Weekend Reads
- Maulshree Seth in the Indian Express finds that, wherever you go in Gorakhpur you will be led back to “Yogi” Adityanath – and his tainted, criminal army, the Hindu Yuva Vahini.
- “Historians of this political moment will explain why Right-leaning commentators chose to make a Hindu-supremacist turn seem respectable and how they committed intellectual suicide to join the shambling ranks of the living dead,” writes Mukul Kesavan in the Telegraph.
- Meghnad S. in Newslaundry explains just how badly the Bharatiya Janata Party treated Parliamentary norms as it introduced sweeping last-minute changes to the 2017 Finance Bill.
- “In other words, it was your personal feeling about your own greatness that it cannot be quantified in fiscal measure. What do you have to say?” Praveen Donthi in the Caravan captures the court battle between Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and renowned lawyer Ram Jethmalani.
- Sharanya Gopinathan in The Ladies Finger explains how a Doordarshan show on sex education became India’s most-watched television programme, and managed to change people’s attitudes.
- “Our stories are all the same. We are all here because of our stomachs.” Aniruddha Ghoshal in the Indian Express travels on the Antyodya Express, which carries migrants from West Bengal all the way to Kerala.
- Richa Kaul Padte in Deep Dives examines what it is like to be lonely, even in a digital age when it is always possible to connect with other people. “But when I turn away from the screen, switch off the light and close my eyes, I am still in my body. And the further away from my sore muscles I fly in cyberspace, the worse the shock of falling back into myself.”
- “We all belong to families whose main objection is ‘log kya kahenge (what will people say).’” Shriya Mohan in Blink writes about the growing number of women who go riding and break the sexualised relationship between gender and motorcycles.
- Vrushal Pendharkar in The Hindu tells the story of Anand Varma, the first and only American-born Indian to get photography assignments for National Geographic thanks to his work shooting dramatic images of tiny insects.
- “Forget about the little shit,” Trump said, according to multiple sources in the room. “Let’s focus on the big picture here.” Tim Alberta in Politico has a long tick-tock of how US President Donald Trump lost his first legislative battle, an attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare.
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