2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

[sanjaykumar]

Unfortunately, there can be a germ of truth in satire.

[Kati]

Jamaat is running berserk in B'Desh.
After NaMo left, things are similar to what we saw in Delhi with respect to CAA/NRC.
However, police there shows less restraint. Today trains, railway station, Hindu temples have been torched, and in police firing 15 attained their 72.

[Yagnasri]

Perfect explanation.

[srin]

@Suraj: Congratulations on your second article on Swarajya !
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/hindu- ... -of-bharat

[sanjayc]

Pleej to be explain onlee... why do pure pakis need Kufr vaccine when they have Allah and His Mercy?

Allah in His Mercy has made available all the resources of the kufr to be used in the service of the pure. Allah gives the kufr resources and wealth, but that is only so that it can be appropriated by the pure (in His name). Kufr resources are not meant to be enjoyed by kufrs. IOW, they don't *need* what the kufrs have, they are *owed* it. You have much to learn.

True that. After my conversations with Muslims, they are candid enough to say this: "We are aiming to capture power in another 30 years by demographic change and mass-scale rioting. We will make the lives of Hindus hell. Daughters of Hindus are meant to be our keeps (rakhail), as in Mughal times. Thank you for building all the infrastructure like expressways, ports, airports, metro trains. All this will be enjoyed by us in another three decades as a Muslim country."

[anmol]

BJP worker’s 85-yr-old mother, allegedly assaulted by TMC workers, dies
Akhilesh Singh | TNN | Mar 29, 2021, 13:16 IST

NEW DELHI: Eighty-five-year-old mother of

BJP worker —- Shova Majumdar — who had been allegedly assaulted by TMC workers in North Dumdum area recently, passed away on Monday, triggering angry reactions from the BJP top leaders including home minister

Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda with Shah saying that "pain & wounds of her family" will haunt Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for long. “Anguished over the demise of Bengal’s daughter Shova Majumdar ji, who was brutally beaten by TMC goons. The pain & wounds of her family will haunt Mamata didi for long. Bengal will fight for a violence-free tomorrow, Bengal will fight for a safer state for our sisters & mothers,” Shah tweeted soon after news of death of the octogenarian lady was reported.

Shova, who was in the headlines in the first week of March after brutally assaulted by alleged TMC workers, died on Monday morning. According to reports, Shova and her son, Gopal Majumdar, were assaulted in the North Dumdum area, which fell under Nimtha police station jurisdiction.

There was a nationwide outrage over the incident as the National Commission for Women took suo moto cognisance of it. The BJP leaders had empathised with the family and circulated pictures of a bruised face on social media countering Mamata Banerjee’s bid to stoke “Daughter of Bengal” sentiments.

Condoling the death of Shova, Nadda tweeted "May God comfort the soul of Nimta's aged mother Shova Mazumdar ji. Due to her son, Gopal Majumdar, being a BJP activist, she had to pay with her life. Her sacrifice will be remembered forever. She was also mother of Bengal, daughter of Bengal. The BJP always fights for security of mothers and daughters."[..]

[chetak]

Pleej to be explain onlee... why do pure pakis need Kufr vaccine when they have Allah and His Mercy?

Allah in His Mercy has made available all the resources of the kufr to be used in the service of the pure. Allah gives the kufr resources and wealth, but that is only so that it can be appropriated by the pure (in His name). Kufr resources are not meant to be enjoyed by kufrs. IOW, they don't *need* what the kufrs have, they are *owed* it. You have much to learn.

so far, the pakis have only got vaseline, no vaccine.

[Suraj]

@Suraj: Congratulations on your second article on Swarajya !
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/hindu- ... -of-bharat

Thanks

[rsingh]

Suraj Saar, congratulation. With your analytical skills and knowledge .......yeh tou swabhavik he hei.

[KLNMurthy]

@Suraj: Congratulations on your second article on Swarajya !
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/hindu- ... -of-bharat

Thanks

Just read the article. Thoughtful & thoughr-provoking as per the standard you have set for yourself.

Will have some thoughts on it by-and-by after a re-read.

Great work!

[IndraD]

https://twitter.com/SureshChavhanke/sta ... 64064?s=20
जलती होलिका को
@DelhiPolice
ने पानी डाल कर बुझाया व 2 लोगों को हिरासत में भी लिया.

साल में 52 बार सड़कों पर नमाज़ को संरक्षण देने वालों को वर्ष में 1 दिन की होली भी स्वीकार नहीं.

पूजा की थाली लेकर खड़ी महिलाओं का आक्रोश सुनिए.
यह पाकिस्तान नहीं, जगतपुरी ( कृष्णा नगर) दिल्ली हैं

[chetak]

Now we know what this 10% service charges stands for

[venkat_kv]

You need to look at the state's history before Modi and think about after Modi. In states where the Congress ecosystem is intact, they will remain a force to be reckoned with. MH was a bastion of Congress, NCP has weakened them but not eliminated them completely. Pawar is 80 yrs old, both BJP and INC will benefit after he is gone but the later more than the former because they have the same roots and have been in coalition for 3 governments now. The history, the intact infrastructure, the deep pockets , the ability to still draw dividends from decades of corruption is the reason INC came so close to winning GJ in 2017, won MP in 2018, will almost definitely win KAR, PJ and HR in 2023 and 2024. GJ 2017 and MP 2018 should be a wake up call for Amit Shah, if you want to completely eliminate INC then destroy their infrastructure from APMC to zilla panchayats to the assembly. If not then be prepared for them to rise their head again.

Wanted to respond to this over the weekend but was out Ambar Saar. I think there is a little naivete on your and probably some other poster like darshan saar, if you think the BJP will go after the existing ecosystem to finish it. One can go after networks untill a certain level before the blowback/counter consolidation starts taking place. we can debate about how illegal liqor flows in GJ, but the money from that goes to feed many mouths, many of whom will be foot soldiers for shaeenbagh kind of activities.

Also if there are only two poles in a state it is very difficult to finish the other side off as the opposition will always linger until they have a good opportunity to come back. the two poles often have communities that have had enmity since decades/generations that meeting will not be possible under normal circumstances. so if one has the power the other will align with the opposite side. After all, even the Hindus are not always united to vote for their interests. they have their respective caste, reservations and assorted issues which have higher priority than Hindu causes. India after independence had majorly two poles- congress and communists.
The communists eventually lost power in most states after people grew tired of them and also congress tried to break them. One other major reason was the rise of state based parties that drew people who didn't want to vote for congress or the communists and they formed their govt eventually absorbing the anti congress/communist vote bank. Now with the rise of BJP we also see the same that its either the congress or state based parties that are staring at oblivion.
one of the recent example from gujarat municipal elections is that in Surat the Patirdars have shifted their vote to Aap. Now would the jhaadu party be better than congress, time will tell but its rise could weaken congress very badly and help BJP or it might pose bigger problems for BJP, as the muzzies can always go back to supporting the congress and uber educated woke crowds in the next generation could turn Aapias and that will leave very small segment with the BJP.
My guess is BJP as a party is also working to modernize itself and not be seen as just a Ram mandir issue based party (atleast going by the reporting in secular newspapers). so they are trying to widen their base by getting the other set of people who have opposed them traditionally. it might involve giving them more grants in education and that might lead to some bitter taste for the Hindus who are looking for some payback.

[nvishal]

Now we know what this 10% service charges stands for]

Hafta collection is common in Maharashtra and dates back to 60-70s. In happened in bjp as well as bal thackeray times. It happens in industry where officer level cops visit each company offices in civil clothes to collect their envelopes. In vegetable markets around Maharashtra, some people make rounds through the bazaars and collect 30-50rs every day from each veg vendor. Every retail shop along the roadsides have to pay hafta. Bottom line, you cannot conduct business in Maharashtra without paying hafta to the local politicians, who themselves have to pay to their seniors in the party leadership.

It is common knowledge. If you ask a local marathi person, he will say, "what's wrong in that? I'd do the same if I were the local nagar sewak". You can almosy say, hafta is part of the local culture. Bjps marathi leadership(fadnavis) too did it when they were in power.

[chetak]

Now we know what this 10% service charges stands for]

Hafta collection is common in Maharashtra and dates back to 60-70s. In happened in bjp as well as bal thackeray times. It happens in industry where officer level cops visit each company offices in civil clothes to collect their envelopes. In vegetable markets around Maharashtra, some people make rounds through the bazaars and collect 30-50rs every day from each veg vendor. Every retail shop along the roadsides have to pay hafta. Bottom line, you cannot conduct business in Maharashtra without paying hafta to the local politicians, who themselves have to pay to their seniors in the party leadership.

It is common knowledge. If you ask a local marathi person, he will say, "what's wrong in that? I'd do the same if I were the local nagar sewak". You can almosy say, hafta is part of the local culture. Bjps marathi leadership(fadnavis) too did it when they were in power.

the hotels are collecting the hafta from us in the name of service charges.

no one likes to pay these charges.

there was a big furore about these charges a couple of years ago.

what happens if you don't like the service, why do you still have to pay

so what those restaurant aholes were/are doing is extorting you, taking their cut, and giving some of it to guys like vaze. why is this acceptable

and, nobody from any state, including these mythical "local marathi persons" will ever say "what's wrong in that"

do the locals approve of this

[vijayk]

https://twitter.com/rishibagree/status/ ... 1502179328

Rishi Bagree Flag of India
@rishibagree
While His rivals Amit Shah and JP Nadda are conducting road shows in this 38 degree heat, he is busy in these stupid stunts.

After May 2, he will blame EVMs for his party's loss

[chetak]

https://twitter.com/rishibagree/status/ ... 1502179328

Rishi Bagree Flag of India
@rishibagree
While His rivals Amit Shah and JP Nadda are conducting road shows in this 38 degree heat, he is busy in these stupid stunts.

After May 2, he will blame EVMs for his party's loss

WTH does he think he is doing

has anyone been able to figure out this cartoon yet

[KLNMurthy]

https://twitter.com/rishibagree/status/ ... 1502179328

WTH does he think he is doing

has anyone been able to figure out this cartoon yet

Apparently he is teaching Aikido.

[Manish_P]

Some high paid firang or resident non firang PR type must be advising him to do such stunts to appeal as the 'youth' leader to the next gen of voters..

[vijayk]

Some high paid firang or resident non firang PR type must be advising him to do such stunts to appeal as the 'youth' leader to the next gen of voters..

Actually he is only visiting missionary schools in TN and Kerala. They have an angle. They know stupid Hindus who hate Modi don't care. Young Xian girls and younger folks fall for this drama.

[Rudradev]

Suraj, I saw your follow-up article in Swarajya. I actually agreed wholeheartedly with the premise of your original article, and did not share either of the objections you mention having received as feedback to it.

As regards the new article, though, I do have some issues with the term “liberal conservatism”.

I would prefer “liberal indigenism” or even “liberal nativism” (I actually like the idea of reclaiming “nativist” as a positive trait, in the Indian context, from the shape it's been currently distorted into by the left). But “conservatism” is not quite as simple.

It’s quite possible that the phrase “liberal conservatism” exists in the lexicon of political science and means exactly what you have described in the article. However, in the currency of common parlance it’s an explicit oxymoron. At best, the lay readership may be reluctant to embrace or propagate its esoteric wonkishness; at worst, they may be led to see it as an example of self-contradictory Sanghi doublespeak. Trust the other side to seize upon “liberal conservatism” as an illustration of how Sanghis will twist terminology to conceal what they’re really all about, i.e. “fascism”.

Beyond the marketing aspect of it, however, I think the term “conservative” is itself a problem when applied universally. Its generally-understood meaning is to favour cautious advancement, taking care to preserve what is seen as traditional lest core aspects of one’s historically-endowed identity become abandoned to posterity. However, its application in practice can amount to outcomes so different as to be mutually unrecognizable, diminishing its utility as a defining term. This is a result of profound and far-reaching historical realities.

Even within Western civilization, “conservative” means two entirely different things in Europe and across the Atlantic or Pacific oceans.

European (and here I include the UK) “conservatives” can make a halfway-honest argument that what they’re concerned with preserving and propagating is, in fact, responsible for the very existence and further perpetuation of a modern European identity. While admitting that Christianity in Europe certainly perpetrated many heinous crimes against humanity—the Crusades and the Inquisition for example— European conservative thinkers like Niall Ferguson also point out that the apparatus of Christianity was primarily responsible for preserving many traditional knowledge-systems of Classical Europe, from administration to technology to the sciences and arts, and allowing these systems to persist as recognizably intact engines of progress from the Roman Empire to the nation-states of today. One can argue whether it was “worth the price” but in the end Christianity (and its digestion and reinterpretation of Greco-Roman thought) is the primary reason why—warts and all—much of Europe is the way it is. A more-or-less continuous line of traditional ideation can be drawn from the present day all the way back to Athens and Sparta, and it is this continuity that European conservatives use as their raison-d-etre.

However, in places like the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, “conservative” is a jolting misnomer. It means the preservation of values that can be traced to the cultural geography of Europe, but were shaped into something quite different by the self-serving sophistry of rapacious colonialists. Most importantly: genocide, usurpation, slavery, and other instruments of colonial expansion were in and of themselves responsible for destroying the native traditions of these colonized lands. So what “conservatives” in these places are seeking to “conserve” is anything but native traditions—it is the right of European-descended people to expropriate, dominate, and if necessary wipe out others.

I don’t often agree with “Black Lives Matter” but when they say American conservatism is at its heart White Supremacism, I find it hard not to agree. In addition, because European/Christian values were used primarily as a tool fo justifying oppression of native peoples and imported slaves, “conservatism” in these places necessarily carries forward a tradition of bringing the most regressive, militant, and supremacist features of Christianity to the fore. This is why “conservatives” in the United States are so opposed, for example, to women’s empowerment and LGBT rights, or even to social programs that might require higher taxation— it’s hardwired in the version of traditional European values their ancestors fostered as a tool of colonial exploitation while also virtue-signaling to justify secession from their original home countries.

Already we can see why the BJP may be somewhat in line with what is called “conservatism” in Europe—as you have aptly pointed out in your article drawing the comparison with modern Christian Democrat parties-- but has nothing whatever in common with “conservatism” in former European colonies, such as that of the Republican Party in America. In fact, this is where the burden of “conservatism's" toxic baggage (in commonly-accepted parlance) begins to show itself.

But leave aside the West. What of Asia and Africa?

Unlike much of the Americas or Australia/Oceania, these regions have old-world native traditional knowledge systems that were at least as far evolved as contemporary European knowledge systems if not more so. Yet in many cases, their traditional systems were wrecked and dislocated by the experience of colonial trauma in relatively recent history. In countries to the west of India, Islam pretty much destroyed and supplanted native thought-systems altogether. In countries to the east, Islam was either a latecomer or never arrived at all, so Western colonialism forms the brunt of what they’ve had to deal with. India is unique in having the suffered the full onslaught of both types of colonialism AND preserved its traditional systems of thought in a viable and recognizable form… but by no means a politically empowered form.

In Europe, a continuous line can arguably be drawn from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire and thence the Holy Roman Empire (even as Byzantium fell), through the Renaissance and into the modern era. Of course this trajectory is marked by appalling instances of cultural genocide and erasure along the way, including that of non-Christian civilizations from the Hellenistic to the Balto-Slavic to the Norse; yet, the temporal thought-systems of the primary seat of power were adapted largely unchanged and also formed the basis for further innovations in art, culture, commerce and politics. There is a continuum that extends from Athens and Sparta to the merchant republics of Venice and the Hanseatic league; from the philosophy of Plato to that of Descartes; from the sculpture of the ancient Greeks to that of Michelangelo. And the very same continuum pushes forward into newer innovations like nation-states and formal capitalism which pre-Christian thought never evolved but provided a foundation for. In this context, “conservatism” makes sense.


In India there is no continuous line *in political terms*. After Talikota, the last inheritor of the unbroken tradition of ancient dharmic states collapsed before the barbarian onslaught. Jumping ahead to the Maratha and Sikh empires and yet again to the nascent Republic of India in 1950, traditional knowledge systems cannot be said to have endured in a political sense because they had no vessel or safe-haven for preservation in any temporally powerful form. Rather, they had to be reinvented each time by their inheritors-- who were also simultaneously facing a fight for survival against tremendous odds, a pressure that undeniably contributed to shaping the contours of their reinvention.

Over considerable intervals of time, Dharmic thought survived and was transmitted only through such spiritual and cultural agents as the Bhakti movement—and in a later interregnum the Ramakrishna Mission, Arya Samaj, and lakhs of smaller “mathas” across the land. The Marathas recovered temporal power from the Mughals but did not “conserve” Hindu political thought—they revived it. The modern Indian nation-state, likewise, was not bequeathed a dharmic system of governance and political self-identification to carry forward; it was merely given the opportunity to resurrect one from the deeper legacy of cultural and spiritual traditions that endured beneath the radar of British rule.

That this mantle of opportunity was finally taken up only by the BJP makes them not a “conservative” party—it makes them, if anything, a “revivalist” one. I think that is a key point of difference between the BJP and the Christian Democrats or Conservatives you’ve described in Europe.

I agree with your thesis that they do occupy a functionally similar space in their respective national cultures, and moreover that the “Hindu Democrat” label is an effective way of communicating the parallel with “Christian Democrat” parties in the present context. However, the above has been my (very long) answer to why I’m uncomfortable using “liberal conservative”. I think that term elides the serial experiences of colonialism and attempted cultural erasure that we have, thank all the Gods, managed to survive and overcome. And those experiences surely contribute to defining who we are as much as anything that came before.

[Suraj]

Rudradev boss, there's space for everyone's perspectives. Your post is wasted here - write your own perspective on Swarajya, and I'm sure there are several people who would help get your words out

[OmkarC]

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/30/mo ... rsus-poor/

Rare article in western media supporting Modi's farm policy..

=============
India’s Rich Farmers Are Holding Up Reforms Designed to Help the Poor
Don’t listen to the activists. Millions of Indian farmers will benefit from Modi’s new laws.

BY SALVATORE BABONES | MARCH 30, 2021, 3:41 AM

In 2018, tens of thousands of poor farmers flooded cities all across India calling for government action to ease their difficult lives. Their immediate demands were higher prices for their output and loan waivers for their debts. With elections looming in 2019, pundits predicted serious problems at the polls for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Modi offered the farmers limited price supports but held the line on loan waivers. Instead, he promised to implement structural reforms after the election. The opposition Indian National Congress countered with a promise to “waive all farm loans” across the entire country—an expensive solution decried by economists as a populist magic wand.

When the test came, Modi’s BJP won in a landslide. One year later, the Modi government finally responded to farmers’ concerns with structural reforms intended to permanently raise agricultural incomes by giving farmers access to better prices from wider markets beyond their home districts—that is, with the 2020 farm acts. Rammed through the Indian Parliament in September on voice votes with little opportunity for proper legislative scrutiny, the three bills sparked pandemonium in the upper house. But that was nothing compared with the scenes in the streets.

Though opinion polls document broad popular support for Modi’s farm reforms, they have drawn some of India’s richest farmers onto the streets of Delhi and into the world’s media spotlight. That’s right: India’s better-off farmers, or at least farmers from those parts of India with the largest farms and the highest farm incomes.

Despite what activists and Western celebrities supporting the protests would have us believe, most of those who’ve been protesting the new laws since September aren’t drawn from the ranks of marginalized subsistence farmers driven by debt and despair to the edge of suicide. They represent instead the politically powerful (and heavily subsidized) remnants of India’s traditional landlord caste. These farmers fear that the laws will help large agribusinesses undermine the current state-directed system for buying farm produce and ultimately lead to the dismantling of the price support system on which they depend. They are demanding that the government repeal the reforms and guarantee the future of price supports.

Modi’s reforms aim to transform Indian agriculture from a locally managed rural economy into a modern national industry.
At the center of the controversy are Modi’s three new farm laws. The first allows farmers to sell their produce outside their local area if they think they can get a better price than that offered by their local government-run markets. The second (and most controversial) allows farmers to engage in contract farming by selling their produce in advance—a widespread practice in the West but sensitive in India because of the potential for abuse. The third allows private distributors to set up large-scale warehouse operations without fear of being prosecuted for hoarding food.

The overall goal of the reforms is to transform Indian agriculture from a locally managed rural economy into a modern national industry. They will allow small farmers to specialize in niche crops that can be marketed nationwide through large-scale wholesalers. They will also create new risks, as farmers are transformed into entrepreneurs. Neither the risks nor the rewards will immediately affect the livelihoods of the protesting farmers. Their subsidies and support structures will remain in place, at least for now. But the reforms will upset rural hierarchies and undermine traditional ways of life—thus threatening the power base of a group that has dominated northwest India’s politics for more than two centuries.

Delhi’s farm protesters mainly hail from the Jat community, a caste group that spans northwest India and eastern Pakistan, covering the entire area of the old Punjab province of India before Partition. The Jats were historically an agricultural and military caste, analogous to the yeoman farmers of medieval England. In modern India, that association persists, whether or not individual Jats work in agriculture. Jats are mainly concentrated in Haryana (where they are predominantly Hindu) and Punjab (where they are predominantly Sikh), while most Muslim Jats now live in Pakistan.

Jats make up a relatively small proportion of India’s total population, but their concentration in Haryana and Punjab, and their association with the land, makes them locally powerful in these two states. Modern democratic India does not report population data by caste, but Hindu Jats are believed to constitute roughly one-quarter of the population of Haryana, while Sikh Jats make up a little more than one-fifth of the population of Punjab. In both states, Jats form the single largest caste group.

It has been estimated that Jats own roughly three-fourths or four-fifths of all agricultural land in Haryana and eastern Punjab, respectively. Nearly all medium- and large-scale farmers in both states are reputed to belong to the Jat community. The farm protesters’ claim to have mobilized 200,000 tractors for their Republic Day rally on Jan. 26 confirms the prevalence of relatively large-scale farmers among the protesters, given that few Indian farmers own enough land to practice mechanized agriculture. Even today, the typical Indian farmer is still 10 times more likely to own a bullock than a tractor.

Farm incomes in Punjab and Haryana are the highest in India, with the average farmer in these states earning more than twice the national average and nearly three times as much as their neighbors in nearby Uttar Pradesh. They also garner the lion’s share of government support. More than 90 percent of their cropland is covered by heavily subsidized irrigation. And the government buys almost the entire output of Punjab and Haryana farmers at minimum support prices that are set far above market levels. The results are huge and growing official stockpiles of wheat and rice, much of which ends up being given away to the country’s poor—or simply rotting in place.

The Jat farmers of Punjab and Haryana have long lobbied India’s government to maintain an agricultural system that is both economically wasteful and environmentally destructive. And why shouldn’t they? India is a democracy, and in a democracy, the squeaky wheel gets the grease—and the subsidies. The fact that India’s richest farmers are vocally demonstrating for policies that secure their livelihoods should come as no surprise. And the fact that they have convinced international celebrities and activists like Rihanna, Greta Thunberg, and Meena Harris to take up their cause is perhaps a bit odd but nonetheless impressive.

But when authoritative Western media outlets uncritically buy in to the “poor farmers” narrative, the result is pure misinformation. Articles suggesting that the BJP’s new farm laws threaten the livelihoods of as many as 800 million people must wrestle with the reality that in a country where 52 percent of the working population is engaged in agriculture, only 6 percent of the population actively disapprove of Modi’s performance in office. On the theory that most people—and especially poor people—are keenly aware of how government policies affect their pocketbooks, the default assumption must be that most Indian farmers believe that the new laws will actually help them, not hurt them.

The farmers converging on New Delhi should be leading the reforms, not protesting them.
India’s poorest farmers need the reforms because most of them do not have access to the high levels of government subsidies that benefit the larger-scale Jat farmers of Haryana and Punjab. Forced to sell to local middlemen at spot prices, they lack options for marketing their produce outside their home districts. They also lack access to financing and futures markets, management tools that most Western farmers take for granted. The new laws are designed to address these problems while maintaining minimum support prices for the relatively small number of farmers who actually receive them.

Yet the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of farmers (no one knows the true number) have swarmed the nation’s capital, blocking roads, camping out, and sometimes clashing with police. They have persisted in the face of official condemnation and the threat of coronavirus infection. They have found ways to organize and communicate even after the government tried to dampen the protests by shutting down mobile phone and internet networks. They have even risked the possibility of sedition charges carrying lengthy prison terms. What could motivate so many people to brave so much hardship if not a threat they see as truly dangerous?

But it’s not the threat to their livelihoods that has brought the Jats out into the streets. It’s the threat to their political power. The BJP’s farm reforms will empower smaller, poorer, lower-caste groups by giving them new outlets for their produce that circumvent long-established channels. The position of the Jats in Haryana and Punjab may be secure for now, but in a generation or two the reforms could transform them from a coddled agricultural aristocracy into a welfare-dependent rural peasantry. Their natural inclination is to try to stop the clock of liberalization—and if possible to turn it back. A better solution would be for them to find a way out of the cycle of dependence in which they are now trapped.

The traditional Jat landholders of Haryana and Punjab may be well-off by the standards of rural India, but they find themselves increasingly marginalized in India’s rapidly modernizing society. At a time when increasing numbers of lower-caste and outcaste urbanites are joining the 21st-century information economy, Jat farmers are being left behind on the farm. Reflecting this, Jat activists have even lobbied for the caste to be recognized as an official “backward class,” meriting affirmative action in university admissions and government employment. Coddled in a government subsidy bubble, their continued prosperity increasingly depends on maintaining a political dominance that is slowly slipping away.

In a vain effort to assuage the protesters’ fears, Modi has offered to put the reforms on hold for 18 months. That won’t help anyone—least of all the protesting Jats. A better solution would be to incorporate into the reforms a transition plan that offers the better-off farmers of Haryana and Punjab a route forward into the 21st-century market economy. These farmers lead the country in mechanization and employ millions of migrant laborers from neighboring states. They have the modern managerial know-how that Indian agriculture needs to succeed. They should be leading reforms, not protesting them. The challenge for Modi and the BJP is to find a way to bring them on board.

[chetak]

the eyetalians have neither wished nor inquired

the maha vasooli aghadi relationship must be very strained.

Sharad Pawar@PawarSpeaks · Mar 29

Thank you Honourable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji for your good wishes for my speedy recovery!

@PMOIndia

[vijayk]

the eyetalians have neither wished nor inquired

the maha vasooli aghadi relationship must be very strained.

Sharad Pawar@PawarSpeaks · Mar 29

Thank you Honourable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji for your good wishes for my speedy recovery!

@PMOIndia

Pappu busy teaching aikido martial skills to young 16 years old girls in TN/KL. He has no interest in Pawar.

$onia isko shaadi pehle karna tha

[ramana]

You need to look at the state's history before Modi and think about after Modi. In states where the Congress ecosystem is intact, they will remain a force to be reckoned with. MH was a bastion of Congress, NCP has weakened them but not eliminated them completely. Pawar is 80 yrs old, both BJP and INC will benefit after he is gone but the later more than the former because they have the same roots and have been in coalition for 3 governments now. The history, the intact infrastructure, the deep pockets , the ability to still draw dividends from decades of corruption is the reason INC came so close to winning GJ in 2017, won MP in 2018, will almost definitely win KAR, PJ and HR in 2023 and 2024. GJ 2017 and MP 2018 should be a wake up call for Amit Shah, if you want to completely eliminate INC then destroy their infrastructure from APMC to zilla panchayats to the assembly. If not then be prepared for them to rise their head again.

Wanted to respond to this over the weekend but was out Ambar Saar. I think there is a little naivete on your and probably some other poster like darshan saar, if you think the BJP will go after the existing ecosystem to finish it. One can go after networks untill a certain level before the blowback/counter consolidation starts taking place. we can debate about how illegal liqor flows in GJ, but the money from that goes to feed many mouths, many of whom will be foot soldiers for shaeenbagh kind of activities.

Also if there are only two poles in a state it is very difficult to finish the other side off as the opposition will always linger until they have a good opportunity to come back. the two poles often have communities that have had enmity since decades/generations that meeting will not be possible under normal circumstances. so if one has the power the other will align with the opposite side. After all, even the Hindus are not always united to vote for their interests. they have their respective caste, reservations and assorted issues which have higher priority than Hindu causes. India after independence had majorly two poles- congress and communists.
The communists eventually lost power in most states after people grew tired of them and also congress tried to break them. One other major reason was the rise of state based parties that drew people who didn't want to vote for congress or the communists and they formed their govt eventually absorbing the anti congress/communist vote bank. Now with the rise of BJP we also see the same that its either the congress or state based parties that are staring at oblivion.
one of the recent example from gujarat municipal elections is that in Surat the Patirdars have shifted their vote to Aap. Now would the jhaadu party be better than congress, time will tell but its rise could weaken congress very badly and help BJP or it might pose bigger problems for BJP, as the muzzies can always go back to supporting the congress and uber educated woke crowds in the next generation could turn Aapias and that will leave very small segment with the BJP.
My guess is BJP as a party is also working to modernize itself and not be seen as just a Ram mandir issue based party (atleast going by the reporting in secular newspapers). so they are trying to widen their base by getting the other set of people who have opposed them traditionally. it might involve giving them more grants in education and that might lead to some bitter taste for the Hindus who are looking for some payback.

Or as Edward Luttwak write the logic of strategy is
Excessive power always evokes counter power.

[Vips]

the eyetalians have neither wished nor inquired

the maha vasooli aghadi relationship must be very strained.

Sharad Pawar@PawarSpeaks · Mar 29

Thank you Honourable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji for your good wishes for my speedy recovery!

@PMOIndia

I was hoping this shithead was going to kick the bucket to meet his share of 72 sex starved mullahs in hell.

[ramana]

He is seeking elective surgery to avoid campaigning in Bengal, TN, and Kerala.

Thinks that will save him from Chitragupta.

[vijayk]

Abhishek @AbhishBanerj

Fascinating conversation between Rajdeep Sardesai and Pratap Bhanu Mehta.
They discussed 100 theories on why this or that civil society protest against Modi is not getting traction.
The only theory they did not consider is that Modi might actually be popular.

[Ambar]

Pawar won't make a move until the results are out. If BJP and its allies win big in May, then the demise of MVA is possible within the next few months given the unpopularity of the current regime but if the results are not in favor of BJP, then Pawar has nothing to lose by staying in the government for another 2 yrs or so.

[Santosh]

Sanjeev Newar संजीव नेवर @SanjeevSanskrit 1h
Yes Hindus are depleting in numbers. Because most resourceful intellectual Hindus waste time and energy fighting overrated media crooks, while focus must be on fighting missionaries and Jihadis on ground.

We need to get out of comfort zones.

Sanjeev Newar is founder of Agniveer group. They are doing great job fighting rabid Islamists and conversions. Please support them.

[chetak]

He is seeking elective surgery to avoid campaigning in Bengal, TN, and Kerala.

Thinks that will save him from Chitragupta.

+108.

as slimy as ever.

doesn't want to be seen supporting a sinking ship.

or the blowback from the maha vikas aghadi collection fiasco may have cooled the ardour of the parties to have someone like this canvassing for them.

the BJP would make mincemeat of 12mati and serve him up for breakfast

[Sachin]

Big breather for India Inc as govt defers implementation of labour codes
The labour ministry is ready with the rules on four codes and will notify them once some states are ready with rules in their domain. So far, only Jammu and Kashmir has notified Rules for the codes while states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh have put up draft Rules for two Codes while Karnataka has put it up for one Code.

Hoping for non-BJP states to put up all the Rules will be a very far fetched idea and Central Govt. will have to wait till 'cows come home'. Was'nt this thought off when planning for the new labour codes? Or is it because of a thought that Central Govt do not want to antagonize one more large group of people?

[chetak]

pappu's got married or what

judging by the facial expressions, it looks like a shotgun wedding

[chetak]

मोगॅम्बो खुश हुआ

ill advised night curfew in MAH from March 28

no mention of bars so maha vasooli may go on as usual

[darshan]

GoI needs to have better rules and regulations. Especially with every incident Google needs to be looked into for failing to verify. Google can stop checking for fake news and verify what needs to be verified first. Google's for profit company that needs to be made to provide quality services.

Payment companies also need to be made to provide more education to customers. I always advise people to keep multiple bank accounts. Always keep the minimum money in account associated with payment services.

Online fraud through misleading search result on Google; a person in Gujarat loses Rs. 2.45 lakh
https://www.deshgujarat.com/2021/03/30/ ... 2-45-lakh/
Misleading results in Google Search are causing increasing number of cyber-frauds these days. In one such recently emerged cyber fraud in Ahmedabad, total amount of Rs 244993 /- was debited from a person’s bank account after calling a fake customer care number of PhonePe application found from Google search.

[Kati]

Bengal's Redemption

https://drishtikone.news/p/insightful-n ... p3u4vzFH8Q

[ramana]

In GDF we still have a thread started by RayC.


Bengal's long nightmare started with Curzon and his Partition of Bengal in 1905.

[IndraD]

eye opening, explosive!

[nandakumar]

eye opening, explosive!

IndraD
I could follow in bits and pieces what that lady is saying. Could you sum up in a few sentences the thrust of her arguments?
Thanks.