Bharathi S Pradhan

Seniormost Critic (who's still alive!) & Best-selling Author. Sunday columnist with The Telegraph. Reviews on

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Since he is 'Rahul Baba', the eternal youth icon, call him Maafi Baba. Nothing Veer about him.

[The Pamphlet @Pamphlet_in]

Savarkar को “माफ़ीवीर” कहने वालों को पहले राहुल गांधी का रिकॉर्ड देख लेना चाहिए।

राफेल से लेकर झाबुआ तक, मंच पर बड़े आरोप, लेकिन कोर्ट में खेद, सफ़ाई और माफ़ीनामे।

मिलिए देश के असली, ओरिजिनल “माफ़ीवीर” से - Rahul Gandhi @RahulGandhi

@shreya_arora22

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Legally speaking, shouldn't there be restraints on threats issued by anybody, especially by someone out on bail?

[Mahesh Jethmalani @JethmalaniM]

That is an undisguised threat from a party that repeatedly fails to persuade voters and therefore fantasises about frightening its political opponents.

Pawan Khera appears to have learnt nothing from the lesson Assam taught him. After displaying documents that became the subject of a criminal investigation into forgery and false accusations, ordinary political wisdom would have suggested restraint.

Instead, he has graduated from waving forged documents to issuing public threats.

Clearly these threats reveal the frustration of a rejected party and the misplaced swagger of a spokesman who mistakes a microphone for a mandate.

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Are they as yummy as they look, @aratnam?

[Anita R Ratnam @aratnam]

While Tamilnadu was discussing a viral birthday cake, I was quietly celebrating something sweeter. 2026 marked the 33rd year of the brand NARTHAKI’s presence. The dark chocolate raspberry cake was baked by #STUBBORNBAKER who baked the mango cake for @cmvijay, #TVK #CJosephVijay

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Nature and its people. Untouched, pure and natural. That's what I'd like to see in Nagaland.

[Temjen Imna Along @AlongImna]

Serious question for all of you, मेरे प्यारे दोस्तों:

What's the one thing you'd love to see or experience in Nagaland at least once in your lifetime?

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Re-release it, @vivekagnihotri. Especially in Bengal. #TheBengalFiles

[Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri @vivekagnihotri]

Who was Gopal Patha? Why was he erased from history?

Witness the untold truth of Indian history.
#TheBengalFiles Releasing worldwide on 05 September 2025.

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Glad you liked it, @JyotiKarma7. It was a part of my interview with the multi-talented and very articulate @shekharsuman7

[JyotiKarma🚩🇮🇳 @JyotiKarma7]

Shekhar Suman, being from the film fraternity, says that Bollywood was full of crap and Dhurandhar was like a breath of fresh air!

Dhurandhar 2 on Netflix 🔥

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Hamas on both sides of our country? Alarm bells should be ringing in India if this is true, @AdityaRajKaul.

[Aditya Raj Kaul @AdityaRajKaul]

Israeli Envoy Claims Hamas Network Is Expanding Into Pakistan And Bangladesh. https://t.co/TvCFCvV0Oa

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Spit on, @JethmalaniM. And who is @PriyankKharge anyway, to demand registration from @DrMohanBhagwat abd the @RSSorg? The very tone used is so dripping of entitlement and superiority

[Mahesh Jethmalani @JethmalaniM]

.@PriyankKharge’s letter addressed to RSS Chief Shri Mohan Bhagwat Ji is not an exercise in constitutional inquiry.

It is a calculated political provocation: thin on law, thick on presumption, and conspicuously marked by the entitlement of dynastic politics.

For a full century, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has served the nation openly, in the full glare of public scrutiny: building character, fostering discipline, strengthening social cohesion, and doing so without seeking state patronage.

Certain Congress leaders, by contrast, have preferred suspect diplomacy - flying to China to sign an MoU with the Chinese Communist Party, shrouded in secrecy and political discomfort.

The contrast could not be starker.

One has operated in Indian sunlight for a hundred years.

The other has repeatedly found comfort in foreign shadows.

Let us address Priyank Kharge’s demands with the precision they lack.

Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution guarantees every citizen the fundamental right to form associations, unions or co-operative societies. This is not a privilege granted by the State. It is a constitutional freedom.

Article 19(4) permits reasonable restrictions on this freedom only on specified constitutional grounds, and only by authority of law.

Nowhere does the Constitution mandate that every voluntary association must first obtain registration from the State before it can exist or function.

The RSS is precisely such a voluntary association of citizens, united by a shared ideological, cultural and national vision.

It requires no certificate of existence from a minister.

It requires no political permission slip from a dynast.

It requires no registration merely because a Congress leader wishes to manufacture a controversy.

Priyank Kharge’s demand that the RSS must “register” or justify its legal existence is not rooted in constitutional text, statutory obligation or settled principle. It is a whimsical assertion unsupported by law.

In a constitutional democracy governed by the Rule of Law, no individual, however exalted his office, may issue dictates and expect compliance merely because he occupies public office.

Priyank Kharge may be a Minister in the Government of Karnataka. That office confers upon him only those executive powers that law recognises. It does not confer upon him the authority to summon any citizen or organisation and demand that it restructure itself according to his personal fancies.

Such demands, unmoored from any legal mandate, are non est in law.

A dynast indulged by inheritance does not become larger than the Constitution merely because he sits in a ministerial chair.

It was perhaps in anticipation of precisely this species of overreach by those clothed with temporary authority that Thomas Fuller observed: “Be you ever so high, the law is above you.”

Those words were later immortalised by Lord Denning in The Due Process of Law.

The point applies squarely here.

Further, Mr. Kharge’s insistence on disclosure of funding, expenditure, assets and taxation conveniently ignores settled judicial pronouncements.

The question of taxability of Gurudakshina - the voluntary offerings received by the RSS from its members - has already been examined by a constitutional court.

In Commissioner of Income-Tax vs. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Patna High Court upheld the principle of mutuality and held that Gurudakshina received from members is not taxable.

The RSS has never claimed exemption from the law.

It has simply refused to be bullied into accepting obligations that the law itself does not impose.

For a hundred years, it has functioned openly, published its activities, withstood bans, political hostility and repeated attempts by Congress governments to delegitimise it.

It has done so without taxpayer money. Or foreign funding.

The letter addressed by Junior Kharge in the garb of accountability stems from legal misconception and political malice.

It is unworthy of the constitutional office he holds and of the democratic traditions he claims to defend.

The RSS needs no certificate of good conduct from any dynast, however high his office.

The law remains above all of us.

Kharge junior’s pompous demands lie beneath it.

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Happy birthday and great health to dear Kirron.

[Anupam Kher @AnupamPKher]

Dearest Kirron,
Happy Birthday to you.❤️
May God bless you with all the happiness in the world, and a long, healthy and peaceful life.
I have known you for almost 52 years now!! Many of those years as an admirer, many as a friend, and almost 41 years as a husband.🥹😍
Life teaches us many lessons. The fascinating thing about learning is that it happens silently. You often discover what you have learned from a person many years later. And when I look back, I realize how much I have learned from you—not through words, but through the way you have lived your life.
Thank you for being in my life, for your strength, your integrity, your friendship, and for simply being you.
We will have a wonderful birthday together.😍🕉😍
Love and prayers always!!
Anupam ❤️
@KirronKherBJP #HappyBirthdayKirron #Love #Togetherness

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Your posts are well written, precise with points, relatable and readable. Love reading them, @JethmalaniM

[Mahesh Jethmalani @JethmalaniM]

My demand: West Bengal needs a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for every victim of political violence and crime under Trinamool Congress rule of 15 years.

A full, public, time-bound inquiry.

Start with Abhijit Sarkar - hunted, killed, his family broken, his old mother sexually abused, his brother forced into a relentless fight for justice.

Then reopen the full record of 2021 post-poll violence, where the Calcutta High Court had to order a CBI probe into serious cases of murder, rape and crimes against women.

Look at all the cases that Bengal was asked to forget.

👉The assault on BJP worker Gopal Majumdar’s elderly mother, Shova Majumdar.

👉 The Birbhum horror, where people were burnt alive.

👉 The Sandeshkhali terror, where women were abused amongst many other criminal acts.

👉 The Chopra flogging case, where medieval brutality played out in public.

👉 The Murshidabad and Bhangar violence.

And many more...

This was TMC's political terror protected by power and normalised by police.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's government must document every case, protect every witness, reopen every buried file, expose every political-criminal network and prosecute every cadre-protected accused.

Bengal cannot heal through silence or egg therapy.

Bengal needs truth before reconciliation.

Justice for Bengal must begin now.
@narendramodi @SuvenduWB

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

I'm glad u're doing something abt #Kalighat, @swapan55. Years ago, I had such an unpleasant experience with touts surrounding me & pushing me around that I swore never to step into the temple again. It was anything but a spiritual experience which is what one seeks in a temple.

[Swapan Dasgupta @swapan55]

This is a project very dear to my heart. All suggestions on the reform process welcome.

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

You really think #TirupatiBalaji is the perfect answer, @sushilkedia? With special entries for VIPs?

[Sushil Kedia @sushilkedia]

@swapan55 Call up the Admin of Tirupati Balaji Temple. Copy paste all admin processes, ticketing, crowd management. In one stroke our own Kalighat will become awesomest. Then further improvisations can keep happening.

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Are foreigners allowed to be a part of a political protest?

[OpIndia.com @OpIndia_com]

From giving a clean chit to Islamists in the Delhi riots to guilt-tripping Hindus for the Ram Mandir

Meet Hannah Ellis Petersen, The Guardian’s anti-India propagandist, spotted at CJP protest

https://t.co/g40TpVcZnj

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Happy birthday to mom!

[Anupam Kher @AnupamPKher]

मेरी सबसे प्यारी माँ दुलारी!
जन्मदिन की बहुत बहुत शुभकामनाएँ!❤️
आप हमारे जीवन में ईश्वर का सबसे सुंदर आशीर्वाद हैं। आपका प्यार, आपका त्याग, आपकी सीख, आपका धैर्य और हर परिस्थिति में मज़बूती से खड़े रहने का आपका जज़्बा मुझे जीवन भर प्रेरित करता रहा है।
आपने मुझे सिर्फ़ जन्म ही नहीं दिया, बल्कि मुझे जीवन जीना भी सिखाया। लोगों का सम्मान करना, कठिन परिस्थितियों में हिम्मत न हारना, और सफलता मिलने पर विनम्र बने रहना—ये सब मैंने आपसे सीखा है।🥹😍
आज मैं जो भी हूँ, जितना भी प्यार और सम्मान मुझे मिला है, उसमें आपकी दुआओं, आपके संस्कारों और आपके आशीर्वाद का सबसे बड़ा योगदान है। मेरी हर सफलता के पीछे आपकी तपस्या और आपका विश्वास खड़ा है।❤️
मैं ईश्वर का जितना धन्यवाद करूँ, कि उन्होंने मुझे आपकी कोख से जन्म लेने का सौभाग्य दिया।🥹
भगवान आपको लंबी, स्वस्थ, खुशियों से भरी और प्रेममय ज़िंदगी दें। और अगर जन्मों का सच में कोई सिलसिला होता है, तो हर जन्म में मुझे आपकी ही संतान बनने का सौभाग्य मिले।🕉🙏
जन्मदिन की ढेर सारी शुभकामनाएँ, माँ! ❤️
आप दुनिया की सबसे प्यारी माँ हैं।
आपका प्यारा बेटा !
बिट्टू! ❤️
#DulariRocks #HappyBirthdayDulari #MomsAreTheBest

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Whether Hawai or Hong Kong, it's your spiritually uplifting chant that moves people, @chandrikatandon

[Chandrika Tandon @chandrikatandon]

When the spirit moves you, you chant wherever you are, even if it's in Hawaii!

Join the club by registering here: https://t.co/FeVVzFjIGG

Love Light Laughter

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Amidst cross opinions on a Rs 45 crore compensation in the standoff with @FarOutAkhtar, the one cost on which there's unanimity is that @RanveerOfficial is paying the price for sudden & surprising superstardom. My column in @ttindia
https://t.co/ctMwr32Idw

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

The trailer of #Raakh sends shivers down the spine. Reminded me of the brutal crime perpetrated on two schoolgoing siblings by monsters named Billa and Ranga in Delhi. Catch it on @PrimeVideoIN. @alifazal9 plays the cop who doesn't give up.
https://t.co/kdCXPBgDuG

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

I was also happy to see Shiv Tandava Stotram at IPL. If only they hadn't given the female dancers inappropriate clothes fit for an item number!

[Smita Deshmukh🇮🇳 @smitadeshmukh]

I'm a Hindu and I'm a devotee.
Was perfectly happy to see Shiv Tandav Stotram at IPL. Perfect platform.

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Were the female dancers dressed for an item number or for the Shiv Tandava Stotram? Did you just see them in the #IPLFinals? @Kailashkher @BCCI @smitadeshmukh, ye kya ho raha hai?

[Bharathi S Pradhan @editorbharathi]

Miracles do happen. By calling BJP the rulers, the 'kursi nahi chodoongi' stubbornness of @MamataOfficial gives way. Finally accepts election verdict. That the kursi belongs to @BJPBengal.

[Mamata Banerjee @MamataOfficial]

RULERS BECAME KILLERS- shame on you BJP