down the legislative proposals to change the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958. While Opposition members described the proposals as grossly anti-tenant, ruling party members expressed this feeling through amendments aimed at toning down some of the proposals heavily favouring landlords.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Punjab needs a hero, not a leader
Exactly 40 years to the day, the country gave itself a chance to revive its dead and putrid moral spirit and give its politics a new ray of hope to flourish beyond petty politicking. Eleven months after the catastrophic Operation Bluestar and anti-Sikh pogrom, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed a rather extraordinary Memorandum of Settlement with then president of Punjab's only regional and predominantly Sikh religious party, Shiromani Akali Dal. The Punjab accord, inked on July 24 in 1985, marked a break from the past as this was probably the first time ever since Independence that a constitutionally elected Government of India had entered into a formal accord for the resolution of a conflict in a strife- torn state, not with the government of the province but with just a political party, and that too one which at that time did not have a formal mandate of the people of the state to represent them. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Akali Dal president Harcharan Singh Longowal in New Delhi. (KK Chawla/HT) A daring political approach SAD was not in government at that time and even the legislative assembly of the state stood dissolved. This fact was and is extremely significant as it heralded a new daring in political approach to go beyond the constitution in order to find a solution to issues which were far more than political, economic or geographical. They had a strong psychological and emotional dimension which had remained un-addressed for over 37 years since 1947. It also signaled an acknowledgement by the then government that the country was not just a constitutional entity but was an offspring of covenant based on the diverse sentiments and aspirations of people who had little in common except a shared national sentiment – and needed an emotional leaven to bind together a people with a staggering diversity of religions, languages, regional cultures and even the political history of their respective regions. That such a path-breaking effort was made was a tribute to what appeared at that time to be a daring vision of the national and regional leadership. Alas, that was to prove just idealistic day dreaming by the lovers of an emotional togetherness of a potentially great nation. The accord had two clearly demarcated zones of relevance: its Letter on the one hand and its Spirit on the other. That the accord was fundamentally flawed in letter was proved by strong opposition to its terms by the more popular segment in one of the two signatories, the SAD. Led by the two stalwarts of Panthic politics, Parkash Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the opposition to the written clauses on two key aspects of the complex Punjab tangle --- the religious and the riparian aspects --- was entirely understandable as the its clauses seemed to compromise on the very basis on which Punjab's and Alkalis' agitation till then had stood. Lost opportunity And yet, tough as it was, this was a hurdle that may still have been transcended if the major signatory to the document, the prime minister, had allowed his nationalistic and democratic instinct to sidestep political considerations of his party in Haryana. His failure to do that was a disastrous blunder which led not only to the non-implementation of the accord but also to a long trail of blood in Punjab and to the tragic dissipation of the constructive nationalistic impulse which the accord had generated. In retrospect, the country paid a huge price for petty gains of the Congress party in Haryana elections. A great emotional national landmark was erased just to preserve an electoral scribble in a small state. None of the issues that the accord set out to resolve was even seriously addressed. Even that may have been a manageable and retrievable failure. What was lost – and will take a long time to recover, recreate and grasp – was an opportunity for emotional integration of the people of the country along an approach based on consensus and mutual respect. In other words, the real blow dealt by Rajiv Gandhi's betrayal of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal's sacrifice lay not in political, economic or geographical detail but in that it created a massive trust deficit in the nation's life. What we are witnessing today in the evaporation of an idealistic and unifying national impulse is merely one of the aftershocks of that historic betrayal of innocent faith. It is history's revenge that Rajiv Gandhi's birthday will always fall on the martyrdom day of the man he betrayed (Sant Longowal) – August 20. The accord and all that it stood for is dead and even the issues it sought to address may have lost some of their practical relevance. But ideological and emotional implications of the approach that the accord symbolised are still intact and will continue to serve as a reminder of the direction our country's politics needs to take in years, decades and centuries to come. Lessons we must learn The modern day cynicism that afflicts the country's political and even social life is the result merely of our contemptuous dismissal of elementary idealism about values in our personal as well as public life: the two can barely be separated. You cannot aspire for values in public life and yet conveniently ignore them in personal life. Yes, the accord is dead and there is no use crying over the milk we have worked so hard to spill. Yet, it is still not too late to go back to the creative and constructive impulse and vision that the accord had come, wittingly or unwittingly, to symbolise. And the centrepiece of that impulse and vision is politics of constructive consensus on vital issues. There is a need to take politics away from its current pathetic plight as an ugly, abusive and utterly personalised street brawl and to create an environment in which political opposition translates into approach to public issues. Politicians owe it to us to ensure that politics is seen as much more than personal interests or fortunes of leaders. The atmosphere in which political opposition becomes coterminous with poisonous personal enmity must be abandoned. Politicians must stop speaking a language which paints them bloodthirsty beasts of prey, out to slice each other's throat: they must appear not as enemies but as alternatives to resolve people's issues. Punjab – or the Punjab of which we used to be so proud – must set an example in this before the rest of the country. That was the spirit of which the Punjab Accord had sparked hopes. Even though the accord died much before its two signatories fell to assassins, its spirit still awaits someone to come and claim it. The politics of unseemly confrontation can produce winners and losers for a day but it can never produce heroes immortalised by history. It can give us a Machiavelli or a Hitler but never a Nelson Mandela. (The author, a long-time adviser to the late chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, is a freelance contributor. Views expressed are personal).
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
July 23, 1985, Forty Years Ago: Kanishka explosion
Doubts over the possibility of an explosion aboard the Kanishka flight are fast disappearing. Those who have heard the Shannon ATC tapes and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) are now fairly certain there was an explosion on board the aircraft. In the Shannon ATC tape there is a four minute, three second silence after the captain's final talk with the ground station, punctuated only by beeps. Then suddenly, there is a prolonged rumble, followed by a series of lower rumbles, one loud rumble and a piercing human shriek that dies out suddenly. Rajiv-Longowal meet The Akali Dal (L) president, Harchand Singh Longowal, will meet PM Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi. This will be the first contact between the Akali Dal leadership and the government since early 1984, when talks on the Punjab problem broke down. The meeting, which has come about at the Prime Minister's initiative, will be held in Parliament House. PM talks to Reagan Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said that he told US President Ronald Reagan that India would be hard-pressed to counter the nuclear threat from Pakistan if that country persisted in its efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb. Although there were many points of divergence, Gandhi said he found Reagan to be 'very frank'. DDA flats inspection The Supreme Court appointed the chief engineer (quality control) of Delhi Development Authority as its commissioner to inspect the condition of the low-income group flats in KG 11, Vikaspuri, which were allegedly on the verge of crumbling down. In a petition, the KG 11 Residents Welfare Association said the condition of the flats, where over 400 families were living since 1982, was fast deteriorating.
India Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Taken At The Flood: Jagdeep Dhankhar's journey through India's political currents
Life moves like a restless river, always flowing and changing course. At times, it lifts us up to new heights; at other times, it draws us back. But, as Shakespeare wrote, there are moments in life—high tides—that, if seized, can carry us to great fortune. The story of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who resigned on Monday, is much like this river, full of ebb and At The FloodIn 1989, India's political landscape was turbulent, with the Congress facing unprecedented challenges from a united opposition. It was a Dickensian ode to the best of times for the non-Congress opposition and the worst for the Congress and then Prime Minister Rajiv young PM, who had caught the nation's fancy with his persona and vision, had suddenly lost his sheen. A penumbra of corruption, opportunism, and communalism had surrounded his early aura. Bofors, a Swedish gun, had become a household name, and the streets echoed with a nasty slogan: 'Gali, gali main shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai.' Another narrative was unfolding with the unravelling of Rajiv Gandhi—the rise of Hindutva, amplified by BJP's campaign for a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. As BJP leader LK Advani led a 'Rath Yatra' through the heart of India, leaving behind a legacy of Hindutva revivalism and a trail of blood, a strange alliance shaped Indian politics. It presented Jagdeep Dhankhar an opportunity to ride the high tide of Unlikely AllianceThe left is left, and the right is right, and the twain shall never meet. This axiom of politics turned on its head when the BJP, the Janata Dal—led by VP Singh—and the Left joined hands against Rajiv Gandhi in the 1989 elections. The alliance shredded the social tapestry the Congress had woven through clever caste and communal equations. In many places, it brought rival social groups together, creating a solid vote bank against the Congress. The impact of this coalition was felt most in states like Rajasthan, where feudal-era loyalties had created deep schisms between politically vocal castes like Jats and Rajputs. For the first time in Indian history, these arch-rivals united to uproot the 1989The desert town of Jhunjhunu, possibly named after a chieftain called Jhunjha, is the beating heart of Shekhawati, a region in Rajasthan known as the birthplace of some of India's biggest business tycoons. Born in a small village in Jhunjhunu, Dhankhar moved to Jaipur to practice law, where he became president of the High Court Bar Association. But his political destiny awaited him in politics is dominated by three groups—the numerically superior Jats, the politically united Muslims, and the socially powerful Rajputs, who once ruled as chieftains. The politics of Jhunjhunu was historically dominated by the Congress, which created a solid vote bloc of Jats, Muslims, and Dalits. In 1989, two leaders blasted away this bonhomie, giving Dhankhar a rare opportunity in Tau and The ThakuradvertisementAmong the Jats of Rajasthan, especially in the Shekhawati region, Chaudhary Devi Lal emerged as an unexpected star, even though his karma bhoomi was the adjoining state of Haryana. Revered as Tau by followers, Devi Lal shook Rajasthan's political landscape when he announced his candidature from Sikar, against Congress heavyweight and fellow Jat, Balram Lal's decision to contest from Sikar, which abuts Jhunjhunu, drew Jats to the opposition in the entire Shekhawati region. They combined with the Rajputs, led by BJP stalwart Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and the lure of VP Singh, a Thakur, to form a formidable group that guaranteed opposition victory.A Pivotal Rally: The Turning PointIt was Tau Devi Lal's 75th birthday, an occasion turned into opposition's heft at Delhi's Boat Club. Dhankhar, a young lawyer with political ambition, organised a large gathering from Jhunjhunu to attend the birthday rally.A few days later, while his Sangram Colony house in Jaipur was dipped in the dark because of a power cut, light shone through. Devi Lal and Ajit Singh visited him, offering him the chance to contest from Jhunjhunu. Riding on the anger against PM Gandhi, thrust forward by the combined might of the Jat-Rajput coalition, Dhankhar swept the and FlowThe river of destiny shifted its course in November 1990. VP Singh, carried to power by high hopes and the surge of public will, formed the government. Dhankhar was inducted as a junior minister, ironically, on the recommendation of Bansi Lal, a Congress leader. In November 1989, VP Singh's government fell toppled by collapsing alliances. Chandra Shekhar, whose journey had long flowed against the mainstream, now found himself steering the that moment's confluence, another opportunity emerged when he was called to serve as Minister of State in the government. But, he refused to take oath, objecting to the inclusion of Rajasthan leaders Daulat Ram and Kalyan Singh as senior March 1991, Chandra Shekhar's government, always precarious, lost the support that had kept it standing. Faced with mounting political pressure and growing isolation, he resigned, bringing his brief time in office to an end. With the cabinet dissolved, Dhankhar's role in national politics faded as quickly as it had appeared. The attention shifted, new names emerged, and for Dhankhar, it was a return to relative obscurity, his moment on the central stage quietly passing into Out the LullThe gates of Parliament had closed, but ambition still stirred. Politics, though, seldom forgives or forgets. The Congress, regaining dominance through the 1990s, saw Dhankhar make a pragmatic shift—he joined its ranks, winning a state assembly seat in 1993. For a while, after his assembly win, Dhankhar's career he made a political blunder. In the caste-driven politics of Rajasthan, Dhankhar positioned himself as a Jat leader. Unfortunately for him, the reins of the Congress passed to Ashok Gehlot, who swiftly purged the party of Jat leaders. Denied the chance to contest for the Assembly by Gehlot, Dhankhar joined the NCP, and then the BJP ahead of the 2003 Assembly polls. Vasundhara Raje, his old friend and the new BJP satrap, refused to give Dhankhar a Rajya Sabha ticket, ending his dream of a return to national 15-year ExileHis political journey, once brimming with promise, was derailed by a mix of his own impatience, sudden changes in allegiance, and missteps, as well as the rise of regional leaders who viewed the shrewd lawyer with suspicion. Consequently, after brief spells in nearly every major political party within a decade, he found himself pushed to the sidelines, left to while away his has its own rhythm. At the beginning of the millennium, Dhankhar waited patiently for the tide to turn. Visitors to his farm on the outskirts of Jaipur were treated with the luxury of time and the coffee he blended himself, stirring it for hours with a political wilderness stretched for nearly 15 years. Dhankhar, however, remained more than a distant memory. He remained active in the legal world, earning renown as a sharp, argumentative advocate in the Supreme Court. In these years, he forged quiet but potent links with the RSS, lending his insights and tenacity to the background operations of the Sangh and BJP, even as he was denied a formal Angles of ReturnIn 2019, fortune turned. The BJP, seeking a seasoned and regionally credible leader, tapped Dhankhar as Governor of West Bengal—a surprise move that returned him to the center of political action. His legal acumen and deep understanding of political strategy became assets as he dealt with the fierce, often confrontational politics of Bengal, often sparring with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. His confrontational style was rewarded by the BJP with his election as Vice President in 2022. But another chapter was Health and Political ConcernsThis March, Dhankhar underwent a procedure for removal of blockages in the heart. But the problem of low blood pressure and fainting spells persisted. This, according to official sources, is the reason for his sudden the real reason is complex. Sources close to Dhankhar cite his continuous neglect by the BJP top brass, indicating a rapid souring of relationship. In his home state, Rajasthan, the Vice President felt slighted by the chief minister, Bhajan Lal, who would often ignore his trips, or requests. Sources close to him say he was being insulted on purpose–a clear message that his stock had fallen within the 20 was the birthday of his wife, Dr Sudesh Dhankhar. A feast was organised for the staff, with jalebis flown in from Jaipur. There was no sign of his impending resignation, though Dhankhar was aware that he had overstayed his welcome. Whispers in political circles suggest tensions with BJP leadership over his outspoken remarks on farmers and the judiciary, though no official confirmation a day later, on the opening day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Dhankhar quit. 'He was simmering because the top brass had turned cold and aloof. Things had turned so bad that the party leadership would ignore even his salutations and greetings,' a family source of the SurvivorsDhankhar's journey is less a tale of permanent ascent and more one of resilience—the ability to wait, adapt, and seize opportunity when it arises. His recent resignation is simply the latest bend in a long, unpredictable course. Jagdeep Dhankhar has navigated the floods with remarkable tenacity. Will he catch another high tide, or is this the end of his political journey? Time will reveal its future ebb and flow.- Ends
