The Subcontinental Menu

Rice, Spice & Everything Nice

The august league of Darjeeling tea, Hyderabadi haleem and basmati rice is soon set to get a rather pedestrian entrant바카라�Indori poha. The industrious sweetmeat sellers of Indore are trying to garner the coveted geographical indication (GI) tag for four gastronomical delights from the city­바카라�poha, shikanji, laung sev and khatta-meetha namkeen. 바카라�We have traced Indori poha to 1949 and the others to the early 1930s,바카라� gushes Anurag Pradhan, the sec­retary of the association of snack manufacturers. He has even marshalled photographic evidence of Jawaharlal Nehru and Amitabh Bachchan relishing the delicacies. We wish Pradhan and his peers the best of luck in their endeavours. Hopefully their bid won바카라�t fall flat like Madhya Pradesh바카라�s quest to get a basmati GI tag for its rice in 2018.

House Thy Neighbour

Four years after the ruthlessly persecuted Rohingya were forced to leave Myanmar바카라�s Rakhine province, there are efforts to resettle them in their homeland. India, China, Japan and ASEAN countries are collaborating with the Myanmar government for the rehabilitation efforts. India has dispatched over 250 pre-fabricated houses to Rakhine and reportedly pressed upon Myanmar to send its foreign secretary to the overcrowded Rohingya relief camps in Bangladesh바카라�s Cox바카라�s Bazaar. There are 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India; 16 have been sent back to Myanmar in the past two years. India also plans to build schools, bridges and hospitals in Rakhine and has committed $25 million for these projects.

Puppet Or Governor? (38 Marks)

It was a question students taking the Bihar Public Service Commission exam were not anticipating: 바카라�Critically examine the role of governor in state politics in India, particularly in Bihar. Is he a mere puppet?바카라� As it led to an uproar, the controller of examination debarred the examiner from setting papers in the future. But it바카라�s hard not to sympathise with the examiner. Bihar governors have often ignited controversies바카라�in 2000, B.C. Pandey invited the NDA to form the government even though the RJD was the single-largest party; in 2005, the SC criticised Buta Singh for recommending dissolution of the assembly.

Media Mayhem

Scribes across the world have been riding choppy waves. But for their Pakistani counterparts, things just got worse. Ranked 142 on the press freedom index in 2019, Pakistani media now has to contend with censorship by the military and a decline in government advertising budgets. Consequently, hundreds of journalists lost their jobs over the past few months. 바카라�Authorities control even minute details of media content these days and dictate who will be the face of print and electronic media,바카라� said Afzal Butt, president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. The union has fought back by taking out rallies and launching a nationwide protest against censorship.

Hidden Hands Wreak Havoc

A video released by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif바카라�s daughter has cost Pakistani judge Arshad Malik his job. Malik, who had indicted Sharif in a corruption case, claims in the video that 바카라�certain elements바카라� and 바카라�hidden hands바카라� had put tremendous pressure on him to deliver the verdict. Following the clip바카라�s release, the Islamabad High Court asked the law minister to relieve the anti-corruption court judge from his post. Malik has decried the video as fake and is seeking an 바카라�impartial probe into the matter바카라�.

Situation Vacant In Congress

An 바카라�exasperating farrago바카라� of a race is being played out in the Lok Sabha; the trophy is the Congress president바카라�s post바카라�a vacancy that has elicited interest even of a Pune techie, not to mention high-profile MPs Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Shashi Tharoor. The sprint, though, is confined to Chowdhury, the Congress바카라�s Lok Sabha leader, and Tharoor, who had publicly pitched his candidature for the leadership role when the opportunity arose (Rahul Gandhi quit). The contest is so fierce that Chowdhury has been heard telling journalists his views should be taken as the party line, while Tharoor바카라�s interventions in the House are 바카라�his personal opinion바카라�.

Laloo바카라�s Godly Son

Tej Pratap Yadav strikes again바카라�this time as god Shiva. Laloo Prasad Yadav바카라�s elder son 바카라�dressed바카라� up as the mendicant god (long hair, white dhoti, a faux tiger skin wrapped around his waist, wood ash on his torso, hands, forehead and chest, a rudraksha rosary around his neck) went to a temple in Patna with his bodyguards and offered prayers. This look is a repeat of sorts, as a poster in May 2018 outside Laloo바카라�s home showed Tej Pratap and ex-wife Aishwarya as Shiva and Parvati. A year before, he turned up as Krishna.

Beware The Croc

Iran is not only facing off with the US; it is also eng­aged in a battle within바카라�between reformist President Hassan Rouhani and the hardline Revolutionary Guards.

Tensions in the Persian Gulf over the past months following America바카라�s crippling sanctions on Iran, with the possibility of an impending war, have grabbed the world바카라�s focus. But people have started taking note of the fissures that have started to surface in the Iranian establishment following a fight between Rouhani바카라�s supporters and the Revolutionary Guards. Much of the tension between rivals has begun to play out through a recently launched 30-part TV serial, Gando.

바카라�The dramatic start to Gando, this year바카라�s flagship drama series, is reminiscent of James Bond and other Hollywood blockbusters that are hugely popular in the Islamic Republic,바카라� says The Financial Times Weekend.  But the show, inspired in part by the arrest and detention of Iranian-American journalist Jason Razian for espionage, has attracted attention for reasons other than its dramatic set pieces filmed in Iran, Turkey and China.

Financed by a little-known cultural institute linked to the Guards and broadcast on hardline-backed television, the TV drama highlights the rivalry between the elite unit and the centrist government of Rouhani, with the latter portrayed as bureaucratic and corrupt.

바카라�The Gando series badly treats a foreign ministry, which is currently at the forefront of the war against the enemy, as it does the intelligence ministry,바카라� Mahmoud Vaezi, the president바카라�s chief of staff, has said. Foreign minister Javad Zarif, Iran바카라�s chief negotiator during the nuclear deal, said his ministry did not have enough funds for self-promotion. This was seen as a clear reference to the Guards corps바카라� extensive buisiness interest that enabled it to fund a production with some of Iran바카라�s best actors.

바카라�The series is clearly aimed at undermining the government of Rouhani,바카라� says a reform-minded analyst.

But Javad Ashraf, Gando바카라�s director, responded to the controversy by telling local media that 바카라�the good thing was that...the anti-Gando people also watched Gando.바카라� The producer of the series, Mojtaba Amini, also dismissed concerns voiced by one of the president바카라�s advisers about how the series was funded.

The plot lines in Gando, named after an Iranian crocodile that can distinguish between friend and foe, certainly offers a damning, even though fictional, portrayal of parts of the Iranian elite.

Illustrations by Saahil; Text curated by Puneet Nicholas Yadav and Alka Gupta