FOR PEOPLE WHO know him well, Cheruvathur Chekkutty Thampi, popularly known as CC Thampi, is famous for his self-effacing ways and unassuming demeanour. A peer who has known him well from the early 1980s and has seen his rapid and stratospheric rise to a business tycoon in the 1990s says that Thampi, who has interests … Continue reading Will the Money Laundering Probe of CC Thampi Open a Can of Worms?
haryana
The Cult and Crime of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Insaan
ON MAY 30TH, 2002, Ramchandra Chhatrapati published an article in his Sirsa-based Hindi daily Poora Sach, a front-page story headlined ‘Dharm ke naam par kiye jaa rahe hain saadhviyon ke jeevan barbaad’ (In the name of religion, the lives of women ascetics are being ruined). It was an exposé on the rape of two female members … Continue reading The Cult and Crime of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Insaan
Cow Vigilantism: Politics of the Sacred and the Profane
JAISINGHPUR IS A forlorn village in Haryana’s Mewat region bordering Rajasthan where 24-year-old Irshad Khan sits crestfallen in a tent erected just outside his home. His seven siblings have joined his mother and grandmother in mourning the brutal death of their 55-year-old father at the hands of cow vigilantes earlier this month. Like Bishada near … Continue reading Cow Vigilantism: Politics of the Sacred and the Profane
Ullekh NP 