With her trademark cotton sari and rubber slippers and her generous doles in rural Bengal, many describe Mamata Banerjee as "ultra left."
The MP from East Burdwan, who defected to the BJP last December, has been put on 'probation' by the TMC, which he wants to rejoin.
Today, the two countries, ruthlessly divided by the Radcliffe line that pierced their very heart, grapple with the political challenges of the present. Yet, when friendships develop there are no borders, observes Payal Singh Mohanka.
'What is being proposed today is completely draconian.' Payal Singh Mohanka on the I&B ministry's plan to amend the Cinematograph Act.
'Those who win indulge in shooting, looting, throwing bombs and burning houses.'
'She has just one objective. To win the next election. Nothing else matters.'
'I have interacted with Muslim women in rural Bengal, they are scared of the BJP.'
Wednesday's expansion shows that Modi still has a keen eye on Bengal. The BJP is gearing up for the panchayat elections in Bengal next May and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
It was truly heartening to see how the Sikh community had risen to the occasion during the Black Lives Matter peaceful protests and the coronavirus pandemic and selflessly served those looking for nourishment.
Jasmit Singh, 85, recalls a horrific train journey to New Delhi on the day Indira Gandhi was killed.
Didi embarks on her new mission: To unite the Opposition to take on Modi in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, observes Payal Singh Mohanka.
'For the first time one single party is getting 49% which is a record of its own.'
'It will be normal, regular, everyday politics whether you like it or not.' That's what this country needs,' a New Yorker tells Payal Singh Mohanka.
What startles a visitor like me from India is how the 2020 US presidential election has divided families, husband and wife, parents and children, observes Payal Mohanka.
'I consider myself to be a 50 year old with a 16-year-young mind, ready to conquer more continents,' Dr Shuvendu Sen tells Payal Singh Mohanka.
'The EC's role in this is questionable. What is the reason for this delay? Are they waiting for instructions?'
Undeterred by the pandemic, Deep Narayan Nayak, a school teacher in a village in Bengal, changes countless lives for the better. Payal Singh Mohanka reports on this Extraordinary Indian.
'I urged the chief minister even before she took her oath requesting her to send a tough message to the police and the administration that any violent activity, any destruction of property, any arson, loot in your area, they will be held accountable.' 'Her silence on this speaks volumes.'
For Aanchal Malhotra, the stories of Partition were stories that needed to be told; they needed to be chronicled.
In 1998, the Congress asked her mother to campaign. 'We had a family discussion. We explained to our mother that you will be used, you will be discarded once you are done with the campaign.' 'A few days later I got a call from my mother. She said, "I have decided to campaign".' 'We were stunned. Why was she doing this?' Payal Mohanka listens in.
'There is arson, loot, rape of women, traumatising children, destruction of property, homes, shops and offices by workers and elements of the ruling dispensation.' 'What is most painful is while all this was taking place there was stunning silence by the chief minister.' 'Not one tangible step was taken.'
One man follows Guru Nanak's visits to multi-faith sites across nine countries.
'They have a voracious appetite.' 'But there are many places where they go and they lose.'
Will appeasement, rising unemployment and her dictatorial style become major obstacles in her path? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
'I could have joined the BJP in 2014, the doors were open.' 'I stayed on with the TMC, a party I was involved with since its very inception.' 'But today enough is enough.'
'Mamata will beat the living daylights out of BJP workers with the result that people who are not totally committed, they will promptly leave the party and go back to Trinamool.' 'Or when they find they cannot get what they came to the BJP for they will go back to Trinamool.'
2020 has dimmed the animated bulbs that create magical images and transform Kolkata into a mesmerising fairyland during Durga Puja.
'Mamata has used minorities only as her vote bank.' 'In her entire election campaign Mamata did not utter a single sentence against the RSS.'
'I am as Bengali as they come in my cultural and personal orientation and I think probably all the BJP candidates who are contesting are pretty non-vegetarian in their food and as Bengali in their cultural orientation.'
'If the chief minister says there are areas in her home state where she cannot enter, where has she driven the state to!'
'Koi Sardar hai? Goli se maar dalenge...' 'The only sardars who were spared in the train were the six with us. And the credit goes to the innate goodness of the passengers in our coach.' Payal Singh Mohanka remembers that horrifying train journey in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination.
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