2020 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 18 Oct 2020 20:38

#islam for simple minded. Tanishq's islam is too subtle to grasp. No such thing as breaking tradition of killing kaffir. Godh bharai is a non reality.

Jharkhand: Quarrel among youths takes a communal turn as 65-year old woman Sunarkalo Kunwar get lynched by a mob
https://www.opindia.com/2020/10/quarrel ... jharkhand/
...
Niranjan Kumar said that when women and children of the village go for defecation in the evening and in the morning, the people from the particular community used to stand next to them. Women used to complain about their behavior, and there were several disputes over the issue.
...
The FIR was registered against five people. The Police raided several locations to find the accused. They arrested Golden Khan, son of Sajjad Khan, Mustafa Khan, son of Mantu Khan, Ashik Khan, son of Sameemul Haque, and Ghaffar Khan, son of Maqsood Khan. The Police emphasized that the incident took place between two families and there is no communal angle in it.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 18 Oct 2020 20:46

meena harris, niece of the mylapore maami posted this on twitter and then deleted it.

why pick only on the Hindus

the Indian amerikis show these black baptists some tough political love and sink the mylapore maami's bid for election

via opIndia

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 18 Oct 2020 20:51

What will they depict in their baptist context where women have no standing? All is done by men.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 18 Oct 2020 20:57

Crypto nehru ecosystem sticking to their ethos of denigrating Hindus.

Kamal Nath refers to Dalit BJP leader Imarti Devi as ‘item’ at a rally as Congress supporting crowd cheers and hoots. Watch video
https://www.opindia.com/2020/10/kamal-n ... h-by-poll/
Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath on Sunday referred to Dalit leader from the BJP Imarti Devi as ‘item’ at a political rally. The Congress supporters present in the crowd were found hooting and cheering at the despicable remark from the close aide of Rahul Gandhi.
...

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 19 Oct 2020 01:23

Don’t Fret About India’s Global Reputation; The West Is Queuing Up at India’s Door

Don’t Fret About India’s Global Reputation; The West Is Queuing Up at India’s Door

Minhaz Merchant
Oct 18, 2020

Don’t Fret About India’s Global Reputation; The West Is Queuing Up at India’s Door

Snapshot
In popular Western narrative, India wasn’t expected to make it in one piece, much less emerge as the world’s fifth largest economy.

Today, unemployed public intellectuals and angry activists in India provide the material that tries to salvage or justify that assumption for Western editors.

There is a particular kind of Indian that cares deeply about India’s image abroad. He watches the BBC and CNN, reads The New York Times and The Guardian and worries how India’s global reputation has been muddied by rapes and riots, casteist and communal violence, the erosion of dissent and the threat to democracy.

One Sunday newspaper columnist wrote sadly how NRIs cringe when reports in The Guardian and The Washington Post call India the rape capital of the world.

Indians are obviously right to worry about every rape, every caste or communal riot, and every action that suppresses dissent. But we are wrong to worry about what foreign media thinks about India. Here’s why.

India is a complex country. Nowhere else in the world do you find dehumanising poverty, social discrimination and casual violence co-existing with world-class entrepreneurs, outstanding scientists and dedicated social workers.

This paradox is difficult for foreign correspondents to understand. They pick up their material from watering holes in Delhi filled with unemployed public intellectuals and angry activists who say exactly what Western journalists want to hear: India is in deep crisis; dissent is dead; democracy is in danger.

Western journalists – at least the brighter ones among them – see through this poppycock. They know rapes and violent crime are as prevalent in their affluent countries as they are in India. They read strong daily criticism of the Narendra Modi government in Indian newspapers like The Hindu, The Telegraph and The Indian Express. They watch beady-eyed prime time TV anchors on India Today and NDTV mocking Modi’s economic policies (often justifiably).

They surf news portals like The Wire tearing apart the government’s foreign policy. And they see fact-checking sites like AltNews constantly attacking the government.

Not one of these media organisations has been censored by the government – even though several deal in fake news.

Foreign correspondents see through the fiction. Dissent in India isn’t dead, it’s alive, well and kicking. India’s democracy has so many octopus-like arms among the bureaucracy, Opposition-ruled states, the police and op-ed public intellectuals that it is in no imminent danger.

But the editors back in New York and London want stories that work on the principle that bad news makes good editorial copy.

Indian journalists writing for American and British newspapers give their editors what they want: stories of rape, riots, casteism and communalism. Much of this is legitimate journalism. Where it is not is in the failure to construct a balanced narrative.

Indians, however, are wrong to worry about what foreign media writes. For a wealthy democracy, America has intractable problems of its own – racial violence, police brutality and fatal inner-city shootings. India’s problems therefore need to be contextualised.

India annoys many in the West: here’s a country that was not expected to make it. India was supposed to balkanise after Independence. How on Earth could post-Independence India with a teeming population impoverished by 190 years of British rule, a toxic caste system and simmering Hindu-Muslim tension become the world’s fifth largest economy?

The West, thoughtful foreign journalists know, grew rich after the 1750s on the back of the brutal transatlantic slave trade from Africa to America and invasive, exploitative colonialism in Asia which fuelled the Industrial Revolution.

Poor, colonised, benighted India in 1947 had a literacy rate of 12 per cent, an average lifespan of 32 years and a GDP of Rs. 2.70 lakh crore.

Today literacy in India is 76 per cent, lifespan 70 years and GDP nearly Rs. 200 lakh crore, larger than, at current exchange rates, the GDP of former colonial power Britain.

It wasn’t meant to quite work out that way, write bemused foreign journalists. Western businessmen now line up in Delhi with billions of dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world’s fastest-growing consumer market bursting with world-class tech startups.

But what about dissent and democracy? Angry activists and op-ed public intellectuals have multiple eager media platforms to vent their ire in India as well as in New York, Washington and London. And they all miss the point.

Indian politics and society are undergoing a metamorphosis. The old elite with its ossified colonial mindset is being challenged by a rising new elite. The old elite embraces dynasty, practises nepotism and works in closed, incestuous circles. It clambered up the socio-economic ladder, rung by slippery rung, through the 1970s and 1980s.

The old, entitled elite looks at India with the eye of the intellectually colonised. It is invariably on the wrong side of history – eulogising Pakistan-funded terrorists like Burhan Wani, being apologists for China and undermining India at international conclaves.

India is a noisy, open democracy. It gives everybody an opportunity to defame it. That is as it should be. It is India’s true strength.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 19 Oct 2020 02:21

shitty commie ideology not politically palatable unless mixed with large amounts of hypocrisy

"Secularism Not Safe Without Separation Of Religion, Politics": Sitaram Yechury

via @Satyanewshi

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 19 Oct 2020 02:58

ऐड ऐसे बनने चाहिए... director deserves an award.. for this ad

watch

via @Chilly__Paneer

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 Oct 2020 03:41

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/assam-m ... ssion=true

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 19 Oct 2020 03:41

Anyone knows about clashes between Assam and Mizoram people.

Skanda · Post by **Skanda** » 19 Oct 2020 05:23

Sorry for bringing this up. The GD thread is long gone.

As the US elections come closer, there will be a tendency for the US India thread to invariably veer off discussions elections. Can a new thread be created just to discuss US elections and the other threads be spared.

ArjunPandit · Post by **ArjunPandit** » 19 Oct 2020 05:30

ramana wrote:Anyone knows about clashes between Assam and Mizoram people.

few inferences can be drawn from news articlesin timesnow about stone pelting, injuries in neck
https://www.timesnownews.com/india/arti ... ash/669203

people from Assam, armed with sticks and dao, pelted stones at a group near the auto-rickshaw stand on the outskirts of the border village on Saturday evening.

The irate mob from Vairengte retaliated and set on fire about 20 temporary bamboo huts and stalls built along the national highway by residents of Lailapur despite a prohibitory order being in place, he said.

One of the injured persons, who suffered a cut in his neck, was admitted to the Kolasib district hospital and the condition was critical. Three people were being treated at a Public Health Centre (PHC) in Vairengte, he said.

from NDTV article

Meanwhile, tension has also been building up at the Tripura-Mizoram border over the past couple of days. According to officials in Mizoram's Mamit district, large gatherings have been banned in Phuldungsei, Zampui and Zomuantlang villages because of the proposed construction of a temple in the area by an indigenous organisation of Tripura.

Mizoram Home Secretary Lalbiaksangi, in a letter to her Tripura counterpart Barun Kumar Sahu said there was an "apprehension of a breakdown of law and order and communal clashes" and that they have requested the Survey of India for a joint spot verification to settle the dispute.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 19 Oct 2020 05:51

ramana wrote:Anyone knows about clashes between Assam and Mizoram people.

Not sure if there are any dots to connect here. In last two months, violence was observed on RJ/GJ border and GJ had to close areas off; there was some news about temple causing issues on tripura border with a neighboring state.

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 19 Oct 2020 07:10

darshan wrote:
ramana wrote:Anyone knows about clashes between Assam and Mizoram people.
Not sure if there are any dots to connect here. In last two months, violence was observed on RJ/GJ border and GJ had to close areas off; there was some news about temple causing issues on tripura border with a neighboring state.

Here is the hint:

https://twitter.com/EconomicTimes/statu ... 9408181248

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 19 Oct 2020 07:36

https://www.organiser.org/Encyc/2020/8/ ... untry.html
Vishwa Hindu Parishad trains over 5,000 Dalits as Priests across the Country; 2500 trained in Tamil Nadu alone

As part of its effort to end the practice of caste discrimination and untouchability in society, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has succeeded in training around 5,000 Dalits as priests across the country, Vinod Bansal, National Spokesman of VHP has said. VHP National Spokesman Vinod Bansal told IANS that due to the efforts of the organisation, many such priests have been taken on the panels of government-run temples.

"We have achieved a huge success in southern India. There is a large number of Dalit priests in southern states. In Tamil Nadu alone, 2,500 priests have been trained due to the efforts of the VHP. There are a large number of Dalit priests in Andhra Pradesh also. The VHP has achieved a huge success in training of 5,000 Dalit priests," he said.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 19 Oct 2020 08:59

While FDI is good, giving away so much control to transnational corporations like MNC's is a big reason why we are see runaway social reengineering in India. Look at the PR and ad scene in India and how much it has changed since so called liberalization. Simply put, we have lost control of assets but worse we have lost control over social reengineering and mindshare. More worrisome is the governments effort to have foreign universities invest in India. That must be coming from the Brookings type of think tankies in India. That will be a kiss of death. Starting with the infamous Kellog's ad, it has been a slow descent where we are left whining but with no control.
All those asking for relentless liberalization need to think twice. We are simply not strong enough to face the asymmetry of liberalization.

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/economi ... -essay.php

Unmatchable influence:
The power, influence and reach of these MNCs have enabled them to have considerable and highly influential affect on the political dynamics of numerous governments and their countries. The MNCs have been known to use this influence to pressurize governments into letting them become more competitive via the implementation of national policies that is conductive to their end goals, which is ultimately a hefty profit. One major drawback of such reforms is a vast decline in any socio-economic reforms.

The regulation and responsibilities of states is growing in number as MNCs’ continue to expand economically and geographically. A set of new difficulties have taken rise as MNCs’ continue to take over most economic activities. Today, they outnumber states in terms of size and power. General Motors is an outstanding example to explain this phenomenon. The MNC is run at a scale larger than seven nations together. The power it has in terms of economics and politics, allows it to control a huge chunk of the world. Hence, it is worthwhile to note that since the 1990’s when there were only 3 MNCs controlling the world’s economies, the number jumped up to 15 within the span of 10 years.

Undermine Social and Economic Rights:
The MNCs’ dominant and significant position within the international forum increases its opposing competencies. MNCs’ can easily promote or undermine economic and social rights, which can in turn affect the international community, positively or negatively, depending on the local market of an economy. Though the State still holds much power over the laws and regulations on an international level, MNCs’ have a considerable impact over the decision making process of nation-states. As MNCs’ continue to grow economically and politically, the shift in power is gradually becoming visible. It is a must that the MNCs’ take into consideration the impact that they are leaving in developing countries. As MNCs’ continue to grow, their interference in the public domain also continues to increase. Their interference, leads to social and economic hazards for the public, i.e., the shareholders, employees, consumers and local populations. There is increasing support that calls for a more rigid and stricter regulation of the responsibilities of MNCs within their new assumed role. The world order is determined via deregulations of economics in nature and the lessening of government responsibilities when it comes to the public domain. This new reality has highlighted the growing need for regulation, as the influencing powers of various private organizations is increasing. This needs to be done in order to manage policies and reduce the gap. This extends to the customarily governmental realm of political and social policy, which are areas in which the Multinational Companies hold particular sway.

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 19 Oct 2020 18:09

Amit Shah warns against "over activism" when asked about #TanishqBoybott.

https://www.news18.com/news/india/roots ... 75786.html

Our politicians are truly tone deaf sometimes..even the very best of them.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 19 Oct 2020 18:32

Isliye maa baap kehte hai thoda padh liya karo.

via Salman Nizami @SalmanNizami_ , a cheap charlie congi party eyetalian famiglia bootlicker

FYI,

GDP of Bangladesh is $274 billion,

GDP of Nepal is $29.04 billion.

GDP of the city of Mumbai is $368 billion.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 19 Oct 2020 19:14

Sounds like BD has enough money to accept all refugees back and some more. Indians no longer need to keep illegal BDs around.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 19 Oct 2020 20:04

the less said about the madison mawali the better, not to mention the batshit crazy eternally bitter half.

gag order, indeed!!

that explains a lot of things about India yesterday too

Rajdeep Sardesai and India Today secure a gag order against social media user who had said they took 8 crores for Rhea interview

Rajdeep Sardesai and India Today secure a gag order against social media user who had said they took 8 crores for Rhea interview

19 October, 2020
OpIndia Staff

Rajdeep Sardesai and India Today secure gag order against social media user Anurag Srivastava who had accused the journalist of taking Rs 8 crore for interviewing Rhea Chakraborty

The Delhi High Court on Monday passed a restraining order against a person named Anurag Srivastava, “from directly or indirectly publishing, re-publishing, sharing posts on the social media platforms or through any other medium, posts or statements that are defamatory” in its content against the TV Today Network, its top management, news anchors or other top office-bearers.

The order passed by the Delhi High Court also directed Twitter to suspend/block the Twitter handles of Anurag Srivastava and ordered Google to remove the contentious statements made by Anurag in the Google search results.

The lawsuit against defendant Anurag Srivastava was filed by India Today Group, alleging that the social media user made fake and malicious statements against the media outlet regarding allegations of the group charging money for interview.

India Today filed a lawsuit against Anurag Srivastava for alleging they charged Rs 8 crore from Rhea Chakraborty

The official Twitter account of India Today had last month taken to Twitter to inform that they had lodged a formal complaint against social media user Anurag Srivastava and would soon also initiate legal action against him. Entrepreneur Anurag Srivastava had last month alleged that actor Rhea Chakraborty had paid Rs 8 crore to journalist Rajdeep Sardesai and India Today for her interview in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.

The India Today group has lodged a formal complaint with Twitter and will also initiate legal action against Anurag Srivastava.#FakeNewsAlert pic.twitter.com/90xziLj2IY

— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) September 8, 2020

The group had contended in its suit that Anurag had accused the organisation and one of its anchors of charging Rs 8 crores to interview Rhea Chakraborty. Their petition also claimed that the social media user had made obnoxious remarks attributed to a nurse at the time of the birth of the news anchor and accused the journalist of fabricating fake news. The said anchor, presumably Rajdeep Sardesai, was also compared to a person facing extradition proceedings by the said user.

The advocate representing India Today Network told the court that the three tweets were taken down by the organisation but the search results on Google still showed up the controversial tweets. The Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta directed Twitter to block/suspend the account.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 19 Oct 2020 20:07

Imagine going to this civilizational war with cadre full of sulkers. No wonder BIF continues to thrive.

BJP placates sulking MLA Govind Parmar who had announced his decision to resign
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2020/10/19/ ... to-resign/

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 19 Oct 2020 23:29

France To Expel 231 Radicalized Foreigners In A Sweeping Crackdown Two Days After An Islamist Brutally Beheaded A Teacher

France defines extremists as “people who, engaged in a process of radicalisation, are likely to want to go abroad to join terrorist groups or take part in terrorist activities”.

Out of 231 foreigners in the File of Alerts for the Prevention of Terrorist Attacks (FSPRT) who will be deported , 180 people are currently in prison and 51 were due to be arrested in the next hours. More than 850 illegal immigrants are registered to the FSPRT.

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 19 Oct 2020 23:45

Looking at the slick campaigning by Tejashwi yadav and RJD in Bihar, i am beginning to think the Paswans and BJP may have sensed a strong under current of anti-incumbency and hence LJPs decision to fight on all seats. I cannot help but wonder who in the mango janta would be gullible enough to trust Lalu's clan promising 10 lakh new jobs in a state with one of the highest poverty rates & lowest standards of living.

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 20 Oct 2020 00:00

powrorful peoples most affected.

they have been gutted in MAH

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 20 Oct 2020 00:49

Good thing is most of the reforms are being done earlier in the term to see the results before the end of 2024.

GST and Demo effect were persisting till the end costing BJP in MP, Rajasthan, Chattisghar and almost in Gujarat

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 20 Oct 2020 00:57

Poof please restrict to Indian strategic and Political Analysis

KLNMurthy · Post by **KLNMurthy** » 20 Oct 2020 03:31

Ambar wrote:Amit Shah warns against "over activism" when asked about #TanishqBoybott.

https://www.news18.com/news/india/roots ... 75786.html

Our politicians are truly tone deaf sometimes..even the very best of them.

They are not really made for a democratic bottom-up polity in which the abduls think for themselves and lead the social trends. Shah et al, even Modi (though he is far more intelligent) came of age in an era of the politician as mai-baap. If the politician is popular, people simply took their guidance and orders from the politician. That is no longer the case today in India.

Amit Shah's admonition will be ignored by the abduls.

KLNMurthy · Post by **KLNMurthy** » 20 Oct 2020 03:35

chetak wrote: ...
Rajdeep Sardesai and India Today secure a gag order against social media user who had said they took 8 crores for Rhea interview

...

What is 8 crores nowadays? Nothing, no? So onlee it is defamatory to tell that Rajdeep took 8 crores. Tell 80 crores and it will be famatory.

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 20 Oct 2020 05:40

What explains such a callous behavior ? I understand poor workers risking to earn their daily livelihood but these are wealthy shoppers shopping for silk sarees in the middle of a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/yessirtns/status/13 ... 8368200704

Looking at the picture above & lakhs of people thronging election rallies across Bihar, i really wonder do we really have just 30k active cases in TN and 10k active cases in Bihar ?

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 20 Oct 2020 06:17

KLNMurthy wrote:
chetak wrote: ...
Rajdeep Sardesai and India Today secure a gag order against social media user who had said they took 8 crores for Rhea interview

...
What is 8 crores nowadays? Nothing, no? So onlee it is defamatory to tell that Rajdeep took 8 crores. Tell 80 crores and it will be famatory.

the real question is who paid the 8 crores money, who has/is continuing to fund her, and why.

the lady would be hard pressed to put up even 80 bucks upfront but that notwithstanding, she seems to be up to her eyebrows with super expensive lawyers in constant attendance and at her beck and call.

this mawali guy is just a dalal exactly like India yesterday is and the gag order proves it.

the gag order is to suppress the truth and to keep it from getting out

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 20 Oct 2020 06:51

Ambar wrote:What explains such a callous behavior ? I understand poor workers risking to earn their daily livelihood but these are wealthy shoppers shopping for silk sarees in the middle of a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/yessirtns/status/13 ... 8368200704

Looking at the picture above & lakhs of people thronging election rallies across Bihar, i really wonder do we really have just 30k active cases in TN and 10k active cases in Bihar ?

It will show up in the death cases. If we indeed have more cases but the serious cases and deaths are low, it is a good thing.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 20 Oct 2020 08:25

Ambar wrote:What explains such a callous behavior ? I understand poor workers risking to earn their daily livelihood but these are wealthy shoppers shopping for silk sarees in the middle of a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/yessirtns/status/13 ... 8368200704

Looking at the picture above & lakhs of people thronging election rallies across Bihar, i really wonder do we really have just 30k active cases in TN and 10k active cases in Bihar ?

This is going to be a challenge with the festive season that's upon us now and run through to the end of the year. People are fatigued and want to get back to their lives, but we are not out of the hump yet. The minimum the govt could do is to not re-open the transportation taps fully, especially trains, to serve the "festive rush" - instead continue to run a limited number of services and encourage/coerce people to stay where they are to the extent possible and ride this year out. Celebrate in place should be the message. Given people's fatigue, if normalcy were to fully come back, all norms would go for a toss as seen in that video. So some tools for coercion should stay in place through the rest of the year. Otherwise, all the gains made so far could be at risk this festive season.

Going by the mathematical model posted in the Wuhan thread, we'd be mostly done by Feb provided we follow the basic norms of masks + social distancing. Hopefully, that means a normal Holi.

V_Raman · Post by **V_Raman** » 20 Oct 2020 08:51

There is no way to lockdown during festivals. It is next to impossible. Many shops remain open the whole year and depend on diwali business alone to survive. A very very large % of economy runs on diwali sales.

kit · Post by **kit** » 20 Oct 2020 12:17

chetak wrote:Don’t Fret About India’s Global Reputation; The West Is Queuing Up at India’s Door

Don’t Fret About India’s Global Reputation; The West Is Queuing Up at India’s Door

Minhaz Merchant
Oct 18, 2020

Don’t Fret About India’s Global Reputation; The West Is Queuing Up at India’s Door

Snapshot
In popular Western narrative, India wasn’t expected to make it in one piece, much less emerge as the world’s fifth largest economy.

Today, unemployed public intellectuals and angry activists in India provide the material that tries to salvage or justify that assumption for Western editors.

There is a particular kind of Indian that cares deeply about India’s image abroad. He watches the BBC and CNN, reads The New York Times and The Guardian and worries how India’s global reputation has been muddied by rapes and riots, casteist and communal violence, the erosion of dissent and the threat to democracy.

One Sunday newspaper columnist wrote sadly how NRIs cringe when reports in The Guardian and The Washington Post call India the rape capital of the world.

Indians are obviously right to worry about every rape, every caste or communal riot, and every action that suppresses dissent. But we are wrong to worry about what foreign media thinks about India. Here’s why.

India is a complex country. Nowhere else in the world do you find dehumanising poverty, social discrimination and casual violence co-existing with world-class entrepreneurs, outstanding scientists and dedicated social workers.

This paradox is difficult for foreign correspondents to understand. They pick up their material from watering holes in Delhi filled with unemployed public intellectuals and angry activists who say exactly what Western journalists want to hear: India is in deep crisis; dissent is dead; democracy is in danger.

Western journalists – at least the brighter ones among them – see through this poppycock. They know rapes and violent crime are as prevalent in their affluent countries as they are in India. They read strong daily criticism of the Narendra Modi government in Indian newspapers like The Hindu, The Telegraph and The Indian Express. They watch beady-eyed prime time TV anchors on India Today and NDTV mocking Modi’s economic policies (often justifiably).

They surf news portals like The Wire tearing apart the government’s foreign policy. And they see fact-checking sites like AltNews constantly attacking the government.

Not one of these media organisations has been censored by the government – even though several deal in fake news.

Foreign correspondents see through the fiction. Dissent in India isn’t dead, it’s alive, well and kicking. India’s democracy has so many octopus-like arms among the bureaucracy, Opposition-ruled states, the police and op-ed public intellectuals that it is in no imminent danger.

But the editors back in New York and London want stories that work on the principle that bad news makes good editorial copy.

Indian journalists writing for American and British newspapers give their editors what they want: stories of rape, riots, casteism and communalism. Much of this is legitimate journalism. Where it is not is in the failure to construct a balanced narrative.

Indians, however, are wrong to worry about what foreign media writes. For a wealthy democracy, America has intractable problems of its own – racial violence, police brutality and fatal inner-city shootings. India’s problems therefore need to be contextualised.

India annoys many in the West: here’s a country that was not expected to make it. India was supposed to balkanise after Independence. How on Earth could post-Independence India with a teeming population impoverished by 190 years of British rule, a toxic caste system and simmering Hindu-Muslim tension become the world’s fifth largest economy?

The West, thoughtful foreign journalists know, grew rich after the 1750s on the back of the brutal transatlantic slave trade from Africa to America and invasive, exploitative colonialism in Asia which fuelled the Industrial Revolution.

Poor, colonised, benighted India in 1947 had a literacy rate of 12 per cent, an average lifespan of 32 years and a GDP of Rs. 2.70 lakh crore.

Today literacy in India is 76 per cent, lifespan 70 years and GDP nearly Rs. 200 lakh crore, larger than, at current exchange rates, the GDP of former colonial power Britain.

It wasn’t meant to quite work out that way, write bemused foreign journalists. Western businessmen now line up in Delhi with billions of dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world’s fastest-growing consumer market bursting with world-class tech startups.

But what about dissent and democracy? Angry activists and op-ed public intellectuals have multiple eager media platforms to vent their ire in India as well as in New York, Washington and London. And they all miss the point.

Indian politics and society are undergoing a metamorphosis. The old elite with its ossified colonial mindset is being challenged by a rising new elite. The old elite embraces dynasty, practises nepotism and works in closed, incestuous circles. It clambered up the socio-economic ladder, rung by slippery rung, through the 1970s and 1980s.

The old, entitled elite looks at India with the eye of the intellectually colonised. It is invariably on the wrong side of history – eulogising Pakistan-funded terrorists like Burhan Wani, being apologists for China and undermining India at international conclaves.

India is a noisy, open democracy. It gives everybody an opportunity to defame it. That is as it should be. It is India’s true strength.

Its simple. India s core identity is the Hindu culture, calling it Hinduism is wrong when it was never a religion in the first place.

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 20 Oct 2020 18:39

Ambar wrote:Looking at the slick campaigning by Tejashwi yadav and RJD in Bihar, i am beginning to think the Paswans and BJP may have sensed a strong under current of anti-incumbency and hence LJPs decision to fight on all seats. I cannot help but wonder who in the mango janta would be gullible enough to trust Lalu's clan promising 10 lakh new jobs in a state with one of the highest poverty rates & lowest standards of living.

Chirag Paswan(LJP) is not fighting on all seats. He is fighting only on seats opposite where JDU(nitish) is contesting plus 20 seats extra.Approximately 140 seats. In nutshell he is giving free pass to almost 100 BJP candidates. And many if not most of his candidates are former BJP workers who did not make it to the official NDA list. Many are effective vote catchers too. As anti incumbency is high LJP stands a good chance to make its mark.

If Tejaswi was half as competent as his father, Nitish would have been history in these elections. Such is the level of anti incumbency and anger against nitish.

As far as your point wrt takers for 10 lakh govt jobs is concerned, dont underestimate its impact. If Delhi for all its high standards of living and high per capita income, can fall to Kejriwal and his bunch of thugs that too for free power and free water, then why should Bihar be any exception? But most probably as I stated earlier Tejaswi doesn't seem to have in him what is required for ousting Nitish on his own capacity.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 20 Oct 2020 19:10

https://www.deshgujarat.com/2020/10/20/ ... -pm-today/
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in his address to the nation said, lockdown has gone but not Coronavirus. PM urged people to take a note of this in this season of festivals. PM also shared the details of availability of beds, total tests done, services being offered by doctors, recovery rate, slide in number of new cases. PM alerted citizens against any lethargy in maintaining preventive measures against Covid infection.

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 20 Oct 2020 19:31

arshyam wrote:
Ambar wrote:What explains such a callous behavior ? I understand poor workers risking to earn their daily livelihood but these are wealthy shoppers shopping for silk sarees in the middle of a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/yessirtns/status/13 ... 8368200704

Looking at the picture above & lakhs of people thronging election rallies across Bihar, i really wonder do we really have just 30k active cases in TN and 10k active cases in Bihar ?
This is going to be a challenge with the festive season that's upon us now and run through to the end of the year. People are fatigued and want to get back to their lives, but we are not out of the hump yet. The minimum the govt could do is to not re-open the transportation taps fully, especially trains, to serve the "festive rush" - instead continue to run a limited number of services and encourage/coerce people to stay where they are to the extent possible and ride this year out. Celebrate in place should be the message. Given people's fatigue, if normalcy were to fully come back, all norms would go for a toss as seen in that video. So some tools for coercion should stay in place through the rest of the year. Otherwise, all the gains made so far could be at risk this festive season.

Going by the mathematical model posted in the Wuhan thread, we'd be mostly done by Feb provided we follow the basic norms of masks + social distancing. Hopefully, that means a normal Holi.

Modi's announcement that he will be addressing the nation at 6PM IST today had given to lot of speculations that it will either be about UCC or Demonitization 2.0 or PoK or Covid Vaccine , but looks like he is warning everyone not to be careless and nonchalant about the virus, he emphasized once again about the importance of social distancing, washing hands regularly and be abundantly careful because a second wave will hit us sooner or later.

It is possible that we've already hit the HIT threshold but we don't know yet either due to a large number of asymptomatics or lack of testing in many lesser fortunate states. This may explain why cases seem to have halved in many parts of the country over the last couple of weeks. In the last couple of days many would have seen on whattsapp/Twitter the rather comical but at the same time a sobering video of a borderline illiterate man claiming to be a "practitioner/doctor" somewhere in Bihar. He then rather methodically rationalizes why he is a "allopath practitioner" although he never went to school nor has a degree. In such an environment lacking even the most basic healthcare infrastructure it is entirely possible that a large number of cases are unreported or grossly underreported, and there by putting the trajectory towards HIT a lot later/steeper .

Ambar · Post by **Ambar** » 20 Oct 2020 19:41

darshhan wrote: Chirag Paswan(LJP) is not fighting on all seats. He is fighting only on seats opposite where JDU(nitish) is contesting plus 20 seats extra.Approximately 140 seats. In nutshell he is giving free pass to almost 100 BJP candidates. And many if not most of his candidates are former BJP workers who did not make it to the official NDA list. Many are effective vote catchers too. As anti incumbency is high LJP stands a good chance to make its mark.

If Tejaswi was half as competent as his father, Nitish would have been history in these elections. Such is the level of anti incumbency and anger against nitish.

As far as your point wrt takers for 10 lakh govt jobs is concerned, dont underestimate its impact. If Delhi for all its high standards of living and high per capita income, can fall to Kejriwal and his bunch of thugs that too for free power and free water, then why should Bihar be any exception? But most probably as I stated earlier Tejaswi doesn't seem to have in him what is required for ousting Nitish on his own capacity.

I guess the point is even though Nitesh Kumar is far from being a competent administrator, Bihar must never forget the dark days of Lalu's "jungle raj". Anti-incumbency to bring back the very people that kept Bihar poorer than many sub-saharan african countries is suicidal. The number of young voters in India is a blessing as well as a curse, on one hand you have young, energetic people with burning ambitions who want change, better opportunities but at the same time they are impatient, impulsive and also lack the historic knowledge how bad things were in the past. No doubt, having seen the number of migrants from Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, WB, Orissa etc. stuck during the lockdown crisis in mar/apr, many of these people have no opportunities back home, but there is little substance in what Thejaswi Yadav is promising in a state where there is hardly any revenue for the government to produce a million jobs. Kejriwal could atleast put lipstick on the pig because he had a lipstick , in Bihar's case RJD has neither the lipstick nor the pig.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 20 Oct 2020 20:07

Ambar wrote:What explains such a callous behavior ? I understand poor workers risking to earn their daily livelihood but these are wealthy shoppers shopping for silk sarees in the middle of a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/yessirtns/status/13 ... 8368200704

Looking at the picture above & lakhs of people thronging election rallies across Bihar, i really wonder do we really have just 30k active cases in TN and 10k active cases in Bihar ?

FWIW, they have sealed that shop. Not sure what the shop owner or the customers were thinking...

COVID-19: Chennai Corporation seals Kumaran Silks in T Nagar for not following safety norms - TNIE

darshhan · Post by **darshhan** » 20 Oct 2020 21:58

Ambar wrote:
darshhan wrote: Chirag Paswan(LJP) is not fighting on all seats. He is fighting only on seats opposite where JDU(nitish) is contesting plus 20 seats extra.Approximately 140 seats. In nutshell he is giving free pass to almost 100 BJP candidates. And many if not most of his candidates are former BJP workers who did not make it to the official NDA list. Many are effective vote catchers too. As anti incumbency is high LJP stands a good chance to make its mark.

If Tejaswi was half as competent as his father, Nitish would have been history in these elections. Such is the level of anti incumbency and anger against nitish.

As far as your point wrt takers for 10 lakh govt jobs is concerned, dont underestimate its impact. If Delhi for all its high standards of living and high per capita income, can fall to Kejriwal and his bunch of thugs that too for free power and free water, then why should Bihar be any exception? But most probably as I stated earlier Tejaswi doesn't seem to have in him what is required for ousting Nitish on his own capacity.
I guess the point is even though Nitesh Kumar is far from being a competent administrator, Bihar must never forget the dark days of Lalu's "jungle raj". Anti-incumbency to bring back the very people that kept Bihar poorer than many sub-saharan african countries is suicidal. The number of young voters in India is a blessing as well as a curse, on one hand you have young, energetic people with burning ambitions who want change, better opportunities but at the same time they are impatient, impulsive and also lack the historic knowledge how bad things were in the past. No doubt, having seen the number of migrants from Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, WB, Orissa etc. stuck during the lockdown crisis in mar/apr, many of these people have no opportunities back home, but there is little substance in what Thejaswi Yadav is promising in a state where there is hardly any revenue for the government to produce a million jobs. Kejriwal could atleast put lipstick on the pig because he had a lipstick , in Bihar's case RJD has neither the lipstick nor the pig.

I doubt if tejaswi will come to power. 'Cause he doesn't seem to have the political acumen as well as work ethic of a successful politician. What can happen is that LJP under chirag manages to damage nitish in such a way that BJP might emerge as the single largest party. If that becomes the case then BJP will provide the CM candidate.

Ofcourse even if tejaswi somehow manages to win the elections, it is not entirely to BJP's disadvantage. Nitish is almost nearing 70 and if he loses these elections, it is effectively end of road for him. And without nitish jdu is nothing. BJP becomes the senior partner by default. Plus all indications point that Tejaswi will be a real shitty CM. He will face anti incumbency very fast. If he doesn't gain outright majority, his govt will not even last its full term. Plus internally he will be forced to toe BJP's line to ensure his father's early release or better treatment in jail itself.

So anyway by 2025 or even before that BJP will be again in pole position to rule Bihar. Now the question is whether any development during Tejaswi's rule? My answer to this is that Bihar is a riverine state especially north bihar. Lot of riverine infrastructure is in process of being built for eg bridges. Most of these bridges and other infrastructure will be completed during 2023-2025 period only. Before this infrastructure gets built, I doubt any substantial development will be possible even if you make Lee kwan yew the CM of Bihar. Forget BJP or RJD or congress.

sanjayc · Post by **sanjayc** » 20 Oct 2020 23:04

This is the agency responsible for dreaming up the Love Jihad ad of Tanishq. Led by one woke dude called Amit Akali.

http://www.wypworldwide.com/

After managing to screw his client badly in peak season by needling 95% of its paying customers, he now claims the controversy has been good for the brand because, apparently, the sales are going up. The story is obviously a plant to pull his nuts out of fire. The idiot is totally non-apologetic and trying to brazen it out. It seems he won't rest till Tanishq has tanked.

Tanishq ad created a ‘movement’; many buying products to make point: Ad maker
The ad showed realities and after the controversy, a silent majority of people has started speaking out against a vocal minority, says Amit Akali

More number of people have seen the now-withdrawn Tanishq advertisement as the controversy also created a “movement” where many were buying Tanishq products to take a stand, the advertisement campaign’s creator said on Tuesday.

“The ad showed realities and after the controversy, a silent majority of people has started speaking out against a vocal minority,” according to Amit Akali, managing partner and creative head of ‘Whats Your Problem’, the agency behind the advertisement campaign.

In an interview to PTI, he also asserted that no one would have expected the backlash because “communal harmony is the centre of our fabric”.

Nevertheless, on withdrawing the advertisement, he termed Tanishq as a “brave” company that considered the safety of employees in the face of the controversy.

The $120-billion Tata Group chose to withdraw the 55-second Tanishq advertisement, which shows a Muslim mother-in-law caring for her pregnant Hindu daughter-in-law, in the wake of a furore online and displeasure among certain groups for alleged communal tones.

“People are going out there and telling us that we will not let this film get deleted. They are sharing the film on their own even though it has been removed. Or there is a movement where people are buying Tanishq and showing us the bills,” Akali told PTI.

Despite the advertisement being withdrawn, many people came in support of the campaign and made their displeasure against the online trolls known.

“We are at that stage where the majority is speaking up and that is where the love for Tanishq started coming in. I think this is a normal phenomenon in any country,” he said, pointing out that this was contrary to the behavioural phenomenon called “spiral of silence”.

Spiral of silence referred to a large part of the majority staying silent because this was a way of life for them but there was a vocal minority which keeps speaking, he said.

Making it clear that the intent behind the campaign was just to show cultural realities which gel well with a brand’s promise and not political at all, Akali said the broader ‘Ekatvam’ or unity campaign of Tanishq would continue.

Stating that the society sided with Tanishq because the message resonated with it, he said “more people have seen the message than if it wasn’t removed”. It was a simple film showing how a pregnant daughter-in-law was cared for in our society where multiple communities thrive, he added.

He said the advertisement which ran into the controversy was part of a broader campaign called ‘Ekatvam’, wherein the jewellery brand has tied up with 1,000 craftsmen across 15 cultures of India to launch a collection.

On the Tata Group company withdrawing the advertisement, Akali backed Tanishq terming the client as a “brave” company which took the stance of employee safety in the face of the controversy.

“I would have taken exactly the same decision if I would have been in the client’s shoes. Nothing is more important than the safety of an employee. It is a brave client and the client took a stance for the safety of its employees,” he said.

However, he declined to elaborate on the difficulties encountered since the controversy erupted.

The past week since the controversy seems longer than seven days but the love received from across the world was “beautiful, fantastic and overwhelming”, Akali said.

He said an online group had been created where over 200 people have come up with their own stories of interfaith marriage and attempts are being made to document these experiences as a book as well.

“We were very clear that we wanted to take a stance versus just communicate about a product or just talk about the festive season. The stance we took was Ekatvam or unity,” he said and stressed that there was nothing audacious in taking the stance despite the events such as the anti-CAA protests and general communal attitude in the country.

“We didn’t set out to do audacious things, we set out to do correct things, things happening around us and this is normal reality. A mother-in-law taking care of the daughter-in-law is the reality,” Akali said and asserted that he is himself a Hindu-Sikh married to a Parsi.

When asked whether the advertisement could be termed as an inflection point where the silent majority had started speaking out, Akali said he did not want any such credit and added that the society was always outspoken.

He, however, exuded confidence that history would look at the campaign as a “watershed moment” from a marketing perspective where a brand spoke what it wanted to. PTI

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/natio ... SA.twitter