Left, Right & Centre

A day after Chandrayaan 2's lander Vikram went silent, ISRO Chairman K Sivan told news agency ANI the space agency has located the lander on the lunar surface and is trying to establish contact with it. He said the orbiter has got thermal image of the lander. Experts are now discussing the possibility of re-establishing communication with the lander.

What began as a day of hope for millions of Indians across the world ended up being a day of so close and yet so far. The "Vikram" lander, meant to touch down on the Moon's south pole, may have crash landed on the lunar surface. What is clear is that moments before the touchdown was supposed to happen - when the lander was 2.1 kilometres away from its landing spot - communication with it was lost. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was at the ISRO Mission Control in Bengaluru, reached out to the scientists with one clear message - keep your chins up, India is with you.

Former Congress leader P Chidambaram has been taken to Delhi's Tihar Jail after the CBI court ordered his judicial custody for two weeks over serious allegations of corruption. The CBI said Mr Chidambaram could tamper with evidence and needed to be behind bars. On Left, Right and Centre we ask is this a new normal?

The new fines for traffic violations, which have been cleared by the government as part of the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act, have meant two things - Perhaps for the first time ever people are being fined for mistakes they do not even recognise as being wrong - and the fines are serious, way more than in the past. Yes, India has the worst traffic accident fatality rate perhaps in the world, but is it fair that states end up receiving crores in fines in just days? That's what we debate tonight with serving police officers and safety experts.

On a day when the Supreme Court allows her permission to visit her mother, we are joined by Iltija, the daughter of the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. This on a day when the state government says that phone lines are being restored, more than 90 per cent of land line exchanges in Kashmir are up and more than 93 per cent are up in Jammu. Is this all some sort of return to normalcy or is that still a long way away?

The Congress's key troubleshooter in Karnataka, DK Shivakumar, was sent into the custody of the Enforcement Directorate till September 13. His family and lawyers will be allowed to meet him every day for half-an-hour.The Enforcement Directorate which had arrested Mr Shivakumar last evening, claims that he was not cooperating in the investigation of a money laundering case. "Because the accused did not confess, can that be called non-cooperation? Where is the personal liberty here?" Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is also representing former Union minister P Chidambaram, said in court today. On the show tonight, we discuss what precisely are the allegations against DK Shivakumar and is he being targeted in a case of political vendetta because of his role in stitching together the Congress-JDS alliance in 2018?

Russia may be backing India completely on Jammu and Kashmir but several other countries say that while Kashmir may be an internal issue, human rights and the clampdown in the state is an international issue. The big question is international opinion on the Kashmir situation now changing. There is also news that 100 per cent of landline exchanges in the state are finally being operationalised and the remaining 19 exchanges are being opened tonight. Is this a first step before detained political leaders are released?

There is a blood bath at the markets with the first percentage fall in 11 months and the Sensex down nearly 800 points, wiping out nearly 3 lakh crores in wealth. On Left, Right and Centre, we look at why this has happened despite the government introducing measures to fix the economic crisis.

The Supreme Court has outlined fresh guidelines to sort out Delhi's appalling parking nightmares. The steps announced are widespread and they have been welcomed by many but ahead of elections in the state is it realistic to expect any of this to be implemented and if new parking facilities are created then who pays for this?

After 34 years, the Indian Air Force inducts its new heavy attack helicopters, the Apache. On Left, Right and Centre, we look at what this means for the force with the finest helicopter pilot in the IAF's history - former Air Force Chief Fali Homi Major.

It has been almost a month since politicians in Jammu and Kashmir were detained. One month in which given the profound changes in the state mainstream political parties would be worried about their future. Some say it is an existential crisis that these parties face. Discredited on the ground in certain quarters, they will now have to operate within the new space of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh where the strong presence of the central government will be a constant reality. But actually getting down to political business is still some distance away for now; there is no clarity when leaders like Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and others will be allowed to go home. Is consolidation of mainstream political forces in the state the only way forward?

On the show tonight, we discuss the ongoing turmoil in the automobile industry. The August sales numbers show the industry plummeting. Experts from the auto sector join us as we look at what can be done. Will there be hope around the corner during the festive season?

Srinagar Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu has said that while there may not be any bodies littering the streets of Kashmir, assuming that it has returned to normal would be "highly unrealistic". "Containing a sentiment in the aftermath of a radical decision by enforcing a clampdown doesn't mean that the situation is normal. The BJP government's policy of detainment seems to be a purely operational one," he said. The mayors of Srinagar and Jammu were granted status equivalent to "Minister of State" through a central order last month, weeks after the Narendra Modi government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two distinct union territories. Mr Mattu, however, has remained critical of the central government's handling of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Have the large number of excluded Hindus from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) queered the BJP's political pitch? NDTV filed a special report from Assam's Hojai district - a BJP stronghold that has seen the highest rate of exclusions of 33 per cent in the NRC. Many people say they their support to the BJP will continue as long as it brings the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Others are confused and angry about exclusion. Tonight on Left, Right and Centre, we discuss that quite apart from charges that the bill is violative of the constitution, does the move neglect the complexity of Hindu migration into Assam?

The NRC list in Assam is finally out. So far, what we know is that more than 3 crore people have been included in the final list. Over 19 lakh people have been left out - that's about 6 per cent of those who had applied. But this is also almost half of the earlier figure which said that 41 lakh may be left out. But this does not mean these people are foreigners. This means that there is a question mark on the fate of these 19 lakh people who have been rendered quasi-stateless. With a click of a button, this, as many have said, is perhaps the largest such disenfranchisement in the world. These excluded people will get 120 days for appeal and if they are declared foreigners, they would be sent to detention camps. Tonight, on Left Right and Centre, we ask, is this the largest number made 'stateless' in history?