About

What was sanctioned, what was built, and what got left out of the record.

Most of what matters is in a document somebody filed and nobody read. A scheme approved in 1981 with seven units, of which three were built. A parliamentary report mimeographed in 1979 and never tabled. A court judgment that turns out not to say the thing everyone repeats about it. A support price announced every year for a crop the state has no intention of buying.

This publication goes to those documents. The subjects range — food policy, environment, history, religion, literature, whatever the record turns out to hold — but the method does not. Claims here rest on primary sources where possible: judgments, gazette notifications, archival files, RTI replies, audited accounts. Where something rests on secondary reporting, it says so, and where a figure needs confirming, it says that too.

Who writes it

I am Achintyarup Ray, a journalist in Kolkata with thirty years on newspaper desks — The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Statesman, Ei Samay. I translate between Bengali and English, and I write books for children. Some of what appears here began as reporting for a newspaper and outgrew the space available.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, tell me. I will fix it in the open, with a note on the piece saying what changed and when. Documents are especially welcome — if you are sitting on a file, an order, or a reply that ought to be read, write to me.