2021 Strategic and Political Analysis-1

[chetak]

BCCI is run by Sourav who was a out and out commie. I have full confidence that this was done under his able guidance.

if it is truly so, then what was jay shah doing

[Pratyush]

Who is Jay Shah and what is his claim to fame?

[Sachin]

Who is Jay Shah and what is his claim to fame?

Jay Shah s/o Amit Shah - that is his claim to flame. Don't know if he has even played cricket when at school .

[kvraghav]

BCCI is run by Sourav who was a out and out commie. I have full confidence that this was done under his able guidance.

if it is truly so, then what was jay shah doing

He is the secretary and Saurav is his president. B/W we have to understand that BJP is a collection of individuals whose only aim is self progress. Once they achieve that, they do not really care about the party or other supporters. The congress is a ecosystem and the only agenda is to ensure that every small cog in the wheel is fully protected. Look at Sameer Wankhede now, the guns are out for Mumbai police to arrest and jail him while Amit shah has the capability to Jail the CM, but nothing happens. This is how BJP ecosystems are never built up.

[Tanaji]

BJP internal actions are mainly for show and do lack substance. From CAA to lack of action on Bengal violence, BJP is happy to let its supporters die and wont lift a finger to save them.

A 2 bit party which is more of an organised gang than a political party openly threatens an officer of the central government. How many representatives does NCP and Sena have in LS? Contrast that with 303… yet is BJP that runs scared…

[chetak]

if it is truly so, then what was jay shah doing

He is the secretary and Saurav is his president. B/W we have to understand that BJP is a collection of individuals whose only aim is self progress. Once they achieve that, they do not really care about the party or other supporters. The congress is a ecosystem and the only agenda is to ensure that every small cog in the wheel is fully protected. Look at Sameer Wankhede now, the guns are out for Mumbai police to arrest and jail him while Amit shah has the capability to Jail the CM, but nothing happens. This is how BJP ecosystems are never built up.

practical politics works very differently from what many here seem to imagine

With the pandemic and elections, and china and the world economy being what it is, open and in your face confrontation is not on the agenda of this govt.

the congis, commies, onion merchants, and the sorry sainiks have been reduced marginalized, and diminished, and infrastructure work not done for the past 70+ years is proceeding apace. Social changes have taken place, people are now aware of what governance is and what an Indian bred, non foreign educated leader can do and is doing

If this not to the liking of many, just imagine the pandemic, lockdown, economy and the panic stricken shaheenbagh, farmer's agitation onslaught of the opposition, BIF and the izl@mo facist khalistanis, all singularly designed to precipitate major crises and bring down death, destruction massive law and order issues for the Modi govt

If the RSS is not an ecosystem and dedicated ideological people, democratically rising from the lower cadres to the very top as leaders then show us where else is the "ecosystem"

show us another such parallel anywhere in the world, as well as the discipline of these selfless people

the congi party was set up by the britshits and the first five congi chiefs were WHITE ( even as late as the early 20th century ). Do you imagine that the britshits set up the congis to benefit themselves or the Indian slaves that they were accustomed to ruling. The current congi chief is WHITE

Does there exist another white butt licking non white country in the whole wide world which would tolerate (or be brainwashed to tolerate) such a vile and monstrous corruption of "leadership" not from its among its own people and native stock

is it the WHITE agenda to protect Indians or themselves.

If at all there is any "ecosystem", its sole objective is and always has been the protection of WHITE/famiglia rights

have some people been caught in a time warp

the pakis and the beedis have already have the NRC, and it will happen in India too.

CAA will also happen just like 370 and 35A happened which paki cashmeris and the pakis as well said could NEVER happen. Farm laws also happened all because of the "ecosystem"

[Sachin]

B/W we have to understand that BJP is a collection of individuals whose only aim is self progress.

BJP internal actions are mainly for show and do lack substance. From CAA to lack of action on Bengal violence, BJP is happy to let its supporters die and wont lift a finger to save them.

In states like Kerala, BJP managed to get a toe-hold only because of RSS. And even RSS cadre admit that BJP 'leadership' are nincompoops who have no clue on politics. BJP 'leaders' in Kerala survive only because others have some fear of RSS. And looks like that is now the case in many other states as well. Where as an organisation like RSS have more grass root connects, BJP leadership at times is basically very 'Congress-like'. Completed reading the book NDTV Frauds V2.0, and it clearly shows how some BJP leaders (Jaitley is a prime example) who were supporting many shady operators (including NDTV) and was in close contacts with folks in Congress.

[chetak]

B/W we have to understand that BJP is a collection of individuals whose only aim is self progress.

BJP internal actions are mainly for show and do lack substance. From CAA to lack of action on Bengal violence, BJP is happy to let its supporters die and wont lift a finger to save them.

In states like Kerala, BJP managed to get a toe-hold only because of RSS. And even RSS cadre admit that BJP 'leadership' are nincompoops who have no clue on politics. BJP 'leaders' in Kerala survive only because others have some fear of RSS. And looks like that is now the case in many other states as well. Where as an organisation like RSS have more grass root connects, BJP leadership at times is basically very 'Congress-like'. Completed reading the book NDTV Frauds V2.0, and it clearly shows how some BJP leaders (Jaitley is a prime example) who were supporting many shady operators (including NDTV) and was in close contacts with folks in Congress.

jetlee was among the very few who were trusted to help the top non dilli leadership in navigating the lootyens dilli cabals, sidestep land mines laid by the BIF, help out with the track thoo efforts not only of the cross border variety but also the desert cult varieties which was used by the BIF in ruling the roost in dilli because of easy access to vast resources of soft power and the unlimited facilities for private advancement that they were accustomed to providing because it was always so much easier for them to simply pay off the babooze/politicos in cash or kind or visas and ivy league admissions or fund wife/daughter run NGOs.

obviously, a man of such rare abilities will not pick public fights with someone white waisty, for example.

there is something to be said for nonattributable, nuanced contact, credible deniability and non quotable discussions and jetlee knew his way around these lootyens labyrinths and the shady movers and shakers who spun their cobwebs of intrigue and knew how to smooth out the rough waves of dissent from rising to unmanageable levels.

Now, the BJP has no more need for such interlocutors because the MAD trio is well clued in.

[Ambar]

In typical Jaggi fashion he argues why fuel prices should be cut but goes on spending 90% of the article arguing why it should not be cut !

Soaring prices of petrol and diesel have become a major sore point in political and media circles. That the biggest proportion of the final retail price is accounted for by central and state taxes goes without saying. What needs saying is whether this level of taxation is justified in the context of India’s overdependence on imported crude, the need to maintain government revenues at reasonable levels during a pandemic, and the longer-term need to non-fossil-based fuels during a period of rapid climate change. (You can read the broader reasoning for retaining high petroleum taxes here)

Some arguments need demolition immediately. Former finance minister P Chidambaram says a 33 per cent share of central taxes in petrol prices is “extortion”. He said: ''One third of the price of petrol that consumers pay is a tax to the central government, so, a 33 percent taxation on any commodity is extortion.”

Obviously, he lives on another planet. Under the goods and services tax regime, the highest rate of duty is 28 per cent, but many items considered to be “luxury” goods are levied a cess over and above that. So, many products, including high-priced SUVs, will be taxed at well above Chidambaram’s “extortion” limit of 33 per cent.

Secondly, it is a bit rich to presume that the charge of extortion, especially in revenue-deficit Covid times, should not equally apply to states. Unlike central excise, states levy an ad valorem sales tax, which means the tax element rises along with petrol prices.

According to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) that is attached to the Union Petroleum Ministry, the Centre raised Rs 3.72 lakh crore through excise duties in fiscal 2020-21, while states raised Rs 2.17 lakh crore. The net tax contribution to the Centre is, however, higher at Rs 4.19 lakh crore, but this includes shareable taxes like customs duties, where revenues are shared with states. The comparable numbers are thus the controllable numbers like excise and state sales taxes. Out of the amount of Rs 590,240 crore collected as central excise and state sales taxes, 63 per cent goes to the Centre and 37 per cent to states.

But this proportion is changing, as state taxes are ad valorem. As petroleum prices rise, state revenues will be rising faster than substantially fixed-duty central excise. In the first quarter this year (April-June 2021), PPAC estimates that excise accounted for 54 per cent of total revenues collected (excluding customs, cess, royalty, and IGST and some minor heads), lower than 2020-21’s 63 per cent. The share of states in petro-taxes is rising with global prices trends.

What pump prices are reflecting now — per litre prices have crossed the psychologically important reference point of Rs 100 per litre for diesel and petrol — is largely the rise in global crude prices, which have more than doubled from $40 per barrel around this time last year to around $86 for Brent crude. India’s crude supplies are benchmarked to Brent. The truth is pump prices have not risen as fast as Brent crude prices this year.

The real questions are: how much can taxes be cut to provide real relief to consumers, and is this worth the revenue loss?

The short answer is that a cut of, say, Rs 5 or Rs 10 in central and state taxes will not fully filter through sustainably to consumers if crude prices keep rising.

Critics of India’s high-taxation policies tend to compare Indian pump prices with those in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where prices are 25-40 per cent lower, with Pakistan being one of the lowest. But two of these three countries are already basket cases and they won’t be able to sustain their lower petrol prices (Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

But there is another comparison to be made, with major west European countries and Japan. According to a Reuters report dated 22 October, in dollar terms (converted at approximately current exchange rates), India’s petrol price is $1.43 a litre, lower than $1.44 in Japan, $1.8 in France and $1.94 in the United Kingdom.

Clearly, India’s high-tax policy in a fuel that has fairly inelastic demand is not a complete outlier.

However, since high fuel prices can lead to a reduction in consumer demand as fuel costs take up a disproportionate share of monthly household and corporate budgets, there are two things India can do to contain the damage. But even this will not be enough if Brent continues to soar. High taxes are, in fact, political insurance for most governments. If crude prices soar, say to $100 or more, they will then have some fiscal space to sacrifice revenues and provide relief to consumers.

The two things that India can do immediately are these:

One, states should shift to a fixed rate of sales tax (or a combination of low ad valorem rates and specific additional sales tax), so that revenues are protected and prices don’t rise exponentially.

Two, in lieu of this sacrifice, the Centre can offer a dollop of its non-sharable petro-tax revenues with states, so that both states and Centre share overall petroleum revenues 50:50 in future. Currently, large parts of the additional excise duties levied by the Centre are not shared with states.

This is one way forward, and not mindless reductions in petro-taxes which can damage state and central finances when they need it the most — to meet Covid-related costs.

Jagannathan is Editorial Director, Swarajya. He tweets at @TheJaggi.

[banrjeer]

That knee bend clumsy as it was seemed like deliberate attempt at building woke for god knows what reason. I don’t watch cricket anymore but was this loss genuine? Were the priors wins genuine for that matter? Please enlighten.

[Tanaji]

Despite what people say its difficult to throw matches at this level these days. Back in Azharuddin - Ajay Jadeja days, definitely it was being done. Now it is quite tough, with the repeated education of players, the scrutiny and the anti corruption squad that follows the teams. Is it 100% above board? Not sure, but I haven’t seen credible reports of it happening these days… conspiracy theories abound though.

[AkshaySG]

*mods feel free to move this to Sports thread if OT*

Yes the kneeling is pretty terrible optics considering what is going on in this country but I wouldn't call BCCI pro commie just for that, There's been just as many instances of BCCI and the team coming out pro government or pro Modi for that matter, Christening the stadium as Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, cricketers Coming out against the toolkit and enforcing Indian sovereignty, Putting pressure on other countries to stop touring Pak etc etc


As much as Indian Cricket has improved over the past few decades we're not some invincible force of nature that can never be defeated.

All these calls for match fixing every time India loses 1 game is honestly just weird.

If we can go wild after the unrealistic comebacks at Lords and Gabba then we should also be able to swallow a loss like yesterday

Its not even that hard to figure out why we lost some of these games, Indian batsmen always have issues with the moving ball especially from a left arm quick and they rarely face quality Left arm pace to overcome that.

New Zealand and Pak have exploited that weakness multiple times in the past few years and we have lost some important games.

[Ambar]

Like it or not the Pakis were a better team yesterday, they have fixed their bowling and their batting and will be favorites going into future games.

As for the kneeling, this is some PR agency's wokeism which made BCCI ill-advise the team to kneel down. Atleast they stood when the national anthem was being played.

The crackers which reverberated across India is a sad reminder how deep our faultlines run, and how childishly simple it is for our enemies to exploit them. Lets just be glad that by the time Indian team returns home Diwali and Karwa Chauth will be over , so Kohli and Anushka won't have to lecture us on gender equality, patriarchy and environmentalism. Also glad that the Lankans kicked east pakis in the gonads, it was good to be on Bangla cricket forum last evening !

[ritesh]

The pain is felt by taxi drivers so much that they are petitioning the Govt to set standard rates for standard distances within cities (& peg it to fuel prices), so that aggregators like Ola don't fleece them.

This stupidity is a potential election-loser (not just a vote loser). Hope BJP's prospects in upcoming elections doesn't get screwed over by the MoF babus. We are still not there as a country, where we can have free-market fuel prices. It will take time.

bangalore had meter+xx price...i think that xx would go up..not sure about mumbai and other cities..but in delhi most autos/taxis are on cng

In mumbai, 100% taxi and rickshaw run on cng while their rate card is decided as per petrol prices. Before cng, they used to import used Toyota Isuzu diesel engines and retro fit in their padminis and ambassadors.

[ritesh]

However, may I pls add that their was a large chunk of leisure travel fuelled by less than optimum and subsidize prices wherein people used used to boast in forums like tbhp of going for a drive in the middle of night from posh Thane localities all the way to Haji Ali just to drink juice from a over rated outlet or how soth Bombay people going all the way to Mahabaleshwar or drive to Pune expressway for speed thrills. I believe it is the category of people who are making most noises as they are unable to adjust to new realities.

This is a very very small portion of leisure travel component for a country of India's size and even these people generate revenue. This is an absolutely absurd way to cut off one's nose, so to speak, to spite off the leisure travel sector. This is prime commie economics level kind of thinking that will get us no where.

What else can can you deduce when vehicles like creta, chip shortage notwithstanding to still command 8-10 months waiting period?

That means there is demand and to create policies to cut off demand, rather then to increase production will for sure result in keeping us achieving our potential. How is this sound economic logic? I confess that I do not know GOI's reasoning behind this and I'm only responding to your reasons for the increase.

What seems to have happened is govt has come to realisation that fuel demand has become inelastic and irrespective of prices demand will be there. Something similar to liquor and tobacco. So unless people can come out of this addiction, nothing can be done.

What..this is crazy that you are equating our dependence on fuel for growth is similar to a drug. Do you also equate our dependence on food and formulate policies to produce less crop yield? Do you know of one country that do not use fuel to grow their economy? I hope you or some one like you is no where near the decision making apparatus.

And Modi knows this and his adminstration is exploiting this, hope to the benefit of overall development of our country.

I have no idea what the end result will be, but the pain in certainly felt by the common man.

Not trying to stretch my point, but here we go. Pasting below link for reference https://m.timesofindia.com/city/kolkata ... 153970.cms

My guessimate is that at least 1 in 2 car owners indulges in such kind of leisure activity in varied frequency, to the overall detriment of our economy which is 70% dependent on oil imports.

[banrjeer]

*mods feel free to move this to Sports thread if OT*

Yes the kneeling is pretty terrible optics considering what is going on in this country but I wouldn't call BCCI pro commie just for that, There's been just as many instances of BCCI and the team coming out pro government or pro Modi for that matter, Christening the stadium as Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, cricketers Coming out against the toolkit and enforcing Indian sovereignty, Putting pressure on other countries to stop touring Pak etc etc


As much as Indian Cricket has improved over the past few decades we're not some invincible force of nature that can never be defeated.

All these calls for match fixing every time India loses 1 game is honestly just weird.

If we can go wild after the unrealistic comebacks at Lords and Gabba then we should also be able to swallow a loss like yesterday

Its not even that hard to figure out why we lost some of these games, Indian batsmen always have issues with the moving ball especially from a left arm quick and they rarely face quality Left arm pace to overcome that.

New Zealand and Pak have exploited that weakness multiple times in the past few years and we have lost some important games.

This is so much more than a sports thread. Why even hold the match? why throw the dog a bone(apologizes in advance to all dogs). From a data collection effort on SM. Such an event has intangible value. a referendum on wokeness , on how the valley will vote , how UP will vote.... a network graph of SM handles, harvest so many whitelist and blacklist entires...

Not concerned by the win or loss.

[banrjeer]

are the babus analyzing the data? Other already are. Was this just for short term profit making?

[Karan M]

My guessimate is that at least 1 in 2 car owners indulges in such kind of leisure activity in varied frequency, to the overall detriment of our economy which is 70% dependent on oil imports.

Man doesnt survive on bread alone. You want people to remain in India and thrive, you've to allow them the capacity to enjoy their existence. Or anyone who gets a decent level of skills will emigrate.

[Hari Seldon]

Man doesnt survive on bread alone. You want people to remain in India and thrive, you've to allow them the capacity to enjoy their existence. Or anyone who gets a decent level of skills will emigrate.

+1.

Our hill states and parts of the NE are primarily tourism driven. What's tourism if not some sorta 'leisure activity'?

Happy to see the NE side infra push. Hoping NE will open bigtime to desi tourists from all parts of India. Nothing integrates India better than shared rupee based prosperity in all nooks and corners of the country. Only.

[Haresh]

https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news ... -rindsberg

NYT’s coverage of India is almost Orientalist: Ashley Rindsberg

The New York Times did not cover the Holocaust. They published six front page articles in six years, about history’s most horrendous and heinous mechanised genocide. That’s insane.’

American author Ashley Rindsberg’s book, The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’s Misreporting, Distortions & Fabrications Radically Alter History, is a meticulously researched, scathing scrutiny of what is published as news by arguably the world’s most influential newspaper. Rindsberg, who is currently based in Israel, spoke with The Sunday Guardian. Excerpts:

Q: What made you think of writing this book?

A: It was really sort of happenstance where I was reading this book by William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, where there was a footnote saying that the New York Times reported on the eve of World War Two that Poland or Polish forces had invaded Germany and sort of given Germany licence to retaliate, at least initially. So I started to research what happened there. And that led me to look deeper into what was going on more generally in Berlin in the 30s, with the New York Times, and their Berlin bureau. And the more I looked into it, the worse it got—praising the Berlin Olympics as the great est sporting event of all time, characterising Hitler as an unselfish patriot, reassuring readers time after time, that there was nothing to fear in Hitler, and that he was likely to just fizzle out or retire, just become irrelevant.

Again, this was like a deep pattern. So you know, you get to this combination in that particular episode, where learning that the Nazis really favoured the reporting coming out of the New York Times bureau in Berlin. And the reason was because the Times bureau chief, Guido Enderis was a Nazi sympathiser, and Nazi collaborator, he actually worked with them. That was something that was on record. And that was something that the New York Times management and ownership were made aware of. And they threatened to sue the whistleblower in response. So it just got worse and worse and worse. And once I started really getting deep into that chapter, I wanted to know more, I wanted to understand. We all know about Walter Duranty, the infamous New York Times Russia correspondent who covered up the Ukraine famine. I wanted to know what really happened. Why would a journalist deny the biggest scoop of a decade? Why would he walk away from that? It doesn’t make sense. The story about it was he just acted alone. From some whimsy he wanted to deny there was a famine in Ukraine. Why? It just snowballed like that. It’s like, you start to see that the pattern is the New York Times had a hand in these major historical episodes, it played a role in at least 10 (episodes) that are in the book, and now, another one that’s emerging, the lab leak.

Q: When I was reading the Nazi Germany chapter, I was constantly being reminded of how New York Times, in fact, not just New York Times, several other mainstream American publications are covering China. The resemblance is quite stark. Would you agree to that?

A: Yes, definitely. And I would say the comparison is relevant not only to the chapter on Nazi Germany, but also the chapter on the Soviet Union. The New York Times really seeing a market in or being part of a business consortium that saw enormous market in the industrialising Soviet Union in the 1930s, and wanted to make that potential into a business reality. And that is why when I come back to that question of, why would Walter Duranty cover up a famine? Why would he give up the scoop of a lifetime? The reason was because the New York Times needed that to be the case. Because this was a time when the Soviet Union was a 16-year-old regime, it was a violent regime, had come to power through the violent overthrow of the previous government. Their legitimacy was still in question, the US had not recognised the regime. And there came a point that major business forces in the US were pushing for that recognition to take place. So the US would formally recognise the Soviets as the legitimate government of Russia. And that would establish trade ties; that would establish this opportunity to access a market of at least, at the time, 150 million people that was the fastest industrialising nation in the world at the time.

But you could never convince the American people that it was a legitimate move to recognise these people, if they had just murdered 5 million of their own people. Stalin murdered five to seven million people in order to consolidate power in Russia in the early days, and he did it by engineering a famine in the Ukraine, in part. And the New York Times helped make that go away by just denying it. They’re the most influential newspaper out there. Walter Duranty was the most influential Russia correspondent in the US, if not the world. And by denying not only that it was happening, but denying the legitimacy of other reporters who were saying there was a famine, they were able to just create enough space for Franklin Delano Roosevelt to say, okay, let’s move ahead. Actually, Duranty personally advised FDR to proceed with recognition in an in-person meeting with FDR that was on the record. So they had this incentive to be pushing for US recognition of the Soviet Union. And it was a major stumbling block if Stalin had just murdered 5 million people as he had, so they removed it.

Q: What do you think of New York Times’s coverage of China and Xi Jinping?

A: I think it’s the same way you look at the facts, you know, you look at the reporting, let’s say in the case of the Uyghurs. If you just go into the New York Times archive, and type in Uyghur, you’re gonna see, 10 or 12 articles over the last year, and almost none of them are actual reporting on the Uyghurs themselves, on the situation, on what they’re enduring, on the mechanism of the genocide. Who are the people involved? Who are the high ranking government officials that are perpetrating this? We have reporting about the effect that it has on H&M and Zara and China. We have reporting that is very indirect, very fluffy, like what it is doing to diplomatic relations with Japan. And that’s exactly what happened during the Holocaust. The New York Times did not cover the Holocaust. They would bury tiny little stories about the murder of 600,000 Jews in Poland or Russia. They would keep it off the front page. They published six front page articles in six years, about history’s most horrendous and heinous mechanised genocide—the first mechanised genocide. That’s insane. So when we think about the Uyghurs, you are saying where is the front page coverage? Where’s the actual reporting? We are seeing the same effect with lab leak.

Why was the New York Times so invested in discrediting the lab leak from the very beginning? From February of 2020, when we barely knew there was a pandemic circulating around the world, they were already discrediting the lab leak as a conspiracy theory and they were calling it racist. For the next year and a half they pursued that one (the racist theory). Why would they prefer this? Why not explore the possibility of this other theory, which really important scientists, really credible people were saying it’s a possibility?

And again, there you look at the difference. You look at the New York Times’ business relationship with China, that they have been trying to get access to the Chinese news market for the last 10 years. And when they’ve run afoul of CCP, either policies or preferences, they’ve been blocked. And the Times is well aware that if they ever want to get that (access) back, they need to toe the party line quite literally. I think that is the calculus with the lab leak, the calculus with the Times running a huge oped a few months ago, arguing against US recognition of Taiwan as a country. How can a liberal newspaper allow such a thing to be printed in its pages—that it’s not worth recognising Taiwan? It’s the same culture. Those assumptions have become so ingrained about China, that it’s become a culture.

Q: When you’re talking about culture, so actually, this is a culture of lying, isn’t it?

A: Yeah, it’s a culture of lying. And it’s a culture/product of putting business interests or personal and ideological interests ahead of the truth. It’s really that simple when you’re saying either ideology, or business or both together. And that’s where things get really toxic, like with the 1619 project, which is both—it is very much an ideology, but it’s an ideology that’s mixed with the New York Times’ business interest, which is looking at young woke hard left audiences and catering to them by trying to reframe American history in ways that are completely illegitimate according to scholars. According to a spectrum of American scholars, these claims you’re making in the 1619 project, that is trying to reframe American history, from liberty to slavery, the claims are simply false. This 1619 project that has caused so much controversy over the last year has explicitly been made a centrepiece of their marketing strategy going forward…to reach the audiences they’re trying to reach. The important thing is, this was not about whether or not the core claims about the 1619 project were accurate or correct. They knew they were incorrect, their own fact checkers were telling them they’re incorrect. You have Leslie Harris, Professor of African American History at Northwestern University, an African American woman, who was used by the New York Times as a fact checker for some of these core claims—like the claim that the American Revolutionary War was fought to preserve slavery. Though it was a claim the New York Times was trying to make and she told them you cannot say that; it’s completely false. And they printed it anyways. And this is because the interest there was not the truth, it was not accuracy, it was not fact gathering, it was explicitly changing the narrative. And that was in service of a marketing strategy that the Times has laid out for itself. So that’s where you see this real toxic mix. And you saw it with their coverage of the Soviet Union, you saw with the coverage of the Holocaust and the non coverage of the Holocaust, as well as World War Two, it was all about staying number one, about being in the top spot.

Q: But at the same time, we see a similar coverage even in papers like say, Washington Post, and it’s a very hard left woke kind of coverage. It’s difficult to trust the news that is coming from American mainstream legacy media nowadays.

A: That’s exactly why people are not trusting them. When you look at the trust metrics within American news media, they are at all-time lows. And in the minds of the legacy media people, it’s just kind of a coincidence that trust is at an all-time low and revenue and audience numbers are also at all-time lows. I don’t think they correlate the two. But what we see is that people are just walking away. And I’m not talking about people that are coming from the right, or the hard right or even the centre right. I’m talking about people coming from the New York Times. A good friend of mine who worked at the New York Times—she was a staffer—and she revered this place as a cultural institution, she cannot open the paper today. Because what it has done is abandoned its liberal base, its liberal values of saying, okay, we’re going to at least try to approximate something or other culturally that is rooted in the notion of liberal democracy. And they’re saying, no, we’re going to aim for power, and developing this new market that’s on the hard left, that is progressive and millennial. But again, when you look at the entire history of the newspaper and you go back 100 years, which I did, in the book, you see that this is a deep-rooted pattern, because it’s the same family that’s controlled the paper since then, it’s the same dynastic interest that is legislating what goes on there. And that’s the core problem.

The core problem is that you have so much power and so much influence in the hands of so few people. And when you’re asking about the Washington Post, as an example, it’s now a cultural institution, a newspaper owned by effectively one man. And that man, Jeff Bezos has extremely deep interest in China. We’re talking about half of all the top 10,000 sellers across Amazon are Chinese. We’re talking about the most important market for their biggest division, which is Amazon Web Services, that accounts for half of their profit annually, that market will be made or broken by their ability to compete in China. And China has the ability to just say no to them.

So I think the calculus is always there, no matter who you are, unless you’re non-profit funded, but even then look at who the donors are. So it’s a huge problem. It’s that money and news don’t really mix well. And I think we’re seeing that in the US. People have been trying to make the mix for a long, long time.

Q: But if wooing the hard left crowd is not helping them financially, why still continue down that perilous path?

A: I think about that as well. When I look at CNN as another example, they’re looking at their ratings crater in the last few months since Donald Trump stepped out of the presidency; you’re looking at MSNBC’s ratings crater as well. The New York Times also probably lost some audience. So why not move more centre? Why not try to capture more of the pie? And I do think there is an element of ideology at play, for sure. I don’t think it’s only interest. I think it’s like I said before, it’s a toxic stew of both. It’s a toxic stew of saying, these are our ideological commitments, and these are our business interests. And these two things come before other things, including accuracy, including fact gathering and the truth. And sometimes in the case of ideology, they’re making the wrong choice financially. Or maybe not, you know, maybe going after a woke audience will pay financial dividends for the New York Times in 10 or 20 years. It could be the right business choice, but it’s still the wrong choice as a news organisation, because you’re not making truth, objectivity, neutrality your core values, you’re making growth a core value.

Q: Apparently you have been researching New York Times’ coverage of India. What exactly have you found?

A: The number one sales for this book are in the US, of course. And the number two by far is India. No one else competes in terms of the sales of this book, there’s so much interest. I was trying to understand what that is about. So I’ve started to look into it. And what you see is like, in the broadest strokes, the Times’ coverage of India is almost Orientalist—it’s almost as if it’s a backward place characterised by nationalism, violence, sexual assault. I read in an article somewhere, where they just flatly stated that there’s a rampant rape culture in India. And I was like, what? So, I actually started to look at the statistics to see what they meant. And you look at the statistics, and they’re a fraction of cases from what the US or Western Europe experiences. How can you make an assertion like that when the statistics are not even close to being there? So that was what I wanted to understand. I think on the broad level India (is portrayed as) being this nationalist kind of bully. And I think on a more specific level, it’s an anti Hindu approach. I have a list of headlines here from the New York Times. One is “why India’s farmers fight to save a broken system”. Another is “under Modi, a Hindu nationalist surge has further divided India”. “What the rape and murder of a child reveals about Modi’s India”. “Death is the only truth (that’s a quote) watching India’s funeral pyres burn”. “India’s battered free press”—on and on and on and on and on. And you go back to China and you look at the China reporting for example, on the pandemic. In August of 2020, there the New York Times is celebrating China’s victory over Covid and taking the CCP’s statistics of Covid deaths at face value. The statistics the CCP provides are absurd, but the New York Times prints them, gives them that credibility. So you think to yourself why is there this division in how they cover China and how they cover India? Why is one being shown as this sort of progressive place that has managed to conquer a pandemic and the other this backward place characterised by funeral pyres and rape—and that’s what I’m trying to understand. I haven’t gotten my hands completely around it. I’m just starting to learn, but I think it’s a really important thing that people will pay attention to. I know there are a lot of people who are paying attention to it, in India and in the US.

[Haresh]

A naive question. Where exactly are they going to conduct the referendum? In Southall's London?

next week (Oct 31st) in lund-on, at the queen elizabeth centre

"Lund-on" I haven't heard that used since High school!

[ritesh]

My guessimate is that at least 1 in 2 car owners indulges in such kind of leisure activity in varied frequency, to the overall detriment of our economy which is 70% dependent on oil imports.

Man doesnt survive on bread alone. You want people to remain in India and thrive, you've to allow them the capacity to enjoy their existence. Or anyone who gets a decent level of skills will emigrate.

Karan, my limited point was about people only adding to import bill while seeking speed thrills and leisure travelling.

Who is anyone to either allow or ban such activities?

Otherwise as well, don't see the traffic during peak hours go down. So irrespective of high fuel prices, people are travelling in high numbers.

So ultimately it is about adjusting with new realities of record fuel prices.

[Narad]

Very insightful discussion about, today's Indian opposition parties at 'The Jaipur Dailogues'. Must watch.

[Ashokk]

Long-term visas, OCI cards of those indulging in anti-India activities revoked

New Delhi: India has revoked long-term visas of some of the Indian-origin foreign nationals and also cancelled OCI cards of those who were allegedly involved anti-India activities.

Highly-placed sources while confirming the development told Zee Media that the Indian diplomatic missions have been keeping close tabs on anti-India activities of some overseas Indians.

Some of the members of the Indian diaspora reportedly registered their resentment against India over the three contentious farms laws.

Sources confirmed that the diplomatic missions are keeping an eye on Indian-origin students who get involved in abusive protests outside the embassies and high commissions situated in various foreign countries.

It is pertinent to mention that a few dozen such individuals were already blacklisted by India for indulging in anti-India activities.

Sources confirmed that in the event such people travel to India, they will be expatriated from the airport.

[vera_k]

Good. Next up is to go after the land holdings and distribute to the labor working on the land. That needs state government involvement, so can't be done quickly.

[vijayk]

Another insightful article from Suraj ...

https://swarajyamag.com/politics/left-r ... under-modi
'Left-Right' Vocabulary Cannot Define Hindutva; Nor Can It Describe The BJP Under Modi

[SBajwa]

Another insightful article from Suraj ...

https://swarajyamag.com/politics/left-r ... under-modi
'Left-Right' Vocabulary Cannot Define Hindutva; Nor Can It Describe The BJP Under Modi

Good article. Thanks. Please share

[sanjayc]

Long-term visas, OCI cards of those indulging in anti-India activities revoked

New Delhi: India has revoked long-term visas of some of the Indian-origin foreign nationals and also cancelled OCI cards of those who were allegedly involved anti-India activities.

Highly-placed sources while confirming the development told Zee Media that the Indian diplomatic missions have been keeping close tabs on anti-India activities of some overseas Indians.

Some of the members of the Indian diaspora reportedly registered their resentment against India over the three contentious farms laws.

Sources confirmed that the diplomatic missions are keeping an eye on Indian-origin students who get involved in abusive protests outside the embassies and high commissions situated in various foreign countries.

It is pertinent to mention that a few dozen such individuals were already blacklisted by India for indulging in anti-India activities.

Sources confirmed that in the event such people travel to India, they will be expatriated from the airport.

India needs another stringent law against Indian citizens (holding Indian passport) indulging in anti-India activities abroad. There are quite a few of these who go to Western countries to give speeches against India. These mercenary opportunists should have passports confiscated. In Singapore, such people would have been whipped on return.

[KLNMurthy]

Delivering on a development agenda is a thankless job. That alone will not suffice in 2024. There needs to be a strong emotional factor that can hold together the majority stock as well.

Can you possibly elaborate on why you feel development agenda “alone” won’t suffice in 2024?

In 2019 campaign we have seen (roughly) 60% development report card, 30% natsec / national pride, and maybe 10% cultural/Hindutva type references, with nothing concrete to report on the last front. And it worked very well.

Do you think the ratio (granting that I made up the numbers) will change substantially to favor the cultural aspect? If so, why?

[Cyrano]

Murthy garu,
The relative weightages of Development, NatSec/Pride and Cultural do not stay constant over time, the incumbent govt will emphasise where they are strong, the opposition will emphasise where they are weak. This coupled with the vagaries of the moment and burning issues (recency effect) will all play a role.

I'm in India right now, have been meeting some friends and extended family, represents a reasonable cross section of people living in India & some NRIs, various age groups and economic strata. Expect to meet more people in the next few weeks. I'm trying to assess what this cross section (may not be perfect sampling but good enough to get a reliable general sense) expected from Modi 2.0, what they see delivered, and what their voting criteria would be for 2024. Will share what I gather from these conversations in a few weeks.

[Aditya_V]

See I think most on BRF can afford these inflated Petrol/Diesel prices, and related Inflation, but the bottom line is that there are enough voters affected by High Gas, Petrol Diesel prices, with something as crucial as UP elections coming up- I hope BJP have plan, either compensating Farmers properly etc.. Subsidy for gas is distributed correctly.

This is an emotional issue which has been handed over to the Opposition, I know with Central Govt loosing 5 Lac crore revenue in FY20-21 and States using GST Compensation Cess to make the Central Govt make up their losses, but through reducing Covid Excise 11 Rs. and hopefully global price cooling and Indian rupee appreciation. That this emotive issue can be handled.

At the end of the day when people are in economic stress they will vote out the incumbent Govt- especially poor and Lower Middle class who form the large section of the voters today.

[chetak]

x posted from the Indian sports thread


For the pakis, a cricket match against India is always a ‘jihad’. The India-paki match started with ‘taking the knee’, and ended disastrously with ‘kufr toot gaya’. We went down on our knees and forgot to stand up and fight. It wasn’t cricket.

The Indian cricket team failed to show solidarity with crimes against humanity far closer to home, like Hindus being persecuted in beediland, instead stooopidly choosing to highlight a faultline that neither enthuses nor interests anyone in India and is essentially an empty gesture aimed at pleasing some white racist pseudo seculars who have no skin in the BLM and the critical race narrative and it only helps further the white racist agenda that has, for centuries, always benefitted them with entitled and liberal privileges.

Kneeling’ is a phenomenon that african amerikis have followed since the civil rights movement to show an inherent lack of respect for the national anthem and the flag of the US, and so, why would India or the stooopide BCCI even need to go there. Especially when India enforces a law prohibiting disrespect to the Indian flag and the anthem

And if the south african team also did this sickular drama, then the orders to do this very stooopide thing came directly from the ICC or at the very least had the benign blessings of the ICC.

Why did the BCCI fall into this cesspool of a political trap, especially when the pakis refused to kneel

Also, let's see how many other teams playing this tournament kneel

[a_bharat]

CNBC-TV18 Retweeted
Yash Jain
@YashJain88
·
15m
Zee Ent-Invesco matter At NCLT

Janak Dwarkadas, Counsel, OFI Global China Fund
Will probably going for an appeal against Bombay HC order
Will get back to #NCLT once appeal is filed

NCLT Adjourns Hearing In #Zee Ent-Invesco To Nov 16 For Directions

Does anybody think that this is all about getting editorial control over WION channel? Any other explanation?

[arshyam]

Yes, I had the same thought too. Wion is a serious thorn for the Chinese, so bringing it to heel would be a worthwhile attempt for them. Maybe Zee realises that, hence the stout defence.

[chetak]

RAA ko bhi thoda credit de dete

BJP and RSS were behind Captain's win in 2017: SAD Leader Sukhbir Singh Badal.

[Prem Kumar]

Long-term visas, OCI cards of those indulging in anti-India activities revoked

Good move. But a litmus test: is Siddharth Varadarajan's OCI revoked?

[Ambar]

See I think most on BRF can afford these inflated Petrol/Diesel prices, and related Inflation, but the bottom line is that there are enough voters affected by High Gas, Petrol Diesel prices, with something as crucial as UP elections coming up- I hope BJP have plan, either compensating Farmers properly etc.. Subsidy for gas is distributed correctly.

This is an emotional issue which has been handed over to the Opposition, I know with Central Govt loosing 5 Lac crore revenue in FY20-21 and States using GST Compensation Cess to make the Central Govt make up their losses, but through reducing Covid Excise 11 Rs. and hopefully global price cooling and Indian rupee appreciation. That this emotive issue can be handled.

At the end of the day when people are in economic stress they will vote out the incumbent Govt- especially poor and Lower Middle class who form the large section of the voters today.

This is sadly lost on many here. Elections are 80% won on the back of economy and 20% on everything else. The monthly blasts, the shameful capitulation against pakis post 26/11, even thousands of crores in massive scams from 2G to Coal is not why the UPA was booted out, they got booted out because of a rapidly sinking economy and a runaway inflation which nearly lasted 8 yrs. UPA would have lost in 2009 too had it not been for all the global stimulus during the great recession rushing in to prop up the markets and not to mention BJP put a very lackluster campaign.

BJP's belief in going into elections not even acknowledging the inflationary pressure seems to be that there are no alternatives to them. Vote for SaPA,BSP, INC etc. and you'll get more corruption, terrible law and order situation and a more hostile environment for hindus. They went into WB with the same messaging and lost. They are going into another 5 states with a similar message and we'll see how it goes.

When the world is grappling with supply side issues the last thing you want to do is take decisions which adds more to the cost. When a litre of petrol costs Rs 113, a crate of brown eggs now costs over Rs 400, bread is Rs 45/lb and dal hovering close to Rs 150/kg, a politician arriving at a rally in a cavalcade of gas guzzling big SUVs and talking about how great things are for "aam junta" is bound to backfire bigly.

There's one more albatross around Modi's neck which is bound to cause him trouble before 2024 and its the bloated stock market. The sensex is in a spectacular bubble territory and it is downright scary turning on any Indian business channels on TV and listening to the "market gurus" cheerleading more and more investors to dive in. The valuations are so out of whack that when the eventual pinprick will hit the giant balloon it is the middleclass as usual which will be left holding the bag. SEBI , RBI and the FM as usual seem unruffled but that's hardly surprising. When the inevitable does happen they'll all walk away pointing at the long, white bearded guy.

[Prem Kumar]

All prices go up because of petrol/diesel prices. Our populace has unfortunately not moved away that much from "onion prices affecting election outcomes".

Hope Modi does something about it rather than listen to Nirmala Seetharaman or the MoF babus.

2014 was won by BJP as much to UPA malfeasance/economy as due to Modi's persona & the hope "he" represented. He's still the reason why most people vote BJP.

[chetak]

This is sadly lost on many here. Elections are 80% won on the back of economy and 20% on everything else.

When the world is grappling with supply side issues the last thing you want to do is take decisions which adds more to the cost. When a litre of petrol costs Rs 113, a crate of brown eggs now costs over Rs 400, bread is Rs 45/lb and dal hovering close to Rs 150/kg, a politician arriving at a rally in a cavalcade of gas guzzling big SUVs and talking about how great things are for "aam junta" is bound to backfire bigly.

There's one more albatross around Modi's neck which is bound to cause him trouble before 2024 and its the bloated stock market. The sensex is in a spectacular bubble territory and it is downright scary turning on any Indian business channels on TV and listening to the "market gurus" cheerleading more and more investors to dive in. The valuations are so out of whack that when the eventual pinprick will hit the giant balloon it is the middleclass as usual which will be left holding the bag. SEBI , RBI and the FM as usual seem unruffled but that's hardly surprising. When the inevitable does happen they'll all walk away pointing at the long, white bearded guy.

loose dal is much less than what has been quoted, which is what many people prefer to buy, all other edible items are used mostly by the middle class have been available in plenty, perhaps cooking oil has risen more sharply than others. Onion and tomato prices are in check, barring seasonal variations or due to rain. Buffer stocks of onions have already reached the markets some days ago, and the onion prices have cooled down.

It's a strain, yes but when people demand free vaccines, PDS for a vast majority, deposits in the jandhan accounts, and other things, someone has to pay. It is literally a sin tax on petrol and diesel.

The pandemic took everyone by surprise and India, under Modi has managed much better than most countries did.

If OPEC has cartelized and jacked up the prices, reduced production, then food producers should cartelize as well and jack up the prices for the uncultured ayerabs, which should learn them dopes fairly quickly that the rest of the world does not like them.

We seem to idolize these bedouin bozos by envying them for their lavish spending while overlooking their jehadi mischief and lavish ways of conspicuous consumption, all of which the rest of the world pays for, one way or the other.

No one talks of pollution and toxic emissions from these countries, which is huge because of their refineries and other power plants, industries etc

one small question, what are these brown eggs that you talk about

[KLNMurthy]

can you believe that this woke ahole was until recently a part of the NITI aayog and is now allegedly at harvard.

was it the Modi govt that hired him without even the barest minimum of cursory checks or are there woke gaddars embedded in NITI Aayog as well

Anubhav Singh@lucifer_damned

Dalit, Development Economics @Harvard, IR @FletcherSchool - Focus on Middle East & South Asia. Part time Physicist. Dialectical since 1917. Formerly @NITIAayog

It is good that these people are speaking out openly. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing indeed.

A tweet like this contains valuable information about the exact appeal that the “fair & lovely” (a product that sharukh khan & other Bollywoodias used to advertise IIRC) ashrafs hold for the ancien regime camp followers.

Helps understand the piskology behind “love jihad.”

(Ashrafs have no time for Dalits in real life, only the worst of contempt, beyond anything the worst Hindu is capable of. )