Eshwar

"Our Body, Our Right" #RejectTransBill2026 Activists and students protested at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026. Protesters say the Bill dilutes the right to self-identified gender, introduces restrictive definitions, and risks excluding identities like transmasculine persons. Many warned it could weaken existing safeguards and disrupt vital community support systems. Demonstrators demanded the Bill be revoked or sent for wider consultation, stressing that laws impacting transgender persons cannot be made without their participation. For many, the issue goes beyond legal language—touching access to identity documents, healthcare, housing, and protection from discrimination. @hey_eshwar reports.

On a narrow, dusty lane in Nagpur's Yashodhara Nagar, the debris of a two-storey house demolished by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has remained untouched for the past year—a stark reminder of what once stood there. The house belonged to the parents of Fahim Shamim Khan, the prime accused in the communal violence that rocked Nagpur on 17 March last year, during Shivaji Jayanti celebrations. Fahim, then a leader of the Minorities Democratic Party (MDP), was arrested on charges of inciting riots and jailed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). A week after his arrest, his elderly parents — who lived with other family members in the house — received a notice from the municipal corporation on a Sunday morning. The notice stated that the house was encroaching upon the road by up to 90 metres, leading the family to believe that only the encroached portion would be demolished. Instead, the very next morning, the elderly couple found themselves on the streets. The home they had built over three decades with their hard-earned money was reduced entirely to rubble. A year on, the family's circumstances might seem to have improved—at least on the surface. Fahim was granted bail in July last year, and Alisha was recently elected as a corporator in the very municipal body that demolished her in-laws’ home. Crucially, the petition filed by Fahim’s mother in the Bombay High Court against the demolition of her home has also led to repeated judicial rebukes of the municipal authorities and the state machinery. But for Alisha, these developments are only fleeting moments of relief in a much deeper, continuing trauma—one shaped not just by the charges against her husband, but more significantly, by the loss of their home. Read the full report by @hey_eshwar: thequint.com/news/politics/…

Clearly we now are a former democracy- not a current one. Bandu Dhotre is an environment and social activist who has worked extensively in Chandrapur to help the district and the locals. He was on a peaceful hunger strike, and the govt used police force to break his fast against environmental destruction- Mining in a notified wildlife sanctuary. What a shame!

Maharashtra police has desrupted a peaceful strike by environmentalist Bandu Dhotre against a very destructive mining project in a crucial tiger corridor in Chandrapur. Dhotre has been trying to garner support against the project for 2 months. I report: thequint.com/news/politics/…

Iranian sailors aboard IRIS Dena warship marched on Indian soil during Indian Navy's Milan maritime exercise just two weeks ago. 87 of them were murdered on their way back from India by the US in the Indian ocean. The Indian govt has not said a word about it. 'Souces' in the govt said: "They were our guests only till 25 Feb. Also, they were out of our territory when they were killed." It's like you invite guests over for dinner, they get murdered on their way back home, and you remain silent. By attacking the ship in the Indian Ocean, the US brought the war that we do not want to our backyard. We have not consented to this. And yet, the Indian govt chooses to remain silent.

#Report | For the past 2 days, families across several villages of Nagpur are unable to tell little children that their mothers will never return home. 19 workers were killed in a blast in an explosives-manufacturing unit in Nagpur, 15 were women. Read: thequint.com/news/india/nag…

'No material evidence' against Arvind Kejriwal & Manish Sisodia in liquor policy case. So, a year before elections, the sitting CM & Dy CM of the national capital spent 6 months & 17 months in jail, denied bail multiple times, while BOTH ED & CBI had 'no material evidence'?

Following up on our exclusive reportage, The Quint’s Political Editor @AdityaMenon22 filed an RTI query to find out more about the funding for a Sanatan Sanstha event, where hate speeches were openly made amid demands for a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. Read the full report: thequint.com/news/politics/…

Today marks 7 years since 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the Pulwama terror attack. A lookback at some serious allegations levelled by then Governor Satya Pal Malik during our conversation on 'Badi Badi Baatein'.

It (FIR against 'Mohd' Deepak) reflects and sheds much light on what we should understand from the principle of fraternity. There is no fraternity. Mr. Deepak is free to do what he likes. Whether that man wants to call his shop by that name or this name, how does it matter? Why should it worry everybody else?" asked former Vice President of India, Mohd Hamid Ansari, as he expressed anguish over the Uttarakhand episode. As Ansari sat down with The Quint at his Delhi residence to discuss his new book Arguably Contentious, he expressed much anguish over the communal discourse in Indian politics and the deliberate destruction of the constitutional idea of fraternity. "It's not an offensive name. His own name is not an offensive name. But surely, each one of us must respect it. We are not doing that. And that is where the derailment has taken place over the years," he said. In this episode of Badi Badi Baatein with @hey_eshwar, Ansari talks about the communal discourse in politics, the politics of the ‘Mohammad Deepak’ case, the disruption of Parliament, and his decade-long tenure as Vice President and Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. Watch the full interview: youtube.com/watch?v=hmNSWr…

"If a person is guilty, by all means, take him to court, give him a punishment and let the punishment be carried out the way it is. But two things - you can't take ten years to simply take him to court. A man is guilty of an offence today, next week, next month, maybe next year. But not next decade. That's the difference," said former Vice President Hamid Ansari, commenting on the prolonged incarceration of Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. As Ansari sat down with The Quint at his Delhi residence to discuss his new book Arguably Contentious, he expressed much anguish over the communal discourse in Indian politics and the deliberate destruction of the constitutional idea of fraternity. "It is shedding the searchlight on the extent to which those principles are being observed in practise," he said. In this episode of Badi Badi Baatein with @hey_eshwar, Ansari talks about the communal discourse in politics, the politics of the ‘Mohammad Deepak’ case, the disruption of Parliament, and his decade-long tenure as Vice President and Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. Watch the full interview: youtu.be/hmNSWrroaUI?si…

"It is not a pleasant sight to see on the television screen Parliament being disrupted. But actually, both sides are guilty,” said Mohammad Hamid Ansari, former Vice President of India, when asked about the complete breakdown of bonhomie between the government and the Opposition over the past few years. Ansari’s criticism of the Houses, and the way parliamentary affairs are handled, came rather reluctantly. “For many years since my retirement from the Rajya Sabha, I have generally refrained from commenting on the functioning of Parliament. But what you say is true. Things are not being done. The simple evidence is: how many days does Parliament sit? What once, upon a time, was 100 days is now 50 or 60. So where is the time for debate? Where is the time for discussion?” he said. However, Ansari’s disappointment with the state of affairs inside Parliament is as strong as it is with events outside it. “If somebody is having a Christmas prayer in a church, you disrupt it. If some set of Muslims go and pray for Eid prayers or any other prayer, it’s disrupted. So this is the kind of thing that is happening increasingly in our country and was not part of the scheme of things,” he said. In this episode of Badi Badi Baatein with @hey_eshwar, Ansari talks about the communal discourse in India, the politics of the ‘Mohammad Deepak’ case, the disruption of Parliament, and his decade-long tenure as Vice President and Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. Watch the full interview: youtube.com/watch?v=hmNSWr…

Booth-level attempts to delete Muslim votes amid U.P SIR? The Quint accesses fraud Form 7s from 6 U.P villages — all names of #Muslim voters, the 'applicants' deny filling these forms, the BLOs narrate how they received them, DM responds. 🎥Watch this report by @hey_eshwar

@dmchandauli Thank you for your response @dmchandauli . The article and the social media posts have been updated with your statement.

After the inquiry,it was found that the incomplete Form 7s obtained by unknown persons were neither received nor processed by BLOs.The process of Form 7 is being carried out in a transparent manner in accordance with the relevant provisions of Registration of Electors Rules,1960.

"On 31 January, I received an envelope at my doorstep. I assumed it must have come via post or from the local office, as it usually does. When I opened the envelope, I realised these were Form 7s to delete the names of seven voters," Anjna Devi, a Booth Level Officer (BLO) from Mahaganv village in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli district, told The Quint. "All of these were Muslims who live in the village. They had already been cleared during the SIR process. I immediately called pradhan ji and brought this to his attention," Anjna Devi said. Amid the nationwide controversies surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, allegations of fraudulent attempts to delete Muslim voters have emerged from some constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, with the Opposition parties alleging a 'selective targeting of minority votes'. Form 7 (voter application forms for objections to the proposed inclusion or deletion of names in the existing electoral roll) applications accessed by The Quint from five villages in Chandauli's Sakaldiha Assembly constituency, were received by six BLOs, and  contain deletion requests for 84 Muslim names across five villages. The allegedly fraudulent or misleading applications were received by six BLOs across these five villages—Nagepur, Mahaganv, Khadehra, Nayikot, and Sakal Puranchi. While the applicants mentioned in some of these forms confirmed that they had submitted them, some applications contained either incorrect or no details of the applicants at all. -Who submitted these fraudulent applications to delete Muslim names? -How did the controversy come forth? -How did the BLOs receive them and what action followed? @hey_eshwar spoke to the respective BLOs of the concerned booths from these villages, as well as some applicants, to understand the full picture. Read here: thequint.com/news/politics/…

#StoryAlert 🚨 | On 31 January, Anjna Devi, a Booth Level Officer (BLO) from Mahaganv in Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh, received an envelope containing a few Form 7s— requests to delete the names of some Muslim voters from her village. Upon verification, she found that the 'applicant' under whose name the forms had been submitted had no clue about it. An alleged 'applicant' of another set of Form 7s to delete 16 Muslim voters from another village said he is being framed. "I sign my name in Hindi, the signature there is in English," he told The Quint. Booth-level conspiracies to delete Muslim votes or mischievious politics? The Quint has accessed such allegedly fraudulent forms to delete Muslim voters given to six BLOs across five villages in Chandauli’s Sakaldiha constituency. Read what each of these BLOs and 'applicants' told @TheQuint thequint.com/news/politics/…

“I have never been interested in politics. It’s not my arena. There are many around me who insist that I join politics, but I have never thought in that direction,” Sunetra Pawar, wife of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, told a Marathi daily candidly in February 2023, explaining why she had stayed away from active politics. Exactly three years later, Sunetra Pawar is poised to become Maharashtra’s first woman Deputy Chief Minister. Even if Sunetra Pawar is appointed Deputy Chief Minister, does that automatically make her the undisputed leader of the party? With limited political experience and influence beyond Baramati, can she command the authority Ajit Pawar once exercised over the NCP? And if a merger of the two NCPs does materialise, where does that place Sunetra Pawar in a larger leadership matrix dominated by Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule? Read this analysis by @hey_eshwar: thequint.com/news/politics/…

32 Jobs, 18,000 Trees, 47 Dead: Fadnavis Sacrifices Tiger Corridor for Nothing. Reported by: @hey_eshwar

“Any mining in this forest will cause irreversible damage to the environment and wildlife…” The mining project was cleared in tiger corridor linking to Tadoba despite wildlife board recommending against it. @hey_eshwar reports. Read here: thequint.com/climate-change…