Big blow: As the year draws to a close, our in-house columnist Sandeep Dwivedi looks at the many un-Indian decisions taken in 2025 for the future of Indian cricket. From mega-cricket stars Ro-Ko being told they wouldn’t be needed for Test matches, to vice-captain Shubman Gill being dropped just a month ahead of the T20 World Cup at home, the year has treated cricketing royalty as commoners. Dwivedi writes: “In a nation deeply ingrained in VIP culture – where rush-hour traffic stands still for cars with beacons, hospitals have dedicated counters and queues for the privileged and highway toll booths exempt the elite – cricket challenged this entrenched ethos of entitlement.” How did chairman Ajit Agarkar and coach Gautam Gambhir reject star-culture this year? Read here.
With that, let’s move on to the top 5 stories from today’s edition: Bengal pushback: As Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in West Bengal gear up to hold hearings beginning Saturday to decide whether lakhs of electors will remain on the rolls, the West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) Officers’ Association has come to flag concerns over potential large-scale “system-driven” deletions that the EROs could be blamed for. While the notices would be generated by Election Commission’s centralised portal, the association wants ECI to follow the law and be transparent. The move will “infringe upon the natural rights of electors who might well be otherwise eligible under existing provisions of the law yet, for some reasons or other, could not be present during the Enumeration process,” the association wrote in its letter.
The letter comes on the same day that the ECI wrote to the CEOs of 12 states and UTs where SIR is being held, providing fresh instructions to verify all documents submitted by electors with their respective District Election Officers to establish their eligibility within five days – a step absent from the SIR process in Bihar.
As Ramnarayan Baghel, a migrant worker from Chhattisgarh, strayed into a village in Kerala’s Palakkad district on a December afternoon, carrying a stick and a stone in his hands amidst growing civil concern of stray dog attacks, he walked straight into a whirlpool of suspicion and fear, and ended up dead. However, dogs did not kill him. Humans did. Baghel was approached by a mob whose members cut across party lines, occupations and age groups, and whose suspicions were sharpened by a now familiar and dangerous idea: that he might be a “Bangladeshi”. The Indian Express joins the dots of the unsettling incident in a state where migrants or “guest workers” form the backbone of the economy.
Back home: Meanwhile, Baghel’s hometown in Sakti district continues to struggle for basic amenities – the groundwater is fast depleting, the health system is broken, and the nearest high school is 15 km away. He had moved to Kerala for a few months to pay off his loans, provide for the education of his two boys, and build his dream home that was stuck for want of funds. However, he had told Ranjit Kumar Baghel, “Mujhe nahi jamega, bahut door hai, mein Chhattisgarh me hi kaam kar loonga (This won’t work, it’s too far from home…I will work in Chhattisgarh).”
In 2025, the Indian economy did little to drift away from letting down both its optimists and pessimists. Twelve months in, India continues to face the highest effective tariffs on imports into the United States, even higher than China, with a trade deal nowhere in sight. Domestically, Indian businesses managed steady growth in recent quarters and the economy wrapped up 2025 with a fairly strong set of macroeconomic numbers, including tepid inflation and low interest rates. As the year winds down, my colleague Anil Sasi takes a look at how the world’s fourth-largest economy fared through 2025, and the challenges that lie ahead.
In our Opinion section today, Girish Kuber sheds light on the relevance of the alliance between Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray ahead of the upcoming BMC polls in Maharashtra, burying two decades of animosity and turning the tables on the “saffron samrat”. Kuber writes: “Neither of them is a Bal Thackeray who would have taken the opportunity to galvanise the state. However, Raj and Uddhav can take a cue from M K Stalin or Mamata Banerjee on how to make regionalism more appealing in order to counter the BJP’s religionism. This battle will also determine the longevity of Brand Thackeray.”
Wondering what to watch this weekend? Well, let me tell you that the ssssnake is back! The giant Anaconda is out hunting humans again in the jungles of South America, except it’s not really what you expect. Shubhra Gupta, in her movie review, writes: “This new version of one of Hollywood’s most popular creature features is so desperate to pitch in the laughs along with the scares that it renders everything dull and diluted. The actors playing the foursome are amiable, bringing in a touch of old-friends shagginess, but the writing overall is lax, with only Mello leaping over it every once in a while.”
That’s it for today, have a lovely weekend! Business As Usual by E P Unny