Messi for the Powerful, Stands for the Public: How India’s Elites Hijacked a Football Icon

By BPN News Desk December 14, 2025

Op-Eds Opinion

Lionel Messi’s visit to India was marketed as a celebration of football, a once-in-a-generation moment for fans who have followed his career through late-night matches, grainy streams, and emotional highs and lows. What unfolded instead was a carefully choreographed VIP tour where power,

Op-Eds Opinion

Secondary Enemy, Primary Denial: Why Dhurandhar Struck a Nerve

By BPN News Desk December 14, 2025

The backlash to Dhurandhar is revealing not because it is loud, but because it is directionally consistent. The film does not caricature Indian Muslims. It does not turn faith into a proxy for guilt. It does not indulge in the cheap shorthand that has rightly drawn criticism in the past. Yet it has provoked a […]

Editorials Opinion

Congress Crossed a Line: Death Threats Against Modi Are Unacceptable

By BPN News Desk December 14, 2025

Manju Lata Meena, President of the Jaipur Women’s Congress, stood at a public rally in the national capital and raised a slogan invoking the death and burial of the Prime Minister of India. This was not crowd noise, not an overheated chant lost in chaos, and not a mischievous turn of phrase. She acknowledged it […]

Op-Eds Opinion

Bollywood Celebrities’ Virtue Signalling and the Hypocrisy Problem

By BPN News Desk December 13, 2025

Celebrities in India have discovered a convenient shortcut to relevance. When the scripts slow down and the spotlight dims, they reach for moral philosophy. The latest exhibit is actor Radhika Apte, who recently expressed discomfort with violence in cinema and linked it to her inability to bring a child into today’s world. On the surface, […]

Op-Eds Opinion

Outskirts + Buses = No Tapovan Trees Need to Die for Kumbh

By BPN News Desk December 8, 2025

Nashik is preparing for the next Kumbh Mela and the first instinct of the administration is not planning, not logistics, not efficiency. It is to pull out the chainsaw. Nearly 1,800 trees in Tapovan have been marked for destruction on the justification that a “Sadhu Gram” must be built there. The state government, led by […]

Expert Opinions Opinion

Stopping All Dusty Construction Work in December and January can cut AQI by 100 points

By BPN News Desk December 8, 2025

India treats winter pollution as an annual shock. Every December, headlines scream about toxic air, children cough, schools close, hospitals fill, and governments announce emergency measures. Then the wind changes in February and we forget everything. This cycle is not inevitable. It is engineered by inaction. Air pollution in winter is not a weather problem. […]

Expert Opinions Opinion

When One Airline Sneezes, India Catches a Cold: Why India Needs an Aviation Planning Authority

By BPN News Desk December 7, 2025

India did not witness an airline incident. It witnessed a systems failure. One bad day inside a single private airline was enough to throw airports across the country into chaos. That is not just a story about Indigo. It is a story about how India has built aviation without a brain that plans for resilience, […]

Editorials Opinion

Washington Draws a Red Line: Why U.S. Patience with Pakistan’s Military Is Ending – Even If the White House Pretends Otherwise

By BPN News Desk December 4, 2025

In Washington, diplomatic tremors rarely show up in the form of a sternly worded letter. But the recent Congressional communication urging targeted sanctions against Pakistan’s leadership is not another routine expression of concern. It is a structural break in how the United States views Pakistan’s military establishment, and a warning that the days of strategic […]

Breaking Down The News Opinion

Breaking Down The News: How GST Reforms Cut Household Tax Burden to 4–6%

By BPN News Desk December 2, 2025

Summary India’s latest GST reforms (GST 2.0) simplify tax slabs and lower the overall tax burden on families. A typical family of four now pays an estimated ₹745 less per month in GST. The average effective GST rate falls from ~6.2% to ~4.8%, a 22.5% reduction in tax burden. Essentials such as food, medicines, and […]

Op-Eds Opinion

Saving Trees Is Hinduism. Cutting Them for the Kumbh Is Pure Politics.

By BPN News Desk November 30, 2025

The irony would be hilarious if it weren’t so tragic. A festival meant to purify the soul has somehow become an excuse to pollute the city’s conscience. Nashik’s preparations for the upcoming Kumbh Mela should have been about spiritual rejuvenation, cultural pride and orderly planning. Instead, they have descended into a grotesque civic ritual where […]