Vandita Mishra

Dead ends on the road from Bengal: Both sides need new directionsSubscriber Only

May 24, 2026 21:44 IST

The Opposition needs to ask if it undermines itself by treating Hindu consolidation like anti-incumbency — as something without a political counter, as almost the end of politics

SIR stokes fears, Bengali asmita divides but on fractured ground, fault-lines don’t run straightSubscriber Only

April 28, 2026 06:01 IST

The effects of the voter roll revision will be read into the final scoreboard on May 4. But for now, it plays out in a manner that does not appear univocal or uniform.

More than Didi vs BJP/EC/SIR, it’s Didi vs Didi: In silences, you also hear talk of ektu poribortonSubscriber Only

April 26, 2026 05:30 IST

She, the uprooter of the Left, is the provider of cash transfers and welfare schemes. This second contest may be playing out not so much as Didi vs SIR/EC/BJP. It is, more, Didi vs Didi.      

Vandita Mishra writes: On Dhurandhar’s loud splash and some gathering silencesSubscriber Only

April 05, 2026 18:30 IST

The blockbuster frames a 'New India' of hard lines, its unflinching violence becomes a metaphor for erasure of the meeting ground, real and imagined

Vandita Mishra writes: Reading between the exit lines of Nitish Kumar — a Bihar story of loose ends, incomplete successesSubscriber Only

March 08, 2026 20:45 IST

The absence of a JD(U) second rung and the abdication that is propelling the son-rise, in a moment when the RJD is laid low, also point to a larger shift.

Dharmendra Pradhan at Express Adda: ‘If we want to be a developed economy by 2047, we must focus on knowledge, research’Subscriber Only

February 28, 2026 04:27 IST

Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan on the changing face of student politics, the AI-conducive futuristic design of NEP 2020 and the BJP election machine. He was in conversation with Vandita Mishra, National Opinion Editor, The Indian Express

Vandita Mishra writes: Read their lips, government & Opposition repeat their lines in the House. Sameness hurts Opposition moreSubscriber Only

February 08, 2026 19:50 IST

If the PM’s speech had all the familiar elements, if Parliament also followed a style firmed up in the NDA years, the Congress-led Opposition needs to ask itself: What did it do, did it do anything at all, to break a syndrome that hurts it more, denies it the right to speak and breathe?

‘Beauty is created through immersion; there is no time now’Subscriber Only

February 07, 2026 10:40 IST

Filmmaker Muzaffar Ali and Radhikaraje Gaekwad of Baroda on learning from the past, safeguarding heritage and why the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb cannot die. They were in conversation with Vandita Mishra, National Opinion Editor, The Indian Express

R-Day leaves behind a lingering silence of the public — and republicSubscriber Only

February 04, 2026 06:22 IST

Is the othering of the minority by a chief minister, or by the aam aadmi who feels emboldened to weaponise prejudice on the watch of the Yogi Adityanath government — the Moradabad FIR was registered on the complaint of the Hindu girl’s brother — acceptable to the republic? This is an urgent question

Vandita Mishra writes: Two stories from Maharashtra’s local polls, one puzzle of India’s politicsSubscriber Only

January 11, 2026 20:59 IST

Unlikely partnerships stitched up in Ambernath and Akot, between BJP and Congress, and between BJP and AIMIM, point to a pervasive reality: Despite the rhetoric and reality of political-ideological polarisation at the top, there is a fuzziness down below

Omar Abdullah at Express Adda: ‘I find it difficult to use Union Territory and Jammu & Kashmir in the same sentence’Subscriber Only

January 06, 2026 05:48 IST

Omar Abdullah, a political scion and a third generation political leader of the Abdullah family that has governed Kashmir for most part, has worn many caps — from being the youngest member of parliament at that time to becoming the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and more.

Vandita Mishra writes: In new year, BJP needs to be called out for its abdications and silences. Opposition needs to find its voice, an imagined communitySubscriber Only

January 04, 2026 21:49 IST

Separate distortions and transgressions rest on a bed of entangled themes — the vigilante is empowered, governance resists accountability, law is used to bend the rule of law, democracy is undermined using the tool-kit of democracy

Vandita Mishra writes: High pitch of ‘vote chori’ campaign marks Congress’s retreat from the hard labour of everyday politicsSubscriber Only

December 14, 2025 22:00 IST

It has costs for the party and consequences for the polity

Vandita Mishra writes: Parliament has re-opened its doors, but will it let debate in?Subscriber Only

November 30, 2025 20:38 IST

Three images speak of a deliberative space that was always fragile, and is now rapidly shrinking

Why Rs 10,000 or the mahila vote don’t tell the full story of this dramatic victorySubscriber Only

November 15, 2025 08:02 IST

Voters' refrain: Tejashwi stands for caste and family, Prashant Kishor for “bhashan”, and “kaam (work)” is associated only with Nitish

‘Bajrangbali hain kya, ki ekaek udenge?’: Voters hear PK, but want to see more of him firstSubscriber Only

November 06, 2025 04:20 IST

Gave content to politicians, now to voters, but many of them say let’s wait.

Seemanchal: Over the noise of ghuspaithiya and SIR, stronger voices claim stakes in the big pictureSubscriber Only

November 03, 2025 07:42 IST

After AIMIM wins last time, refrain in minorities is the need to link their politics, aspirations to mainstream

Beyond Patna, voices of discontent but key to Opp success: can Tejashwi widen RJD’s tent, bring them in?Subscriber Only

October 29, 2025 18:14 IST

Outside Patna, the battleground in this election seems, therefore, on the face of it, more hospitable to the Opposition.

In Patna, voices for change but Nitish seen as its agent — more than his challengersSubscriber Only

October 26, 2025 18:16 IST

There does not appear to be a trumping emotion or argument that can sweep out the old, or a political vacuum that can ring in the new. Seen from the vantage point of Patna, Prashant Kishor and Jan Suraaj do not seem to have struck sparks of the kind that the Anna Hazare movement did in Delhi, nor does the RJD look likely to cave in like the Congress.

Vandita Mishra writes: In Bihar, can the election remain old if a new player comes?Subscriber Only

October 12, 2025 20:54 IST

Regardless of who wins and who loses, the entry of a third player is an opportunity to remake 'the people', put older contestants on notice

Vandita Mishra writes: Mayawati and Nitish, her nephew and his sonSubscriber Only

September 07, 2025 20:01 IST

In the retreat of the two leaders, an undermining of their powerful legacies of an alternative politics

Kabir Khan at Expresso: ‘Saying you’re apolitical is the most political statement. It reeks of privilege’Subscriber Only

August 22, 2025 18:13 IST

At Expresso in Mumbai, director Kabir Khan and actor-producer Richa Chadha reflected on spending a decade in Bollywood, their big breaks, and being vocal about their political views.

Vandita Mishra writes on Bihar SIR and ‘vote chori’: The EC’s response raises more questionsSubscriber Only

August 17, 2025 21:21 IST

That the EC sought to clear the air was a good call. But much of what it said was off-key, there were conspicuous silences

Vandita Mishra writes: Swordplay in the darkSubscriber Only

July 27, 2025 21:20 IST

A Vice President’s exit that could have been about bigger things. An Opposition whose best hope is that government’s cracks have started showing

Vandita Mishra writes: When the sound of politics is shrillSubscriber Only

July 13, 2025 21:20 IST

Apocalyptic politics is an abdication of democratic humility, and of the responsibility to negotiate a middle ground in a country of great diversities