Pallab Bhattacharya

Much has been written about the flawed and controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the northeastern Indian state of Assam and the mammoth humanitarian crisis that it has triggered.

Two orders given by India’s Supreme Court in two separate cases early this month have, once again, brought into sharp focus the issue of the colonial-era law relating to sedition in the context of media freedom. Both cases involve journalists and their reporting.

A day after their arrest in the Narada bribery case, two senior ministers of West Bengal and a Trinamool Congress leader are set to appeal the Calcutta High Court’s stay on their bail granted by a court in Kolkata.

The Calcutta High Court last night stayed the bail granted by a trial court to two senior West Bengal Ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, and ruling TMC legislator Madan Mitra and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee.

Seldom does an assembly or Lok Sabha election in any Indian state arouse as much interest among the people across the country’s border as in Bangladesh. The results of the recent assembly polls in West Bengal and Assam were keenly watched in India’s eastern neighbour. The interest in West Bengal was, understandably, much greater given the powerful linguistic and cultural connections between the state and Bangladesh.

As much of the world continues to reel under the coronavirus crisis, there is an increasingly frantic scramble for more and more vaccines in countries seeking to protect their people against the disease.

“Films cannot change society. They never have. Show me a film that changed society or brought about any change,” said master director Satyajit Ray in an interview for the American magazine Cineaste more than three decades ago.

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party created history in the north eastern Indian state of Assam by becoming the first non-Congress party to win two successive terms in the state assembly elections there.

It may be too early to tell, but the signs seem promising for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

Bangla nijer meyer kachei thaaklo (Bengal has stayed with its own daughter). When Trinamool Congress (TMC) came out with the slogan “Bangla nijer meyekay chai” in February, it could not have been more prophetic.

The landslide victory of Mamata Banerjee has not only thwarted the Modi wave that has swept over India but also relegated the Left and Congress to a footnote in West Bengal polls.

Mamata Banerjee lost her seat in the high-stakes Nandigram assembly, but the charismatic Trinamool Congress supremo brought her party to power in West Bengal for the third time in a row.

In a televised address to the nation on April 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the gigantic second wave of the coronavirus in India as a “toofan.”

India has instituted the ‘Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Cinema’ to be given at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) every year, starting from this year, to mark Ray’s birth centenary celebrations.

Shankha Ghosh, the last of the five cult figures of modern Bangla poetry post Jibananda Das, died at his Kolkata residence after losing a week-long fight against Covid-19, bringing an end to a golden phase of Bangla literature.

An estimated 80 percent turnout was recorded despite sporadic violence and stray street clashes in the polling for the second phase of the West Bengal assembly elections for 30 seats.

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan said he has undergone an eye surgery. His remark came a couple of days after hinting at a medical condition on his official blog. Bachchan wrote on his blog that the recovery of the surgery is slow and quipped that he be excused for any typing errors.

India has announced a new national-level film award in memory of renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The decision to institute the award was taken at a meeting India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had with the film fraternity of West Bengal in Kolkata, on Monday.

There are some books that immediately grab your attention by dint of their titles.

The story of India’s fight against coronavirus for over a year is remarkable. On September 16 last year, India had reported a record 97,894 coronavirus cases.