Rasta Aur Basta

Anurag Tripathi during the interview with the writer Anurag Tripathi is an investigative journalist with sixteen years of experience and has worked as editor, reportage at Newslaundry, and senior associate editor, Tehelka. He started his career with the Hindustan Times, Lucknow, and has worked with the Times of India, Aaj Tak, India TV and NewsX. In an interview to Bhavey on the sidelines of Times Litfest 2018 , he talked about his decade long investigation on Ram Rahim; political nexus between BJP and India TV; Dera’s BJP boycott in Rajasthan elections; his two month long chase for Khatta Singh who later became the protected witness of CBI and ultimately led to the conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim in August 2017. His book “Dera Sacha Sauda and Gurmeet Ram Rahim: A Decade-long investigation” published by Penguin was launched in April 2018. Excerpts of the interview: Bhavey (B) : Tell us about how you initially uncovered the Jhootha Souda series while working for Tehelk

Municipal Corporations in five districts of Haryana: Karnal, Panipat, Yamunagar, Rohtak and Hisar, due in October,  goes to poll on 16 December. The announcement came nine months after the first announcement of wardbandi in Karnal Municipal Corporation followed by Panipat and other districts. Moving one step ahead towards transparency, after laying down educational qualifications for candidates contesting elections under Panchayati Raj Institutions, the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana approved direct election of mayors in September. The voters will not only vote for the ward councillor but also the mayor. This is in line with the elections for panches and sarpanches, where villagers vote for the sarpanch and the ward panch. Adding another feather on the crown, Khattar also gave nod to the cabinet decision of reserving Karnal mayor seat for woman candidate and neighboring Panipat for backward class woman while the post of the mayor is unreserved in Hisar, Rohtak and

A farmer resting and smoking at Ramlila Maidan. (From facebook wall of  Basant Kumar) It’s 7 in the evening and groups of farmers were still arriving at the Ramlila Maidan . More than half full, farmers from several points in the capital- Majnu Ka Tila, Anand Vihar, Sarai Kale Khan and Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, were here from various states belonging to different organizations. “ Sabah tk aise hi aate rhenge ye ” said a local policeman on duty outside the main gate. The next leg of this march was, to encircle the parliament for their two demands: Full loan waiver and increased Minimum Support Price (MSP); through special parliament session. Farmers at the Sansad Marg on day 2 ( From facebook wall of  Prashant Kanojia) This Kisaan Mukti March was organized under the banner of All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), a coalition of 200 plus organizations formed in the wake of the Mandsaur ( in Madhya Pradesh) firing that killed six farmers in June 2