Archives

At times I scribble the words "Archival value" on the title page of some of my filled-up notebooks. My wife decodes it correctly to mean, "Don’t sell this to the raddi wallah." If journalists had the facility to forever keep marking "Archival value", then they wouldn’t have thrown away a single day’s newspaper. But the pragmatic considerations of urban life are heavily tilted against stocking more than a quintal of raddi and therefore the tribe of raddi wallah survives by lugging away the "archives".

One luxury that citizenship of the cyberland bestows upon a hack is that he can keep immense amount of stuff marked "Archival value" without affecting the matrimonial happiness unduly. I have, however, tried not to misuse the facility which explains sometimes why many of the pieces I wrote in the past are not here. We will of course be continuously adding to this section. – Ed.

Pakistan in Sacha Sauda?
21 May, 2007
Within hours of the Dera Sacha Sauda cult head Ram Rahim indulging in an activity nefarious in its very inception, the whispers in the press room in Chandigarh’s Civil Secretariat had started talking of the role of the ISI...

Sikh Modelling Contests – A Body of Argument
2 May 2007
This Vaisakhi, the Sikhs, increasingly aware and worried about the younger generation's attitude towards the religion and much....

Listen to the cries at the gates
30 April, 2007
Malta is thousands of miles away from Punjab, somewhere along the icy Ionian Sea off the Greek coast, but Punjab's youth will give...

A Heritage Gone Bust
April 23, 2007
The row over the auction of a bust of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the initial plans of the SGPC to make efforts to buy the bust, the later opposition...

Chohan wanted own country of the purest, leaves behind merely sneers
April 4, 2007
Chandigarh: Half a century after he first entered the Punjab Assembly after being elected from Tanda, Jagjit Singh Chohan covered a remarkable distance in politics...

Shame-Sham: He was acting as president, is now acting president
March 13, 2007
Nine years earlier, poor old Gurcharan Singh Tohra was so naive as to suggest that the then Chief Minister and Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal should appoint...

All the Badals' men
March 7, 2007
Such distinctly supreme wisdom surrounds Punjab's Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal now that he couldn't find anyone who could be...

Panthic Move
Bluestar DC is Badal’s choice replacing man who blocked SYL
8 March, 2007
Political masters have changed, and the babu minions were also expected to be shuffled. Akali Dal president Prakash Singh Badal, whose...

The saffron is spilling!
February 28, 2007
Sometime in August 2004, an over-enthusiastic group calling itself Greene Dragon took out a cycle rally...

Akalis fought Cong, BJP won
February 28, 2007
Last time when Prakash Singh Badal sat in the Chief Minister's office at Punjab Civil Secretariat, a huge...

Assassinating Memory: The centre fell off the fringe
February 14, 2007
Last week, when I wrote about 'The assassination of memory', I was referring to the collective memory of the Sikhs...

Messers Obama, Schumer, Punjab needs you! We polled deception wholesale!
Feb 21, 2007
On January 31, when Punjab was peaking up to witness a dirty vituperative election campaign...

Punjab polity: Straitjacketed in Politically Reversible Jackets
February 16, 2007
It is a very British tradition to link casual conversation with weather, but somehow the real balloting in Punjab on February 13 had a lot of weather talk...

The assassination of memory
February 7, 2007
Punjab is currently in the throes of an election campaign, but listen to the debate carefully...

Post-ballotting,  it is time to take stock
February 14, 2007
Now that the balloting is over, sanity will hopefully return to Punjab which has spent several weeks listening to inanities...

Political revolution in Malwa heartland as Bardhan clasps Daljit Bittu
February 9, 2007
The blazing red banner formed an unmistakable background for a communist stage, and with the hammer and sickle..

Ticket to Ride Sharam hum ko magar nahi aati
Jan 26, 2007
On what issue is the battle to rule Punjab being fought in the great democracy that India is? Here is the elusive..

Like us!
January 2, 2007
Moninder Singh Pandher. A man very much like us.Educated at elite Bishop Cotton of Shimla, St Stephens of Delhi...

Of mega debates spread over 100-acres raillas
December 8, 2006
PUNJAB'S DUSTY MALWA: Mega is a key word these days in Punjab. Mega projects, mega corruption and now mega rallies. With political debate dying a mega death...

Socialist country, capitalist policy, feudal state
November 20, 2006
In a country called India, which is legally a socialist republic but is being run along publicly announced capitalist policies called currently 'globalization' and...

Fear the death of politics
September 29, 2006
Politically dormant seasons are the proverbial silly seasons of politics. One never knows which of the simmering elements will explode into a problem of unforeseen dimensions. Punjab's Congress government led by Captain Amarinder Singh...

A Picture Post Card From Punjab
September 5, 2006
Picture post-cards come in many form, and friends living far away from Punjab often badger me for these. Strange how people become..

Launching F-16s and Cutting Off A Sikh's Hair
August 28, 2006
Tormentors cut off the hair of a Sikh boy in Jaipur after he resisted attempts by the hoodlums to tease girls of his school, the incident sending shock waves throughout...

Gusse Ho Gaya Nand Kishore
August 27, 2006
In his subtle but touching study of a migrant labourer and his world, Punjab's uncrowned poet laureate Surjit Patar penned his poem Aaya Nand Kishore...

Breaking News
August 22, 2006
Little can match the ridiculousness of Indian Television News Channels breaking the news. One of the most ubiquitous logos forever playing across the screen is...

Aisi Azadi Aur Kahan! Bus Yahan and Wahan. Same 2 Same
August 15, 2006
Chandigarh: The Mahatma and the Quaid-i-Azam were as different as chalk and cheese, the divide being as wide as the gulf between ‘Unity-in-Diversity'...

Amarinder govt finds Iraqi oil slush scam slippery
August 8, 2006
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has learnt in a most unlucky fashion how the world has become a global village. Something happening at the United...

Now On At The Akal TakhtMother Of All Discount Sales
July 23, 2006
Punjabis love nothing better than a Discount Sale. In these times of a retail revolution, times when multi-storey malls are increasingly dotting the Punjab countryside, when the country's moneybags are eyeing Punjab's fertile lands...

MUDDLE EAST TALES: The Righteousness of the Powerful Victims
July 25, 2006
I was a sophomore when India's state-controlled TV channel Doordarshan started telecast of Bhisham Sahni's Tamas. There was a widespread national furore. Tamas divided the families along age lines...

Israel’s reaction makes sense but local rockets must not boom regionally
July 18, 2006
The Gaza crisis spills over. Right now the world can hear the steady boom of rockets being fired from Lebanon and watch Israel fending off attacks on its northern

Communal and us? Radhe Shyam Radhe Shyam
July 15, 2006
In its shriller-than-the-next-channel coverage of Mumbai blasts, each TV channel intermittently focused on people whose attire denoted their faith. It seemed de

Marginalised Akal Takht and Marginal Voices
July 5, 2006
When Pope John Paul II got a new vehicle, Craig Kilborn reported that the holy father’s new Fiat can withstand direct machine gun fire and that the...

L'affair Captain and A General A very Dyal Amarinder
May 5, 2006
Shock, an emotion preserved for those rare occasions when human beings were jolted by things they would dread, is currently used as an alternative to Pretense. So thousands were shocked when they watched Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh...

Of Plastic in breasts, and WMDs in subzi-market Raise a voice against lifafe-baazi
December 22, 2005
ixties, Beatles, flower generation and plastics, they all came together. Almost hand in hand. Barbie had already arrived in 1959, and it was plastic. And everyone said fantastic. And then came...

Polling In Badal Fiefdom: Mirroring A Rear View
November 23, 2005
When it comes to panthic affairs, political sagacity is second nature to Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal and Wednesday's events at the SGPC...

Volcker's Sleuthing Damages Amarinder's Leeway Channel Called Brother-In-Law
November, 2005
Probing the slush flow in international oil-for-food kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, a sleuthing Volcker never knew who is Amarinder Singh. For the record...

Cry Freedom, It’s Same-To-Same
August 14, 2005
Mahatma and Quaid-i-Azam were as different as chalk and cheese and the divide was always over the two-nation theory. Enmity and aggression...

Badal Takes Trouvaille Route To Politics, Lessons For Amarinder To Learn
June 25, 2005
Irony is intrinsic to sub-continental politics, from Jinnah talking about a secular Pakistan in the backdrop of a bloody balkanization to Advani hailing...

Pakistan Wants To Trade? Fine, I Have My Half-Brick! When Can We Start?
May 23, 2005
Unbeknown to Islamabad and New Delhi, Punjabis on both sides of the electrified fence are busy in a thriving export-import business...

Aurora, The Man Of War Who Preached Love and Practiced Peace
May 3, 2005
It could not have got any bigger. He had overseen the surrender of over 90,000 Pakistani soldiers, stripped the epaulettes off a Pakistani...

Ponty's Got A Reason: Punjab Culture, Economy, Politics All Awash In Peg Royale
March 28, 2005
If Jim Morrison were a Punjabi, only reason he could have sung 'Take me to the next whiskey bar' would be to remain unnoticed, for that's the kind of thing...

Hail Nepotism: Bhai-Bhatija Zindabad, and We're Serious
2005
Imagine a successful Corleone family without nepotism! Where would it be? Certainly not where Puzo wanted it to be...

My Lord, Happy B'day, But Please Park Your Car Right
2005
As I stood outside the Punjab and Haryana High Court's imposing building in the early summer sun on Friday, playing mind games to decode the obfuscated...

Two Verdicts And A Govt: Amarinder Ignored Advice for Course-Correction
October 15, 2004
Legal niceties have a problem if they are not observed to the last fault: they come back to hit you like a sledgehammer. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s...

Welcome Aboard UT 2003, If You've Said Your Prayer
December 31, 2002
This year-end, take Chandigarh as a cauldron of hopes, toss into it all the ambitious projects announced with unfailing regularity by the UT administration, say...

All the Badals' men
March 7, 2007
Such distinctly supreme wisdom surrounds Punjab's Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal now that he couldn't find anyone who could be...

Panthic Move
Bluestar DC is Badal’s choice replacing man who blocked SYL
8 March, 2007
Political masters have changed, and the babu minions were also expected to be shuffled. Akali Dal president Prakash Singh Badal, whose...

Oye tu bahar nikal…
October 17, 2006
North western raiders knock at our borders no more. Ahmed Shah Abdali's offspring no more threaten to take away our wealth or women. But Punjabis, groomed in...

Here Can we have a DGP (Lathi Charge)? The Question Isn’t Academic

Two seemingly unconnected situations are fast emerging in Punjab. An ever increasing tendency by the repressed to assert their voice in ever shriller ways; and the acute crisis faced by the research scholars in Punjab...

Expert turns tables on Punjab loan issue, says Centre must pay
July 25, 2005
A retired state civil service officer has an idea to resolve one of Punjab’s most convoluted financial problem – the debt incurred during terrorism years...

Govt rushes to prevent disqualification of three Chief Parl Secs
October 26, 2004
Badly caught on the wrong side of the law in appointing Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, and facing a serious legal challenge in this regard, Punjab Government is moving fast to cover its flanks and...

Capt changes tune
July 28, 2004
For the first time since the passage of the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has given an indication that his...

‘Presidential Reference is good news’
July 23, 2004
Officially the Punjab Government isn't saying much about the Centre's move to make a Presidential Reference to the Supreme Court, effectively lobbing the SYL row back into the judiciary’s court.

State suggested Presidential Reference
July 20, 2004
If Presidential Reference is the Centre's magic wand to resolve the contentious construction and waters issue, then the Punjab Government could possibly get...

Capt finds solace in Narmada Tribunal’s report
July 16, 2004
Out to strengthen Punjab's case on the river waters sharing, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh seems to be either studying a lot of case law or has his lawyers plying him with examples which he can quote liberally...

Capt plays to the gallery, works the back-channels
July 16, 2004
"Your beleaguered Chief Minister is back," Amarinder Singh announced, almost gleefully, as he faced the Punjab media for the first time since his move...

Experts say Punjab Act dilutes riparian concept 
July 15, 2004
Ironically for Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, projected across the nation as the villain of the piece but as the toast of his own state, several staunch...

How CM’s Team Legal found an enabling loophole 
July 14, 2004
Punjab's legal team poring over 'Operation Termination' to knock out the premise of the Supreme Court judgement requiring Punjab to hand over the...

SYL: Centre's eyes were wide shut
July 14, 2004
"Was the Prime Minster sleeping?" BJP’s Sushma Swaraj thundered in Rajya Sabha on July 13, while India’s federal lawmakers, the MPs in Lok Sabha and...

My days numbered, said CM 
July 13, 2004
Pressure build-up was not just expected it, was auto-built into Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's decision to bring before the Assembly the Bill to terminate Ravi-Beas water sharing agreements. But...

Govt mulled tweaking 131-yr-old Act for SYL 
July 8, 2004
Even as Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today discussed the fallout of the Supreme Court judgement on the SYL canal construction with Union Water Resources Minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi...

CM to meet Sorabjee today 
July 8, 2004
Punjab Government is going all out to bring a bill before the Assembly to escape the SYL canal handover to a Central government agency, and Chief...

Govt plans legislation to escape SYL
July 7, 2004
In a far-reaching development, the Punjab government has decided to bring a Bill in the Assembly to counter the awkward obligation of handing over the...

Amarinder demanded in '87 what Akalis demand now: Rejection of all past pacts
June 14, 2004
Notwithstanding the new-found reconciliation approach on the SYL issue, Akalis and Congress are poles apart on the strategy, and as Parkash Singh Badal leads the campaign for rejection...

Punjab annuls all Ravi-Beas pacts; Assembly passes Bill unanimously; Nation shocked
June 12 2004
The Punjab Assembly did it today. On June 12, 2004, the state made history, trashing all existing pacts about Ravi-Beas waters sharing and swimming out of the...

Bringing the Raj back to Panchayati Raj
June 8, 2004
Billed as a conclave to benefit elected representatives who act as the fulcrum of panchayati raj system, a state government's workshop on `Rural Decentralisation in Punjab' made little sense to most...

Mr Fix-it Hanspal gets in a fix as sacked men swoop down upon his office
January 6, 2004
Having acted once as Mr Fix-it for Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Punjab Congress president H S Hanspal today found himself in a fix as the sacked...

Kakoo-Tikkoo di Congress Gaddi Chugs into 2004
January 1, 2004
Much like Hamara Bajaj, the Punjab Congress is fast becoming not just Chunnu Munnu de papa di gaddi, what with the kakas doing the back-seat driving...

Bitter Amarinder-Badal polity leads to competitive rediscovery of Longowal
August 20, 2003
Real politics mothers many strange proclivities, and 17 years after his brutal assassination, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal's memory turned out to be still potent enough to juxtapose bitterly-opposed political streams...

Badal gives benign face to hegemony, but Amarinder may not wince
July 16, 2003
If hegemony has a benign face, it was on display at the Akali Dal's unity conclave today where party president Parkash Singh Badal, currently reeling under...

Akalis crowds beg for arrest, Govt injects shrewdness into polity
November 27, 2002
Agitational politics turned into a game of wits on Wednesday as thousands of Akali Dal workers led by Parkash Singh Badal swarmed district administration complexes across Punjab violating prohibitory orders...

Court says MLA Dimpa is absconding, Govt decides to withdraw case
September 10, 2002
Rich and powerful, but can't get off the hook in a case of house trespass, causing grievous hurt, rioting with deadly weapons? Here’s advice: Avoid the courts...

"Faida Hoga?" He asked me. I knew the answer. But didn’t tell him
August 29, 2002
The law is taking a new course of conviction-clemency-release in Haryana as epitomised by release of several hardcore criminals in the state after securing a gubernatorial nod  under Article 161 of the...

Saade Parivar Di Khaas Gal Hai Chautala Sahib Naal Getting away with murder
August 25, 2002
Her son, who was serving a life sentence in Sirsa jail for killing his wife, is home these days. Haryana governor was kind enough to grant his mercy plea under Article 161 of the Constitution, as Sarvjit Singh...

For Akalis, Bhikhiwind is Leningrad
June 11, 2002
"We will turn Bhikhiwind into Leningrad!" Whenever Akalis desperately needed a slogan to charge up their cadres, they used to fall back on the panthic idiom, stirring up the ‘panth in danger’ line or...

Is this Cricket? BJP MLA Plays Key Role in fracas at Border
March 5, 2001
If a clash between India and Pakistan, even if on a cricket pitch, attracts astronomical numbers of eyeballs, how can a local politico in a mofussil-sized town on the...

The Kurrimaar Row Puppy love dead, may also claim a political career
October 14, 2000
My dear Kamal, sweet sweet kiss full of great love on your sweet lips. Kamal I love you and cannot live without you…I love my Tinku which is...

Volcker's Sleuthing Damages Amarinder's Leeway Channel Called Brother-in-law
Probing the slush flow in international oil-for-food kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, a sleuthing Volcker never knew who is Amarinder Singh. For the record...

Chohan wanted own country of the purest, leaves behind merely sneers
April 4, 2007
Chandigarh: Half a century after he first entered the Punjab Assembly after being elected from Tanda, Jagjit Singh Chohan covered a remarkable distance in politics...

Play The Shehnai, a Bharat Ratna has died!
August 23, 2006
It was the first time I heard Shehnai being played as the death of someone was being announced. And it didn't seem jarring...

Great Soldiers Never Die. General Aurora Faded Away. A Gentleman Even In Death
May 3, 2005
"We were waiting at Ramna Park Racecourse Road venue. When General Niazi arrived in a jeep, he and I saluted each other, military fashion. Many...

Malwa's Garg who charmed the world as Gargi
April 21 2003
Decades ago they rechristened it as Kasturba Gandhi Marg, but for millions of Balwant Gargi fans, it will always be 27, Curzon Road that they will remember...

Footloose darwesh Satyarthi is dead, Lak Tunnu Tunnu will ring in heavens
February 14, 2003
For decades, that incomparable collector of folk songs and folk lore, polyglot Devendra Satyarthi's black pen scribbled relentlessly, recording for posterity...

Myth is the Man Mason, pick pocket, story teller, painter, folk lore expert, and then, `Professor Kazak'
January 11, 2003
"You are crying because no one tells the whole truth about his own life. Autobiographies often are about the kind of life people would have loved to...

First-ever book on Naksalbari phenomena in Punjab creates waves
Commemorative functions to recall the martyrdom of Shahid Bhagat Singh never mention a man called Bant Rajayana, the Naksalbari movement activist in...

He was once judge’s errand boy, and then wrote about it. Now the peon-turned-author is at the centre of a literary row, and touring Canada, U.S.
In the mid-nineties, he was a ‘temporary peon’, urging men of letters to get his job regularized. Currently, he is at the centre of a literary controversy in Punjab...

Sometimes, A Primary School Teacher's Retirement Is Also News
October 2, 2005
Chandigarh: Sixties was the era of being young. The era of flower children, Che Guevara, hippies and the come alive age for psychedelic folk. Freedom was...

Free-dom – Aisi Azadi Aur Kahan
August 14, 2005
Dateline free-dom: In a Kingdom, you do as the king tells you. And in serfdom, you serve as a loyal serf. In a politician's fiefdom, you do his bidding...

Ponty's Got A Reason: Punjab Culture, Economy, Politics all Awash In Peg Royale
March 28, 2005
If Jim Morrison were a Punjabi, only reason he could have sung 'Take me to the next whiskey bar' would be to remain unnoticed, for that's the kind of thing Punjabis do the maximum in the entire country...

Khalsa Fervour Cauldron Simmers With Faith, Puritanism And Syncretism Traditions
March 25, 2005
War cries of Bole So Nihal, balladeers singing hymns to martial streak of Sikhs, huge hoardings of slain militant leaders lining the roads, erstwhile...

Lords Of The Files: A Real Bread And Omelette Story -- Govt Is Pickin’ Its Teeth
November 18, 2004
For more than one year now, all of us in Punjab have been paying taxes through our nose to fund a government busy picking its teeth. And it ain’t much...

Cops Script Reformed Version Of Police Act, So Be Prepared For Police State
October 10, 2004
Top cops script dreams into draft Bill and, voila! Recipe for a police state is ready: all civilian powers to police, and no check on misuse...

Punjab Not So Shining, You Said So In Assembly
June 18, 2004
Each successive government in Punjab has claimed itself to be biggest friend of the farmers, and has a punch line to sell that stance. Akali Dal-BJP regime...

'Restore Our Votes, This Time We Will Use Them As Promised
April 25, 2004
His name Ghuggu is not something the 17-year-old will tell you proudly. But this is the only name he has. “marasi han ji main (I am a marasi), his...

Palahi – It Takes A Village And Its Stories To Prove A Point
2004
Try conjuring up the image of a well-to-do village in Punjab. Here is helping you  – Factor-in a 1500-seat capacity auditorium, string of schools built with...

Recalling Two Years In ‘Footpath’ Varsity
November 17, 2003
"It’s just not jobs we will be going back with, there’ll be lots of memories as well," a group of sacked panchayat secretaries muse, standing in front of the...

Please Don’t Call Us Kudimaar, Jeeda Cries In Anguish
October 26, 2003
In the privately-run ramshackle Kamal Model School run by Kulwinder Singh, there are 66 boys and 39 girls. In the nursery, LKG, UKG and Ist, there are a total...

Phenomenon Talhan: Caste Violence Is New,  But Caste Oppression Is Not
June 14, 2003
In the queer way in which issues manage national gaze in India, emerging caste consciousness among Dalits in Punjab moved into limelight only when a village...

Caste Brings Down Human Beings A Few Notches
June 10, 2003
In the virtually divisive atmosphere of Talhan, mark the unanimity between the incumbent Jat sarpanch and the former Dalit sarpanch. When asked what has changed...

Talhan Had A Caste, Now It Is Getting Religion Too
April 8, 2003
Caste and religion often act as twins, particularly when these are used to drive a wedge into an otherwise harmonious commune. So, when Jats of Talhan village...

Govt Tells Punjabi’s Top Writer It Is Too Broke, Can’t Pay Rs 500 It Owes To Him
April 4, 2003
In 1996, well-known Punjabi litterateur Santokh Singh Dhir literally predicted his fate when he wrote, “I am playing a flute before a buffalo,...

Palahi Will Clap For Kharaudi But With A Tear In Eye
March 21, 2003
The thirty minutes which President APJ Kalam will be spending on March 23 at Kharaudi village of Hoshiarpur will be the most heart-breaking half an hour...

His Martyr Father Was Called Kalepani; No Wonder The Museum Isn’t Lit Up
January 9, 2003
Darkness is a word that frequently punctuates Mohinder Singh Dhillon's conversation. Perhaps this was natural. After all, his father had darkness suffixed...

Travelling On Footpath Route, And Reaching Nowhere
September 20, 2002
With the job lost, poverty creeps slowly into your budget, affects your children's psyche, but hits you in the guts the day you pull your children out from that...

Punjab Police’s bloody homage to Shaheed Bhagat Singh: The Kuljit Singh Dhatt case
June 16, 2002
As millions across the country trooped into air conditioned cinema halls in mass appreciation of the martyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh...

Officialdom Has To Move Beyond Surprise And Shock Over The Missing Girls
April 3, 2002
Officialdom seems to be pretty good at being surprised. A relatively small city of Amritsar boasts of nearly 100 clinics engaged in providing sex...

A Poor, Raped, Murdered Girl Is Up Against WTO, Fashion Shows
August 16, 2001
She was 17, going on 18. By any standards, she was an ordinary girl, daughter of a government school teacher. A villager. Then, she went through a...

Guru Ki Masit! A Mosque Of A Sikh Guru! Bridging The Religious Divides,  They Work To Restore Guru Hargobind’s Mosque
August 7, 2000
Across the Beas from Jalandhar, halfway to Amritsar, is a scene straight out of the national integration textbook: Nihangs performing kar sewa, Hindu women preparing ‘langar,’ Muslim masons repairing walls...

Shahid Bhagat Singh Zindabad! We Want A Water Tap!!
March 21, 2001
Seventy-one years after Bhagat Singh kissed the gallows and fifty-three years after the country attained Independence, villagers in this native village of the...

Shattered Dreams—Community Project Goes Up In Gas
2000
One of the most ambitious projects of the state government – dotting the entire countryside with community biogas plants as an alternative fuel resource...

Doaba Has A Dream — It Is To Run Away
Sixty-year-old Jaswinder Singh tries his level best to hold back the tears as he narrates at his house the pathetic saga of what his young son Manjit Singh was...

Four Years After Malta, Indian Govt Plays Dumb, Fortress Europe Deaf
A couple of days earlier, Ujjal Dosanj ran through the streets of his village in Doaba heart belt of Punjab. It was his first home coming after becoming premier of...

The Split Born People Punjab’s Myriad Kisan Unions Where Reds Run Farm Debates And Confusion Reigns
September 19
In times of extreme crisis threatening their very survival, any group of people with shared worries would tend to coalesce together. But Punjab's farmers, caught between threats of MSP scrapping, plunging...

Punjab Police Boss wants to change the shape of things after 143 years DGP suggests reforms in the 1861 Act,  sends artistes scurrying for cover
Punjab Police's sense of humour is tingled. 143 years after the outdated Punjab Police Act 1861, top police boss in the state has come up with a reformed...

Smooth, peaceful, meaningless, and 72 per cent
February 9, 2007
Chandigarh: In the season of assassination of sanity, abuse masquerading as election campaigning...

Political revolution in Malwa heartland as Bardhan clasps Daljit Bittu

The blazing red banner formed an unmistakable background for a communist stage, and with the hammer and sickle...

Congress, Akali spin doctors rummage through history to find garbage
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