Author: Tirthankar Mitra

A profound institutional storm regarding state control over digital public spaces has erupted after Satluj (originally titled Ghallughara and later Punjab ’95), a highly anticipated biographical drama starring global icon Diljit Dosanjh, was abruptly scrubbed from streaming catalogues worldwide. Directed by Honey Trehan and backed by veteran producer Ronnie Screwvala, the film depicts the harrowing real-life crusade of celebrated human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who systematically unmasked thousands of extra-judicial abductions and undocumented mass cremations handled by state forces during the peak of the 1990s Punjab insurgency before mysteriously disappearing himself in 1995. After enduring a bruising four-year legislative deadlock with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC)—which aggressively demanded an unprecedented 127 structural cuts for a theatrical release—the filmmakers engineered a high-stakes, entirely classified digital premiere on ZEE5 on Friday, July 3, 2026, utilizing streaming corridors that legally bypass classical film board certificates. However, the victory was short-lived; within 48 hours, the uncut feature vanished completely from the platform’s domestic interface following explicit directives from the Central Government, followed by an immediate blackout across ZEE5’s international networks. The sweeping execution has drawn fierce condemnation from civil liberties networks, who brand the sudden regulatory intervention as a dangerous example of executive overreach that forces streaming conglomerates into invisible self-censorship, echoing historical memories of the 1975 emergency ban on Gulzar’s Aandhi and threatening to permanently narrow the boundary of independent historical discourse in modern India.

Imprint of conflict on environment continues to deepen as increasing number of countries go to war. Environment being depraded by war is nothing new.

Ongoing World Cup football lost some of its lustre after Brazil, almost synonymous with the “beautiful game” lost to a unfancied Norway. Has Brazil become a combination of erstwhile giants?

British prime ministers are not lasting their full term these days. But one member of the prime ministerial household is staying put even if the principal resident of 10 Drowning Street, the centuries old official address of the British prime minister is gone after sometime after his arrival; it is Larry the Cat.

In a twist of bitter historic irony, Sir Keir Starmer’s sudden resignation as Prime Minister arrived on the exact tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, shattering his core foundational promise to finally restore structural stability to a fractured United Kingdom. Becoming Britain’s seventh prime minister in a single turbulent decade, Starmer’s exit caps a swift, tragic collapse occurring just two years after leading the Labour Party to a monumental 411-seat landslide victory in the House of Commons. The premier’s copybook was fatally marred by a series of high-profile policy missteps, starting with the deeply unpopular elimination of the winter fuel allowance for the elderly, and culminating in a severe ethical crisis following the criminal arrest of his handpicked U.S. Ambassador, Peter Mandelson, on public misconduct charges. Beyond individual political blunders and a chronic inability to articulate a clear economic roadmap or revitalize Britain’s stunted military, Starmer’s downfall exposes a much deeper, systemic crisis of governance currently afflicting the Western democratic architecture. From Emmanuel Macron’s gridlocked twilight in France and Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s plunging economic approval ratings in Germany, to Donald Trump’s inability to shield American voters from punishing everyday costs despite a robust headline economy, Western centrist leaders are consistently failing to deliver on mandates for structural reform. This systemic inertia has deepened public cynicism and cleared a wide ideological path for the populist Right and Left, forcing a desperate Labour Party to bypass its entire sitting parliamentary roster to engineer the emergency return of Andy Burnham via a rapid by-election victory in Makerfield to inherit a nation under siege from a festering energy crisis and entrenched stagnation.

Unearthing vital, suppressed records surrounding the legislative inception of the state, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS) hosted a high-profile seminar titled “West Bengal: Revisiting its Past” on Saturday, June 20, 2026. Commemorating Paschimbanga Diwas—the historic day nearly eight decades ago when Bengal’s lawmakers voted to sever ties with the expanding map of East Pakistan—distinguished academics, researchers, and political leaders gathered to correct decades of distorted historical narratives. Delivering a compelling video address, West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, a veteran chartered accountant, meticulously detailed how the state’s creation was explicitly designed to dismantle a deep-seated conspiracy aimed at dragging the entire landmass into a theocratic state. Bose positioned Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee as the singular, far-sighted leading light who unified ideologically polarized legislators in 1947 to secure a safe homeland for Hindu Bengalis. Echoing these structural concerns, MAKAIAS Director Dr. Sarup Prasad Ghosh slammed past administrations for intentionally imposing historical amnesia on refugees, while issuing an urgent, data-driven warning regarding a sharp drop in native Bengali speakers and an active “demographic invasion” fueled by systemic illegal immigration from Bangladesh.

Vaibhav Suryabanshi’s altercation with Sri Lanka A players after India’s Super Over defeat on Monday raises questions. The tri-series in Dambulla was supposed to be another step in the rise of the teenage prodigy.

Geneva is a cool place. The mercury hardly shoot up while agitations are conspicuous by their absence.

Economists have been waiting for US economy to stumble for much of the past year. They had reasons for this foreboding.

Stand tall, be a pineapple. Pineapple, the state fruit of Tripura seems to be on the verge of living up to the old adage as the state gears up for Tripura Global Pineapple Festival at New Delhi this month