Bharat Rakshak

Even more barefacedly, Pastor Pratap writes,

In India’s particular context, the progressives fell into the trap of being seen to oppose or defend the hijab, where the truth is that it is presumptuous to do either. Neither is necessary. They also fell into the trap of another equivocation. The hijab is not a moment where liberty or equality are being tested.

George Orwell perhaps provides the best counterpunch to such sleights of hand in his classic, Politics and the English Language.

The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of régime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. WORDS OF THIS KIND ARE OFTEN USED IN A CONSCIOUSLY DISHONEST WAY. THAT IS, THE PERSON WHO USES THEM HAS HIS OWN PRIVATE DEFINITION, BUT ALLOWS HIS HEARER TO THINK HE MEANS SOMETHING QUITE DIFFERENT… OTHER WORDS USED IN VARIABLE MEANINGS, IN MOST CASES MORE OR LESS DISHONESTLY, ARE: CLASS, TOTALITARIAN, SCIENCE, PROGRESSIVE, REACTIONARY, BOURGEOIS, EQUALITY.

Capitalisation Added

Pastor Pratap does precisely this when he writes, incredibly, that:

The hijab is not a moment where liberty or equality are being tested. IT IS COMING WHEN THERE IS AN ATTEMPT TO VISIBLY ERASE MUSLIMS FROM INDIA’S PUBLIC CULTURE. It is also to give progressives that last bit of pretext to be comfortable with the BJP, as if the BJP was carrying out the completion of a liberal project that the Congress had no courage of conviction to pursue… The BJP has succeeded in its aims of constructing the Muslim as a figure of threat.

Bar & Bench
@barandbench
[BREAKING] In a 100 CRORE defamation case filed by BHARAT BIOTECH, Andhra Court ordered taking down of 14 articles on
@thewire_in
and restrained

1)THE WIRE
2) Siddharth Vardarajan
3) SR Bhatia
4) M.K. Venu &others

From publishing DEFAMATORY articles relating to
@BharatBiotech

Opinion Bakery
@IndiaSpeaksPR

The soft state that is India

PS: Pieter Friedrich is an ISI asset

vijayk wrote:

News Arena@NewsArenaIndia ·
Kamal Haasan’s MNM candidate polled “0” votes in Ward No.1 in Sivagangai town.
#TNLocalBodyResults

How?

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday (23 February) arrested Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik in a money laundering probe linked to the activities of the Mumbai underworld.

NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik was not cooperating in the questioning, sources were quoted by news agency ANI as saying.

The 62-year-old NCP leader was taken into custody after he was questioned for about five hours at the ED office in south Mumbai's Ballard Estate area since around 8 am.

His statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he was arrested under the same provisions as he was evasive in his replies.

The ED's move comes after the registration of a new case and raids conducted by it on 15 February in Mumbai in connection with the operations of the underworld, linked alleged illegal property deals and hawala transactions.

The searches were conducted at 10 locations, including premises linked to 1993 Mumbai blasts mastermind and fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's late sister Haseena Parkar, brother Iqbal Kaskar and Salim Qureshi alias Salim Fruit, brother-in-law of gangster Chhota Shakeel.

Kaskar, who was already in jail, has been arrested by the agency last week. It also questioned Parkar's son.

(With inputs from PTI)

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, ministers Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif and Rajesh Tope were present at Sharad Pawar's residence.

MUMBAI: Some NCP ministers in Maharashtra met at the residence of party president Sharad Pawar here on Wednesday evening to discuss the situation arising out of the arrest of their cabinet and party colleague Nawab Malik by the ED in connection with a money laundering case.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, ministers Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif and Rajesh Tope were present at Sharad Pawar's residence 'Silver Oak' in South Mumbai for the meeting, party sources said.

“The meeting was called to discuss the current situation that has arisen post Malik's arrest and the party's future course of action,” the sources said.

They said Malik's portfolios could be shared with his party colleagues in the cabinet in case he resigns.

Malik, a senior NCP leader, holds the skill development portfolio besides the minority affairs department in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

The NCP president is likely to meet chief minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter's official residence 'Varsha' in south Mumbai later in the evening in the wake of the sudden development.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders and MVA Ministers Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan called on Sharad Pawar and discussed the fallout of Malik's arrest.

Another Congress minister Sunil Kedar also joined the meeting.

The NCP and the Congress are constituents of the Shiv Sena-led MVA government.

Criticism continued to pour in from NCP leaders over Malik's arrest.

Maharashtra NCP president and minister Jayant Patil said the state never saw such political vendetta in the past and claimed efforts were being made to pull down the MVA government.

Speaking during the party's on-going mass outreach programme in Solapur in western Maharashtra, Patil said Malik has been arrested "without any reason".

"People are seeing such politics right now, but they will express their opinion at the right time," Patil said.

Without naming anyone, the NCP leader alleged “some people” want to topple the MVA government “anyhow”.

"Arrests are being made for no reason with the help of central agencies. This is not right," Patil added.

The state water resources minister alleged he, too, was pressurised to join the BJP in 2019, but he resisted pressures and didn't leave the NCP.

New Delhi, February 22

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday said the larger Opposition would be open to fielding Nitish Kumar as its candidate for the President’s election later this year, provided the Bihar Chief Minister sever ties with the BJP.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik today said, “There cannot be a discussion on the issue of Nitish Kumar being the Presidential candidate till the time he breaks ties with the BJP. First, he should end his alliance with the BJP. Only then, a thought can be given to the matter of his candidature and leaders of all Opposition parties can sit together and consider thus.”

Yagnasri wrote:@Chetak - Nitish will be idiot to accept. But then he also do not have much hope for another term. Whatever good name as "Vikas Babu" he got is long gone and only the caste/vote bank combination of BJP and JDU and fear of Lalu's goondaraj is keeping him in power. But as a big time ego fellow he may not be seeing the reality.

GShankar wrote:This is a constant drawback of dharmics.

Commis/BIFers/Urban naxals/Cryptos have agency to academic and institutional patronage. They are able to blatantly be vocal against us and our interests.

Dharmics so far are not able to get to those stages to piss on them. We need to create new institutions and funded and people at the level of Rajiv Malhotra, Susu Swamy need to be convinced to piss outside the tent. The two gents are just examples (I know many of you here love these two ). May be there are others who could do this better. Already saw a post about of Prof. RV's tweet. He would also fit.

Best way probably is to arm twist the indology/corning funders(mr. narayana!! narayana!! and mr. bye bye) to cancel those funding and contribute to institutions like nalanda and create more. And try best to thwart these indian fundings to foreign institutions in future.

Kaivalya wrote:
Canceling existing arrangements might not be easy as it would have involved some sort of quid pro quo

Why BJP's 5.6% in TN local body is significant

1. BJP has an average of 2.2% vote across 12 general elections post 91. In 2011 local body, it's vote share was 1.6%. Eight months back in an ADMK alliance it fetched 2.6%. A base that didn't grow for 30 years has more than doubled.
2:55 AM · Feb 24, 2022·Twitter Web App


Cogito
@cogitoiam


@cogitoiam
2. Historically, non-ruling parties in TN have converted only 60-70% of their original strength in local body as ruling party amplifies its share by controlling state EC & voter hesitation to elect opp parties. BJP's 5.6% here is equivalent to a 8-10% share in a general election.
Cogito
@cogitoiam

3. 3rd largest party tag

In 50 years of bipolar polity in TN, parties struggled to touch 8%. DMDK did in 06-09 but couldn't sustain. BJP was 8th vote share wise in 19, 6th in 21. To bump itself to 3rd now adds credibility to open up possibility of a three-way contest in future.
Cogito
@cogitoiam

4. Short duration

BJP decided to contest alone 20 days before election. Local body is an election of grassroots where 1000s of candidates are needed. At such short notice to extract 5.6% for a party averaging 2.3% over 3 decades shows there is an organic base out there to groom.
Cogito
@cogitoiam

5. Contested average

20 days to election meant BJP could contest only 43% seats. A national party with resources, this should only go up next time. BJP scored a contested average of 12%. Other 57% seats too would have pro-BJP voters, an opportunity to increase vote % in 24-26.
Cogito
@cogitoiam

6. Better bargain in 2024

BJP's 2% average over 30 years meant ADMK hard bargained to give it 5 seats in 19 & paltry 20 in 21. Increasing its vote share to 5.6%, BJP can drive a far better negotiation in 2024. Opens up possibility of contesting 10+ seats in a broader NDA for 24.
Cogito
@cogitoiam

7. Crossing NTK

BJP's 5.6% crossing NTK here is notable. NTK grew from 1% in 16 to 6.6% in 21. It's vote is 1/4th of all votes under 35 years & had potential to grow beyond 10% as 3rd pole. It was crucial for BJP to halt it & occupy up that space with a young leader in charge.
Cogito
@cogitoiam

8. Independents vote share

Ind candidates score 15-18% share in local body historically. In parliament elections, this goes below 3% on average. 2024 would be a 2 way polarization, where this 15-18% will get concentrated in one of the two major alliances, driving up vote share.
Cogito
@cogitoiam

9. 2024 is BJP's pitch

Local bodies are dominated by local strongmen & voter fear of incurring cost of electing non-ruling party. In 24 central issue is Modi's candidature. BJP's track record across states show it historically amplifies its vote from local/assembly to Lok Sabha.
Cogito
@cogitoiam

10. Reward for risk

8 months back, TN BJP changed direction for the first time in 3 decades, appointing a 37 year old ex IPS officer to state president. From dormancy of decades, Annamalai's leadership in 8 months has broken the 2% jinx of the party, vindicating party's choice.

vijayk wrote:
10. Reward for risk

8 months back, TN BJP changed direction for the first time in 3 decades, appointing a 37 year old ex IPS officer to state president. From dormancy of decades, Annamalai's leadership in 8 months has broken the 2% jinx of the party, vindicating party's choice.

vijayk wrote:At least BJP listens even though they are late some times. Unfortunately some times people like Ms. Scindia in Rajasthan goes on a self destructive spree. They have to clean up Rajasthan, Delhi UKand, Jharkand, AP and WB too for 2024 and beyond

Zynda wrote:It been satisfying to read on Twitter the amount of vitriol & melt down Western folks are having over India & UAE's abstain stance. At least one woman who is a JNU alum, is hoping that Western order "kicks" India down & comes hard...surprisingly most of them don't question China's stance...

Zynda wrote:Ayesha Ray @DrAyeshaRay
She seems to be harbouring particular fetish against Indian males and her twitter timeline is filled with Tweets against Indian males, Modi, Indian public support for Russia & Putin...

Zynda wrote:Regardless, we should be thinking of ways to entice highly experienced folks in certain tech areas (semi-cryo propulsion design & testing, perhaps designers from Antonov etc.) to relocate to India and help us out. They can be employed by various Indian tech private firms (L&T etc.)...we should not some of the mistakes that we did after fall of Soviet Union and lose out again.

Tanaji wrote:What’s going on with Varun Gandhi? Lately he seems to be targeting the central government on a daily basis?