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1 month ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Meena Kandasamy |Vaishna Roy
The rising incidence of crimes against women and minors in Odisha has not only put the nine-month-old BJP government in a tight spot but also exposed serious lapses in its efforts to curb and deter such violence. These incidents have begun to reshape the State’s political landscape, drawing attention to the underlying socio-political factors driving this disturbing pattern.
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1 month ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Divya Gandhi |Vaishna Roy
The ruling Trinamool Congress of West Bengal received yet another blow to its battered reputation when the Supreme Court, on April 3, upheld an earlier verdict of the Calcutta High Court and invalidated 25,752 appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff. These appointments had been made by a recruitment panel set up by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016. The court claimed that the entire selection process was “vitiated and tainted beyond resolution”.
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1 month ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Vaishna Roy
Norman Mailer, the American writer and filmmaker, had once written that a heavyweight champion must live in a world where proportions are gone. “He is conceivably the most frightening unarmed killer alive. With his hands he could slay fifty men before he would become too tired to kill any more.
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1 month ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Vaishna Roy
Even as Jadavpur University (JU) remains on edge following a violent confrontation between protesting students from Left unions and West Bengal’s Education Minister Bratya Basu on March 1, its exclusion from the list of institutions being considered for Institute of Eminence (IoE) status has further deepened its troubles.
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1 month ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Vaishna Roy
Trouble and Kolkata’s Jadavpur University (JU), one of the premier higher education institutions in the country, seem inseparable. Reeling from acute fund shortage, besmirched by horrifying accounts of ragging and bullying in hostels, and scarred by agitations and political tension within the campus, the university has once again plunged into chaos following a violent confrontation between protesting students from left-wing organisations and State Education Minister Bratya Basu.
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2 months ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Sharada Srinivasan |Vaishna Roy
Long before chess acquired its relatively new-found glamour in the world of sport, with big money, high-profile sponsorships, flashy tournaments, and extensive media coverage, Boris Spassky was a superstar. The 10th World Chess Champion, with his movie star good looks, romantic style of play, and glamorous lifestyle, was the first after the great Cuban champion Jose Raul Capablanca (the third world champion, 1921-27), who by the charm of his own personality, elevated chess to a popular sport.
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2 months ago | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Sharada Srinivasan |Vaishna Roy
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, is clearly leaving little to chance ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
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Feb 7, 2025 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Soni Mishra |Vaishna Roy
In the days of old, the patachitra artists of Bengal would travel from village to village with their scrolls of paintings and songs of mythology and perform for entertainment. They would unfurl the scroll to display painted panels as they sang of what the scroll depicted, offering an audiovisual experience centuries before television was conceived of. According to some researchers, this folk tradition of visual storytelling goes back more than a thousand years.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Vaishna Roy
Recently, a section of the Trinamool Congress leadership called for a boycott of artists who have criticised the West Bengal government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The move, which has been billed as intolerant by many, comes as the State government faces criticism and protests over the rape and murder of an on-duty doctor inside the State-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay |Karan Madhok |Vaishna Roy
After a disappointing performance in Maharashtra in the June Lok Sabha election, the prospects were bleak for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in the Assembly election in November. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won only 17 of the 48 seats, down 24 from its 2019 tally, while the Congress-led INDIA coalition won 30. However, five months later, the saffron party and its alliance roared back to power, apparently riding on the newly created “Ladki Bahin” (beloved sister) scheme.
