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Columnists
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Bloggers
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Blog: 'Source' Isn't A Dirty Word, It's How They're Handled
If we didn't have unnamed sources, would we have discovered scandals like Watergate, and the Adarsh and Coalgate scams closer home? I learnt my lesson early on in my career and then built more reliable sources in CBI and other parts of the government that I reported on. Question is, will everyone else?
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Blog: In 5-Hour Roadshow, Priyanka Was Silent - Not A Bad Move
And so no one in the Congress is quite sure what to make of Priyanka Gandhi's silence during her much-hyped launch in Uttar Pradesh politics. Just like her Twitter account which stayed tweet-less although verified right from the start and gaining 116,000 followers in its first 24 hours, Ms Vadra wasn't heard at all through the UP roadshow on Monday.
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Blog: Uri's 5 Big Political Highlights Including Superhero Ajit Doval
When top ministers of the land use national platforms to promote a movie, well, it becomes part of my beat. In the last week or so, "Uri", starring Bollywood heartthrob Vicky Kaushal has become a chant for cabinet members.
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Blog: How The CBI Big Fight Started: The Inside Story
2018 could be the year of the Supreme Court clean-up. It banished antiquated laws that criminalised homosexuality and adultery, but to really seal its position this year, our top court has a really dirty job in its yard - the mess that is the CBI or Central Bureau of Investigation.
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Blog: There Was Another First For Rahul Gandhi, Besides The Hug
For the first time, he looked comfortable in his skin as a politician. They kept booing him, they kept criticising him, and shouting him down, but the "reluctant" politician was on a roll.
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Blog: Hi Ministers, My Response To Your #FitnessChallenge
As my timeline explodes with the adrenaline from all the weights that are being lifted and push-ups being thrust by the bold and the beautiful, I think back to the time when the first International Yoga Day was marked in 2015. At that time, I'd reported on all the government excitement and build-up; afterwards, I was in Istanbul for a break when I turned the corner in...
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Blog: No, Minister, You Don't Get To Call Me Fat
You know that story this week where the Tamil Nadu governor Banwari Lal Purohit touched a reporter's cheek and was then publicly shamed for it till he apologised? I can't get that out of my head because it's the first instance of its kind where journalists got together and demanded an apology in a public letter.
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Blog: From Indira To Rajiv, 10 Defining Moments Of Election Seasons
Whether it's this one or the late night drama and tug-of-war between the two A's- Amit Shah and Ahmed Patel - or the victory due to faulty pens in the Haryana elections, there's always a hook if you look for it in the polling ring.
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Blog: Here's Winking At You, Priya Varrier, More Power to Your Swag
Thanks to the good fight led by young actor Priya Varrier and the filmmakers, I also learnt that the winking song actually has some very religions connotations.
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Blog: I Covered The Gujarat Election. My Top 10 Takeaways
Modi magic, Amit Shah grit, and other takeaways from Gujarat
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Blog: Has Gujarat Really Transformed RG? Here Are A Few Clues
It isn't just Rahul's evolution that we are looking at, it is also RG's new-found brothers-in-arms- Hardik, Jignesh and Alpesh.
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Blog: Ex-Principal Thampu Reveals 5 Big Scandals About St. Stephen's
From increasing the quota for Christian students to being a stickler for attendance even if it meant holding back a cricketing hero, Valson Thampu commissioned many controversies.
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Blog: I Covered Aarushi Case For Years. So Who Killed Her?
There's one aspect of reporting on the CBI which haunts me forever. It was around the time that the CBI had just taken over the Aarushi case and they were doing their strange and totally unscientific test to check if having the air conditioning on in the Talwars' room meant that the parents could hear what had happened within her room.
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Blog: Fab Things I Learnt From The Privacy Judgement
Over the next few days you are going to hear a lot about the landmark privacy judgement delivered by nine top judges of the Supreme Court. There will be analysis and even more analysis by lawyers, ex-judges, and egg-heads about why this 500-odd page document is pathbreaking or where it falls short. I'm certainly not even half qualified as any one of them. However, as ...
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Blog: The Difficulty Of Covering PM Modi At G-20
Apparently, right where we were at the G20 centre, PM Modi shook hands, got waved at and then held forth on some enthralling subject while POTUS Donald Trump just listened. Apparently, it was very interesting because not just POTUS, but other leaders gathered to listen to him too. If you're wondering why I say "apparently", it's because five other reporters and me who...
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Blog: Indrani Mukerjea's Grey Hair Intriguing, But She's Not the Story
Every time Indrani Mukerjea appears in court as she faces trial for the murder of a daughter she gave birth to when she was 15, the cameras get a picture of her and it is always published. People can't take their eyes off the greying, exposed roots of her hair. As the grey increases, we all wonder what we'd look like if we were locked up without tools to put our publi...
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Blog: Who's Prashant Kishor, Sheila Dikshit Reportedly Asked
The 37-year-old told her that he was from Rahul Gandhi's office and when he shared his vision, she benignly nodded along. Soon after he left, she called her party's top bosses and asked if he really was who he claimed.
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Blog: Tina Dabi's Mother And I: A Tale Of 2 Working Mothers
You know when a string of random events come together in your mind to tell you a larger story? I had that recently, and the reason I write this is because it is haunting me, and also maybe for you or someone else you know too. Or maybe I just needed to put it down to make sense of it for myself.
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Blog: Kanhaiya And An Electric Moment Close To Midnight At JNU
It is often hard to assess how successful a political speech really is. Journalists use turnout, crowd response and their own formulations to gauge, but on Thursday night, the press pack at Jawaharlal Nehru University was unusually unanimous.
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Blog: Lessons From Aligarh, In The Time Of 'Anti-Nationalism'
At a time when my own profession is under attack for being partisan, Aligarh, like Spotlight and the Aaron Sorkin drama Newsroom, reminds us what's really important in journalism.
