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Aug 26, 2024 | 
en.prothomalo.com | Suvojit Bagchi
The authorities have opened all 109 sluice and spillway gates of Farakka Barrage in Murshidabad district in the Indian state of West Bengal as the water level in the Ganges river in Bihar has increased abnormally. A government source confirmed this to this correspondent that the water level has crossed the danger level of 72 feet. The water was flowing at 76 feet, the source added.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
freepressjournal.in | Suvojit Bagchi
Remarkably powerful leaders make mistakes, often marking the beginning of their end. Mamata Banerjee may have made one such cardinal mistake after which the people of Bengal took to streets protesting against the rape, brutalization and murder of a trainee doctor in city’s R G Kar Medical College Hospital. Both her friends and foes are convinced of it.
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Aug 7, 2024 | 
rt.com | Suvojit Bagchi
A student-led movement against a quota system which secured government jobs for certain groups gathered momentum after July 16 in Bangladesh, when the then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina described the protesters as the ‘children of Razakars’, a word to describe the reviled volunteers of the Pakistani Army, which committed untold atrocities during the 1971 Liberation War.
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Aug 6, 2024 | 
freepressjournal.in | Suvojit Bagchi
With the departure of Sheikh Hasina, the inevitable has happened: the Awami League-led government has collapsed. According to the Chief of Army Staff, an interim government will be formed to run the country. The primary task of the interim government seems to be cut out.
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Jul 29, 2024 | 
en.prothomalo.com | Suvojit Bagchi
Prothom Alo : Out of seven Northeast Indian states, BJP or its allies won no seats in four where they won five of six seats in 2019. Do you think Manipur violence played a role? Pradip Phanjoubam: That is one of the major factors but there are other factors. Each state is different in its own way. One thought was that BJP is against Christians and it was a major factor in Mizoram and Meghalaya. In Nagaland, the ruling party has been facing anti-incumbency.
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Jul 21, 2024 | 
freepressjournal.in | Suvojit Bagchi
Bangladesh is on the boil following a High Court order reinstating quota in 30 per cent of civil services posts for the descendants of the 1971 warfighters. Another 26 per cent are reserved altogether for women, Indigenous communities, and other underprivileged groups and categories. Following a previous protest, the Bangladesh government scrapped quotas in most of government jobs in 2018 which was reinstated by the Court on June 5 this year.
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Jun 30, 2024 | 
freepressjournal.in | Suvojit Bagchi
Guddu, the washerman in my South Kolkata neighbourhood, came knocking earlier in the week to ask for a space to park his kiosk. The young man from Bihar has been given 48 hours by the police to remove it from the thoroughfare. A day earlier, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the administrators to remove land encroachments in the state. Generally, the order was meant for 125 municipalities and Municipal Corporations (MC) and particularly for Kolkata MC area.
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Jun 5, 2024 | 
freepressjournal.in | Suvojit Bagchi
Even with the final figures yet to come in, it is certain that ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has defeated BJP on two key counts – seat and vote share. The Mamata Banerjee-led government has either bagged (or is leading in) 29 seats – up from 18 in 2019 – out of 42, while its vote share has gone up by approximately 3 percent; the BJP, in turn, has lost at least half a dozen seats compared to that in 2019.
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May 14, 2024 | 
en.prothomalo.com | Suvojit Bagchi
Interview: Debasish Roy Chowdhury A long and arduous seven-phase electoral process of India has covered more than half the stretch. The key questions are whether BJP would be able to defend itself and whether the Modi wave, so omnipresent in 2019, is as strong? There are questions about the opposition as well – are they close to dislodging BJP? There is no way to definitively answer the questions before 4 June when results of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be declared.
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Mar 21, 2024 | 
moneycontrol.com | Suvojit Bagchi
There is anger against the corruption by lower level TMC functionaries. In a Lok Sabha election, BJP – as the preeminent national party – is the natural beneficiary as had happened in 2019, unlike in an assembly poll where voters tend to favour a “Bengali” party March 21, 2024 / 02:39 PM IST If BJP can mix its strategy targeting both the local satraps and the top management, it would yield results.
