Uddalok Bhattacharya was part of Hindustan Times’ nationwide network of correspondents that brings news, analysis and information to its readers. He no longer works with the Hindustan Times.
Articles by Uddalok Bhattacharya
Rahul Gandhi must substantiate corruption charge against PM
It is not as though Mr Modi has not been attacked. He has been, but many of them did not wash with the people.
Updated on Dec 14, 2016 05:40 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Good policing can’t do much without a social transformation
Improvement in criminal justice means much more than uplifting the police system and the magistracy. It means a gamut of changes that lead to empowerment and a redistribution of assets and social power
Updated on Dec 14, 2016 11:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
If there is a grand alliance in UP, the Congress should pitch for it
Friendly gestures of Congress V-P Rahul Gandhi and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav towards each other offer a meeting ground. And also Congress strategist Prashant Kishor meeting SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav could be a straw in the wind
Updated on Nov 03, 2016 03:12 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Delhi’s anti-pollution plans are at best piecemeal
The government has decided to introduce vacuum cleaning and sprinkling of water on the roads. The question is how many vacuum cleaners and mist sprayers can be installed and how far they will be effective in places such as ITO or Anand Vihar, which are supposed to be some of the most polluted places in Delhi
Updated on Nov 04, 2016 02:27 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Cracker pollution during Diwali is a minor problem
Asking for a stop to bursting crackers is to stop being part of a living history that goes back 150 years at least. Many accounts of old cities are full of soul-lifting discussions how Diwali or Kali Puja tugged at the heart-strings of people
Updated on Nov 21, 2019 04:17 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Hindutva is a way of life with some outposts
That religion and politics must be kept apart is a maxim that all parties had followed until externalities such as “people’s sentiments” and “correcting the wrongs of history” entered the picture to break the fragile arrangement between the law and faith
Published on Oct 26, 2016 08:44 PM IST
Hindistan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
The return to pass-fail policy should be a cautious one
With years of getting used to ‘no fail’ policy, students might find it difficult to let themselves be evaluated rigorously. The number of failures is likely to be more than what used to be before the new policy was introduced
Published on Oct 20, 2016 07:27 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
PM knows best: Dalit atrocities can end with empowerment
The assistance of the State towards the community must continue. But the policy of reservations must be rationalised. If we have a third-generation beneficiary of reservation policy, it amounts to depriving someone whose forefathers could not avail themselves of it. It is this that Mr Modi can now look at
Published on Oct 19, 2016 10:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Society must sensitise itself to the differently-abled
We should have laws for their convenience at airports in the manner the US has. Having amenities for them could be part of corporate social responsibility
Published on Oct 19, 2016 07:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Killing of RTI activists: No protection available to them
The RTI has been an instrument in bringing in transparency and curbing corruption, thereby enhancing democracy at various levels. But unless there is a way to protect the activists, the purpose behind such openness will be defeated
Published on Oct 17, 2016 05:15 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
IIMs should now have little to complain about
The new Bill gives the IIMs a free hand to manage their own affairs
Updated on Oct 08, 2016 10:02 PM IST
Bihar’s new liquor prohibition law too may fail to stand up in court
It should be a generally accepted rule that whenever governments go in for bans such as these, there should a reasonable timeframe, with respect to geographic locations, for those to come into effect
Updated on Oct 03, 2016 09:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
The Maratha movement is driven by historical memory
The Marathas want three things: The gallows for those who had raped and killed the girl in Ahmednagar, 16% reservation for the Marathas, and a modification of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
Updated on Sep 27, 2016 02:24 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Chhattisgarh: Another instance of police brutality due to social pressures
The deportment of the police is closely wired into the social power structure in which the police operate. There is community pressure acting on the police to behave in certain ways
Published on Sep 19, 2016 01:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Yechury vs Karat: The CPI(M) starts a debate
Over decades the arch enemy of the communists and socialists had been the Congress, which in their characterisation was a party of landlords and big industrialists, and not the BJP
Published on Sep 16, 2016 08:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Quotas in hiring IIM teachers not a good idea
The government, through its nominees on the governing councils or boards, can push the idea of introducing courses on Dalit entrepreneurship, etc
Published on Sep 15, 2016 05:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Centre, UP govt have a responsibility towards Bareilly rape survivor
When seen in a broader perspective, incidents such as these are used to further put women and girls in a tighter situation, with more fetters on them or denying education to them.
Updated on Sep 15, 2016 08:51 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Sexual harassment charges won’t spare top civil servants
Merely transferring an officer is not a sufficient guarantee that he cannot influence the investigation. We have had instances of people trying to influence investigation even they do not hold any office
Published on Sep 14, 2016 02:24 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
BJP leader should explain what he means by eco-friendly Eid
All festivals cause air and water pollution through the bursting of crackers and immersing icons in rivers that are already dying
Updated on Sep 26, 2016 07:41 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
The government should tell students why they shouldn’t leave IITs
Forcing students to finish MTech won’t do, gentle persuasion might help
Published on Sep 12, 2016 04:38 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
The number of judges in India must increase
The judiciary’s role in Indian society is always expanding
Published on Sep 12, 2016 12:40 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Anna Hazare need not feel sorry that Kejriwal has ‘changed’
Kejriwal did not share Hazare’s near-rejection of parliamentary democracy. He could not reconcile himself to the posture that the movement was superior to parliament when it came to law-making
Published on Sep 10, 2016 09:16 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Office of profit: Precedents Mr Kejriwal can use
Though the constitutional provision is specific on the matter, it has not been followed in letter and spirit
Published on Sep 09, 2016 01:09 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
The new rail fare structure is confusing and will help airlines
Black marketers will have a field day in the new system. There is every possibility that tickets will just vanish from the buying counters
Updated on Sep 08, 2016 12:16 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
UP chief minister should calculate the cost of freebies
As it is, the finances of state governments are constrained. On top of that, if populist measures continue in this manner, running a government may not be viable in the future
Published on Sep 06, 2016 02:59 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
We haven’t given primacy to primary education
Children’s education has not received the attention it deserves. Without that our social infrastructure is bound to flounder
Published on Sep 06, 2016 01:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Ashutosh did not defend rape, so do not harass him
If Ashutosh called it ‘consensual sex’, so did many others, for which they are not morally or legally to blame. The National Commission for Women is wrong in summoning him
Updated on Sep 06, 2016 01:30 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
It is tough to rein in gau rakshaks at this stage
If this was a matter of simple crime the criminal could have been easily apprehended. But when religiosity becomes packaged with state policy, the reach of the strong arm of the state shrinks
Published on Sep 06, 2016 09:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
This all-India labour strike will not be the last one
While the unions have a point, one thing missing in the discourse is that they often adopt violent methods in dispute resolution, as had been seen in the Maruti incident in 2012. They also do not take into account that sometimes labour laws do stand in the way of job creation
Published on Sep 02, 2016 02:22 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
Bodo agitation exposes Assam’s faultlines
The resurrection of the demand for the state of Bodoland can have dangerous implications and the Centre should immediately sit in discussion with the agitators
Updated on Sep 01, 2016 08:15 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Uddalok Bhattacharya
