Op-Eds Opinion

Washington Wants VanDyke Back. India Should Demand Answers First

By BPN News Desk September 15, 2026

Matthew Aaron VanDyke did not arrive in India’s Northeast with the résumé of an innocent backpacker. The American founder of Sons of Liberty International had already moved through some of the world’s most violent theatres, from Libya to Ukraine, before Indian investigators say he travelled through India, entered the restricted areas of Mizoram and crossed […]

Op-Eds Opinion

India Hosted BRICS, and Western Media Reached for Bicycles, Labourers and Old Racist Stereotypes

By BPN News Desk September 14, 2026

India is hosting BRICS 2026 at a moment when the country is no longer merely asking for a seat at the global table. It is increasingly helping shape the table itself. The summit represents a grouping that now speaks for a substantial part of the world’s population and economic output, while India arrives as one […]

Op-Eds Opinion

India Has Drawn a New Line With Pakistan in Sport: Play Them, Beat Them, But No Political Optics

By BPN News Desk September 14, 2026

A year ago, Indian cricket produced one of the strangest victory celebrations the sport had seen. India had beaten Pakistan by five wickets in the 2025 Asia Cup final in Dubai. The championship was won, the players were on the podium and the celebrations had begun. Yet captain Suryakumar Yadav never received the Asia Cup […]

Op-Eds Opinion

Why the BRICS Pahalgam Declaration Is a Major Diplomatic Win for India

By BPN News Desk September 14, 2026

The significance of the BRICS New Delhi Declaration is easy to miss if it is reduced to one sentence saying that the grouping condemned the Pahalgam terrorist attack. Countries across the world condemned the April 22, 2025 attack in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed. Another condemnation, viewed in isolation, might appear […]

Op-Eds Opinion

Who Sanctioned India’s Ethanol Policy Mess, Why Are Taxpayers Backing a ₹4,687-Crore Subsidy Bill, and Who Is Accountable?

By BPN News Desk September 11, 2026

When Tarun Kapoor, Advisor to the Prime Minister, said that ethanol production in India had gone “beyond our imagination” and was now more than what the country had planned for and more than what was required for blending, he unintentionally summed up one of the most astonishing policy failures of recent years. This was not […]

Op-Eds Opinion

India’s 2,843-km DFC Is Complete. Now Make It an Economic Engine

By BPN News Desk September 10, 2026

India has completed its 2,843-km Dedicated Freight Corridor network. That may sound like another major railway announcement, but the idea behind the project is actually quite simple. For decades, passenger trains and goods trains in India have largely used the same railway tracks. Passenger trains generally get priority, which means freight trains can be forced […]

Op-Eds Opinion

Bittu, Akash, Sevendra, Abbayi: India’s Gen Z Is Cleaning What We Neglected

By BPN News Desk September 9, 2026

India has spent years talking about polluted rivers, disappearing ponds, neglected lakes and crumbling traditional water structures. Governments announce missions, municipalities run cleanliness drives, activists raise alarms and social media regularly fills with photographs showing just how badly many local water bodies have been treated. Yet, in different parts of the

Op-Eds Opinion

Fake Ram Mandir CEO Video: Why Abhijeet Dipke Must Face a Legal Probe

By BPN News Desk September 9, 2026

A completely unrelated video of a man dancing at a social gathering was turned into a controversy involving the Ram Mandir this week after social-media accounts falsely identified the man as Air Marshal (Retd.) Jeetendra Mishra, the newly appointed CEO of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. The claim was demonstrably false. Mishra had […]

Op-Eds Opinion

India Never Voted for That Map. So Why Was a Controversy Manufactured?

By BPN News Desk September 9, 2026

India witnessed a manufactured controversy this week over Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin and a United Nations resolution called “Correct the Map”. The way the story was presented created an alarming impression. The United Nations had produced a world map depicting Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin between Indian and Chinese lines. India, meanwhile, had voted in […]

Op-Eds Opinion

Gadkari May Be Wrong About Educated Voters – But Right About Development Politics

By BPN News Desk September 8, 2026

Nitin Gadkari has never been known for carefully measuring every word before speaking. His public interventions are frequently blunt, colourful and occasionally capable of creating controversies that overshadow the point he was originally trying to make. His recent remarks in Nagpur were another example. Speaking about electoral behaviour, Gadkari contrasted the support he