Ravik Bhattacharya is assistant editor of Hindustan Times. He has spent over 16 years in journalism covering political, trafficking, crime and human rights issues in various parts of India.
Articles by Ravik Bhattacharya
Bengal polls: IB report predicts big win for TMC
Trinamool Congress is likely to sail to victory and can even cross the 2011 tally of 184 seats in the elections to the 294-seat Bengal Assembly, a preliminary report by Intelligence Bureau to the union home ministry has predicted.
Updated on Mar 09, 2016 06:30 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
BJP may pit Netaji kin against Didi on her home turf
Subhas Chandra Bose’s legacy may become a matter of political tug-of-war in the assembly elections in Bhawanipore as BJP is getting ready to nominate Netaji’s grandnephew Chandra Bose against chief minister Mamata Banerjee in this constituency.
Updated on Mar 08, 2016 01:00 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya
Assembly elections: West Bengal abuzz with Congress-Left alliance
The top leadership of the Congress and the CPI(M) may be mum about a possible tie-up but in the bylanes of rural West Bengal, the alliance is very much in place.
Updated on Mar 08, 2016 10:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, New Delhi
From darkness to arc lights: Sex workers dream of silver screen
Hundreds of sex workers and their children are trying to become actors, thanks to Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s pet project.
Updated on Feb 07, 2016 07:07 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Kolkata: Jail inmates shun Kamduni convicts
Lodged in tightly-guarded cells and virtually ostracised by such high profile fellow jailmates as American Center attack mastermind Aftab Ansari, gangster Gopal Tiwari and Maoist leader Telugu Dipak at the high security Alipore Central Jail, the convicts of the Kamduni gang rape and murder case broke down after their fates were sealed following the landmark judgment by a city court on Thursday.
Updated on Feb 02, 2016 02:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Did 32-year-old’s love for fast cars cost IAF official his life?
Sources in the police department say Sohrab may have been at the wheel of the Audi that killed Air Force personnel Abhimanyu Gaud during the Republic Day parade on Wednesday morning.
Updated on Jan 13, 2016 07:40 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Kolkata’s cleanliness drives threaten rag pickers’ livelihood
Home to more than 16,000 rag-pickers and 60,000 family members, Kolkata’s cleanliness drives have replaced open vats with compactor stations leaving little for the rag-pickers to salvage.
Published on Dec 26, 2015 12:04 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
With new chief, BJP makes waves with major stirs in Bengal
Four national leaders injured in police caning, hundreds of workers and leaders arrested, tear gas shells and alleged warning shots — scarcely has Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) agitations attracted such vigour and energy in West Bengal as it did in the past 10 days when Dilip Ghosh, former Sangh Pracharak, was appointed the state president of the party.
Published on Dec 23, 2015 01:03 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
#Selfiewithgomata: The latest protest against cow slaughter
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, a Kolkata-based trust has asked people to take a selfie with a cow and post it on social networking sites to spread awareness about the need to protect India’s holiest animal, instantly making it cooler-than-thou.
Updated on Dec 21, 2015 12:08 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Sainthood for Mother Teresa: ‘My tumour vanished with her divine light’
For Monica Besra, who back in 1998 provided the Vatican with the first of two miracles it needs to confer sainthood on a person, Mother Teresa was a saint long before the official announcement on Friday.
Updated on Dec 19, 2015 01:49 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
HAM operators to visit storm-hit Bengal to assess state’s preparedness
A team of 10 HAM or amateur radio operators from south India who worked tirelessly to coordinate relief efforts during the recent Chennai floods will visit areas in south Bengal ravaged by cyclone Aila in May 2009.
Updated on Dec 16, 2015 06:15 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Oppn demands central forces a month before Bengal Assembly polls
Manning the booths on polling day is simply not enough. Rather, central forces should patrol different neighbourhoods across the state for at least a month. This is what opposition leaders of Bengal are going to demand when chief election commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi comes to Kolkata on Thursday to discuss preparations for the next Assembly election due in May next year.
Published on Dec 09, 2015 05:37 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Amateur radio turns vital link when gadgets fail in flood-hit Chennai
HAM radio operator Ambarish Nag Biswas of Sodepur on the outskirts of Kolkata became a vital lifeline for many people keen to know about family members held incommunicado in the southern metropolis after record rain snapped all forms of communication there.
Updated on Dec 05, 2015 03:52 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Kolkata: Shias to meet Mamata, will demand extra cover
After the ISIS attack on a Shia mosque in Bangladesh in late November, community leaders in Bengal have pressed the alarm bell and are planning to meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee soon over security concerns.
Updated on Dec 04, 2015 03:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
In rural bylanes, small towns of Bengal, terror hides in plain sight
In the state’s small towns and bylanes, terror is manifesting itself in the form of everyday people who go to their 9-to-5 jobs but also make improvised explosives in unrecognised madrasas.
Published on Nov 26, 2015 03:52 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, West Bengal
Mukul’s party coming next week, talks on alliances reach feverish pitch
The birth of Mukul Roy’s new political outfit may be days away, a source familiar with the developments told HT on Monday. A former Trinamool Congress heavyweight before being sidelined by Mamata Banerjee, Roy is awaiting the Election Commission’s nod.
Updated on Nov 17, 2015 02:37 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Kolkata: As battle 2016 looms, BJP goes house-hunting in the districts
Officially speaking, the Assembly polls in Bengal are six months away. But the BJP, which harbours the dream of unseating the CPI(M) as the main opposition party, at the least, is still to find a house to open its office in most of the 32 ‘organisational districts’ that it has drawn up in this state.
Updated on Nov 14, 2015 12:12 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee’s grin has just got broader
If Lalu had the last laugh after the Bihar poll verdict, Bengal’s chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s grin just got broader!
Published on Nov 09, 2015 02:25 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
One poll over, BJP braces for Bengal battle
With the curtains coming down on Bihar polls, and without waiting for the results on November 8, the BJP has begun preparations for the Bengal Assembly election scheduled for mid-2016.
Updated on Nov 06, 2015 02:46 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
‘Never favoured beef ban’: BJP’s balancing act in Kerala, Bengal
The BJP’s Hindi heartland leaders may be gunning for a nationwide cow slaughter ban but in poll-bound West Bengal and Kerala, the party is fighting to shed its hardline image and has called beef consumption a question of an individual’s rights.
Updated on Oct 30, 2015 12:01 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya and Ramesh Babu, Kolkata/thirvananthapuram
Mamata, Kejriwal come out in support for Nitish Kumar in Bihar polls
Both West Bengal and Delhi’s Chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal have tweeted in support of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, urging people to vote for him in the ongoing Bihar elections.
Updated on Oct 27, 2015 06:52 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Bose family wants to join panel studying Netaji files
Even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will start declassifying the secret Netaji files from January 23, Bose family members have decided to maintain a weekly communication with the PMO and lobby to be a part of home minister Rajnath Singh’s team that is scrutinising the files to keep up the pressure.
Published on Oct 16, 2015 01:28 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Bose family gets a phone call for a meeting with PM
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Saturday contacted via telephone Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family members for a discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the declassification of relevant files lying with the Centre.
Updated on Sep 13, 2015 09:58 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Mamata's order to release Netaji files to put pressure on Centre
While there was an all-round feeling that the decision by Bengal chief minister to declassify all 64 files that are lying with her government will put pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put the files with the centre in the public domain, BJP Bengal leaders described her announcement as a gimmick designed to divert attention from the sad state of affairs in the state.
Updated on Sep 13, 2015 09:43 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya
Bengal teen reunited with family after year-long ordeal in B'desh
Rana Khan left his home in West Bengal in a huff, distressed by a severe rebuke from him father over a small issue. That was in June, 2014.
Updated on Aug 29, 2015 02:26 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Political war in Bengal as data reveal rise in Muslim population
As the Union government released census data which revealed a rise in Muslim population in the state, a debate started within political circles of Bengal.
Updated on Aug 26, 2015 12:52 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Bengal RSS leaders unhappy over Rajnath’s Facebook post on Netaji
RSS leaders in West Bengal have reacted strongly to Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s Facebook post commemorating August 18 as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s death anniversary, describing it as a conspiracy to hide the truth about the freedom fighter’s fate.
Updated on Aug 21, 2015 03:56 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Guarding against rebels, drugs, arms, and infiltrators
The Red Dragon haunts eastern India on the China frontier. But not as much as other monsters — militants, illegal migrants, smuggling of fake Indian currency notes (FICN), small arms and drugs, and trafficking in women and children — from across the borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. Smuggling of cattle and essentials to Bangladesh, and of wildlife body parts to China and southeast Asia via Myanmar, add to the monstrosity.
Updated on Aug 17, 2015 12:58 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Rahul Karmakar and Ravik Bhattacharya, Guwahati/kolkata
Amit Shah does a tightrope walk in Bengal
BJP president Amit Shah met party leaders in closed-door meetings in Kolkata against the backdrop of the bigger picture that Modi still needed Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s tacit support in the Parliament.
Updated on Aug 13, 2015 12:39 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata
Death row inmate’s last plea for transfer to home state rejected
A convict on death row who had expressed a last wish to return to his home state, Haryana, where he wanted to spend the rest of his time before being hanged has been turned down by three different states -- Delhi, Haryana and Punjab.
Updated on Aug 02, 2015 12:17 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Ravik Bhattacharya, Kolkata